PLI Leadership Project: Reducing Math Anxiety by Addressing Growth Mindset

Leadership Goals for Supporting Math Anxious Latino Elementary Students

One obstacle to all students learning and achieving at high levels in the area of mathematics is math anxiety and one that has only recently been studied in elementary children. Math anxiety is a social justice problem because one or more of its contributing factors including environmental, dispositional, and situational factors can develop and exacerbate math anxiety in the elementary classroom. One assumption was that the percentage of students with medium to high levels of math anxiety would be between 20-25% , which would match the prevalence of math anxiety in the general population according to statistical estimation in the literature.

This project seeks to address math anxiety as measured in low-income Latino fourth graders at the school site by exploring a long-term replacement for this anxiety such that all students can confidently learn and achieve in math.

Specifically the goal or aim for this improvement project states that students with medium to high levels of math anxiety will have a reduction of 10 points on their math anxiety score and an increase in their mindset assessment profile score of 5 points, both of which are one standard deviation, by April 30^th, 2015.

Based on an extensive review of the literature and my own informal observations of the fourth grade classrooms including a demonstration lesson in engaging students in problem based math lesson I was able to identify four primary drivers, improvement areas for impacting the aim including teacher mindset and self efficacy in relation to doing and teaching math, classroom climate, student mindset and self efficacy in relation to doing math, and quality instruction and assessment along with their supporting components known as secondary drivers. This project addressed improvement along three of the pathways in addressing all of the primary drivers except quality instruction and assessment. The activities or change ideas were tested using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, which served as cycles of inquiry and feedback loops for short term outcomes. The PDSA cycles for improvement pathway 1 included a professional development (PD) on math anxiety, a PD on growth mindset and communicating a growth mindset, and a PD on growth mindset and teaching a growth mindset.

The change ideas tested in PDSA cycles for improvement pathway 2 included teachers using process praise/feedback and portraying challenges, effort, and mistakes as highly valued. The change ideas tested in PDSA cycles for improvement pathway 3 included teachers teaching lessons on brain science, brain building, brain friendly behaviors, and study skills. The change ideas for improvement pathway 1 were to be measured using before and after PD surveys measuring teacher understanding of the topic and self-efficacy with respect to applying that learning and the creation of SMART Goal action plans for each PD. The change ideas for improvement pathway 2 were to be measured by 20-minute observations on a weekly basis for 4 weeks with a focus on observing trends with respect to the teacher communicating growth mindset messages, checklists measuring frequency of use with respect using growth mindset messages, and also through weekly teacher surveys. The change ideas for improvement pathway 3 were to be measured by completion checklists of the lesson and formative assessment components and the actual student formative assessments in the form of weekly quizzes. All of these measurements were to be compared to predictions about the change ideas during the PDSA cycle process and eventually to predict their influence on the primary drivers measures which included more involved teacher and student surveys measuring important constructs like self-efficacy, disposition, math anxiety, and growth mindset profile.

Before the project began I assessed the math anxiety levels and mindsets of one fourth class and one third grade class belonging to the other two members of the action research team to gather baseline data. Moreover I  received each students’ math grade for the first reporting period. My role in regards to these activities was providing the PD and the creation of the teacher surveys as pre and post measurements. I also facilitated the process of creating SMART Goal action plans for communicating growth mindset messages and teaching the growth mindset lessons during the second and third PDs. In addition I also facilitated the creation of the checklists as tools for measuring the use of growth mindset messages and also teaching the growth mindset lessons. I also observed each of the other two fourth grade teachers on the action research team for 20 minutes as they taught their math lessons and scripted their lessons to gather data about their use of growth mindset messages with their students while teaching math. Finally because I was not assigned to just this one school site I use electronic means through email, Google Docs, and Google Forms to communicate with and gather information and feedback from the other members of the project team.

Evolution of the Plan: Challenges and Changes

Soon after presenting the project proposal to the teachers in a 30-minute presentation the third grade teacher let me know that due to health problems she would not be able to continue to participate in the action research project. The other member of the team, the fourth grade teacher, had serious reservations about both the length and frequency of some of the observations. Therefore I reduced the length of the observations gathering data on growth mindset messaging to 4 20-minutes observations during her math block as opposed to 4 40-minute observations. I also completely dropped the monthly 60 minutes classroom observations, which were meant to measure aspects of growth mindset over the entire math lesson. I made these changes to address the concerns of the remaining fourth grade teacher at the time and because I thought that the more frequent and shorter observations would still provide me with sufficient data on the teacher’s use of growth mindset messages.  Just before the winter break I was able to recruit another fourth grade teacher to replace the third grade teacher so that the action research team would have three members again. Thus when we returned in January I also needed to assess his students to determine their pre-project math anxiety levels and mindset assessment profile scores.

Another challenge I ran into was consolidating the initial learning about math anxiety, communicating a growth mindset, teaching a growth mindset, sharing the PDSA cycle planning, and collaborating with the teachers in creating SMART Goal actions plans and measurement tools for future PDSA cycles into three one-hour sessions after school. One immediate adjustment I made was using the blending learning technique of making playlists with a list of links to recommended readings and short videos to be read and viewed before the PD using Google Doc forms, which I shared with the two teachers several days before our actual face to face learning. This allowed the two fourth grade teachers to individually build background on the topic and in our time together I would facilitate interactive experiences focused on practice and application of this new learning.

In addition due to not wanting to rush the creation of the  measurement tools for certain change ideas or our collaboration time to action plan I asked for one addition week each for the communicating a growth mindset PD  and the teaching a growth mindset PD. One of the fourth grade teachers was able to while the other one due to needing to leave right after school was not able to. Thus the last two PDs on the topic of teaching a growth mindset were facilitated separately for each teacher, one after school and one before school. This made it difficult to collaborate on the SMART Goal action plan for teaching a growth mindset and for activities involving discussion. We did create several measurement tools together including a checklist for implementation and refinement providing process praise and feedback, portraying challenge, effort, and mistakes in a positive way, and a checklist and pacing plan for the lessons that would be taught in each of the four growth mindset units. Finally we created an action plan for communicating growth mindset messages and another action plan for teaching a growth mindset. As a result of the PD timeframe becomes five weeks instead of the initial three and it pushed the start of the second improvement pathway back two weeks. Therefore adjustments to the project timeline had to be made. This was not a problem though as I had provided extra time in the last month for completing the initial set of PDSAs for the second and third improvement pathways.

Furthermore due to my role as a Common Core Math Facilitator serving multiple schools in providing professional learning in implementing the Common Core State Standards in Math (CCSSM) I was not always able to be present at the school site to create the initial driver diagram before the project began or to check in with the other action teacher members (two fourth grade teachers) on a regular basis apart from conducting the four 20 minute observations of each teacher over the spans of five weeks and providing them with the teaching binders and checklists for communicating and teaching a growth mindset. I addressed this challenge by sending out frequent reminders about data collection and rescheduling when there was a time conflict. After each PD I presented during the first month, I reviewed the PDSA cycles for each test and each fourth grade teacher was to complete the “Do” portion on the PDSA cycle template based on what they did by reflecting back on the test including any surprises, successes, and obstacles that affected the test. Our PDSA cycle for teaching the four growth mindset units over five weeks took longer and the two teachers ended up teaching the lessons on different days. This ended up meaning that the PDSA cycles for communicating a growth mindset and teaching a growth mindset largely were not completed at the same time for the two teachers and thus analyzing the data and acting on the results was not beneficial for assessing whether the change idea was successful. However both teachers and I continued to gather the data including the checklists and I finished the last set of observations in five weeks instead of four. In the end the four PDSA cycles for communicating a growth mindset and the four PDSA cycles for teaching a growth mindset were not completed as inquiry cycles although the activities for each cycle were completed and data for each was completed. We just could not meet together due to my support of multiple schools not allowing me to be at the school site more than once or twice a week and teachers not being able to stay after school and to formally complete the study and act portions together. A bigger part of this was that I was not able to formally train the teachers through modeling on the improvement methods and the PDSA cycle apart from 5 or ten minute overviews of the PDSA cycle at the end of each PD on communicating and teaching a growth mindset.

One final challenge related to the project was my inability to finish the student and teacher surveys before the final month of the project. This in part was because my student survey needed to measure the constructs of interest in, dispositions toward, student growth mindset, self-efficacy, and math anxiety. I had no experience with this and wanted this data to be valid and reliable. There was not one survey available in my own research that addressed all these constructs and so I conducted research on surveys that had already been created and reached out to a professor at The College of New Jersey, who had done some work in this area. He provided me with this survey, which only measured dispositions towards math.  In addition I contacted a professor at University of Texas at Austin who provided me with his survey in measure math anxiety. Based on my research I eventually created a 41 question student survey with measures in relation to math for the following constructs: 1) interest in math; 2) disposition (affective) toward math; 3) disposition (conative) toward math; 4) mindset with math; 5) self-efficacy with math; and 6) math anxiety.  I also created a 33 question teacher survey meant to measure teacher’s self-efficacy with communicating and teaching a growth mindset based on the project activities, their opinions about the usefulness and impact of these activities on their math anxious students, and their self-efficacy with regards to teaching the Common Core Math content and practice standards through CGI problem solving lessons and number strings, a type of number talk. Both surveys were administered online in the form of a Google Form and took 20 minutes to complete. The project started in mid January but the student and teacher surveys were not created until the end of March. They were administered at the beginning of April and May.

This data was analyzed later in the project as a result with the second survey for both teachers and students being analyzed after the project was complete.

Data Collection and Analysis

Due to the ambitious breadth of the improvement plan, which addressed three improvement pathways and the restrictions in not being able to meet face to face to complete the “study” and “act” portions of the communicating and teacher growth mindset PDSA cycles, the data analysis during and at the end of the project largely was my responsibility. We did collect data together, but due to logistics and the many pieces of data, which were collected in an attempt to achieve data triangulation, we just could not meet to analyze it together. Before the start of the any project activities the classroom I provided visual data analysis reports of the pre-project math anxiety and growth mindset assessment profile data to each teacher for their class. This included each student’s math anxiety scale score and mindset assessment profile assessment score, the category these scores fell into, and a list of each student that was found to have a medium or high level of math anxiety. This was important information for teacher to have as our aim was focused on addressing the math anxiety in these students through growth mindset interventions.

The two fourth grade teachers used checklists to monitor their implementation and growth in communicating growth mindset messages and administered formative assessments for the four growth mindset units. They also scheduled time and completed the teacher survey in April and May while their students completed the student survey.  I created pre PD surveys for teach PD on math anxiety, communicating a growth mindset, and teaching a growth mindset. I also created a post PD survey to measure growth in teacher understanding and self efficacy for the first two of those PDs. However teachers only had time to complete a pre and post survey for the math anxiety PD, a post survey for the communicating a growth mindset PD, and a pre-survey for the teaching a growth mindset. This was due to the fact that an hour for each PD as I ran out of time or I neglected to send the link before the PD.  I observed each teacher four times and recorded all that they said and did and all that their students said and did to measure their use of growth mindset messages over a five-week period.

The first piece of data gathered for this project were the pre and post PD surveys for the three major professional development sessions on math anxiety and it contributing factors, communicating a growth mindset, and teaching a growth mindset. As mentioned previously not all surveys were administered. When both pre and post survey data was available the result was growth in teacher understanding and self-efficacy with respect to the applying their new learning.

The checklists were designed to provide teachers with a daily reminder and measurement in providing daily growth mindset messages and also serve as a reminder and pacing in teaching all of the growth mindset lesson and assessment components we agreed to complete as part of our SMART Goal action plan. Teachers completed daily checklist for communicating process praise and feedback for the first two weeklong PDSA cycles. For the next five weeks each teacher was to complete the daily checklists for both communicating process praise and feedback and portraying challenge, mistakes, and effort using a growth mindset. One of the teachers completed these daily checklists for all five weeks and the other teacher completed the checklists for two weeks due to misplacing the other checklists. In analyzing these completed communicating a growth mindset checklists it is evident that both teachers grew in providing these messages based on a decrease in the number of  ‘nos’ checked off and an increase in the number of  ‘yeses’ checked off. Both teachers also completed the checklists for the lesson components they completed in each of the four units on developing a growth mindset. Both teachers administered the formative assessment pieces for all four units although it is not clear from the checklists or the actual “quizzes” that they were used formatively to provide feedback to students on their learning.

A teacher survey with 33 questions was administered twice and meant to measure teacher’s self-efficacy with communicating and teaching a growth mindset based on the project activities, their opinions about the usefulness and impact of these activities, materials, and measurement tools on their math anxious students, and their self-efficacy with regards to teaching the Common Core Math content and practice standards through CGI problem solving lessons and number strings, a type of number talk The two teachers on the action research team did provide input about the usefulness of the checklists and whether they felt the project activities had an impact on their students, particularly those that were identified as have medium or high levels of math anxiety. However, as mentioned above the survey was not administered until the beginning of the last month of the project and again at the end of the project. It did provide useful information however. Both teachers self-efficacy increased with respect to providing process praise feedback and portraying challenge, effort, and mistakes using a growth mindset. One out of two teachers self-efficacy increase with respect to teaching the growth mindset units, while the other teacher had previously taught growth mindset lessons and so was already very confident with doing so. They both communicated that they would be included to use the units and tools again next year, but one teacher communicated should would not used the checklists because it was too much paperwork. Finally although not part of the Google Form, teachers’ growth mindset was also measured with the Mindset Assessment Profile reverse coded survey of 8 items. Both teachers’ demonstrated a growth mindset on both the pre and post project Mindset Assessment Profile, however there was little growth as scores increased only slightly.

The third piece of data was the student survey, which as mentioned above measures six different constructs related to math through 41 questions. It was administered once in the beginning of April and once at the end of the project. As mentioned above this survey was supposed to have been administered bimonthly from the beginning of the project, but was not fully created until the last month of the project. In analyzing the data some questions were found to be redundant and others not clear in how they were written and so I analyzed the students responses for only 30 of the original 41 questions. The data seemed to be correlated with the end of the project data and seemed to support a strong relationship between these constructs and math anxiety. For most of the students the trend was that the higher the math constructs (interest, disposition, mindset, and self-efficacy) score the lower the math anxiety score, which revealed the accuracy of addressing the primary drivers in the driver diagram and revealed similar patterns based on the post-project math anxiety and mindset assessment profile scores.

I observed each fourth grade teacher for 20 minutes on four different occasions during their math block. During these observations I scripted what both the teacher and students said during the entire 20 minutes. I was able to finish all observations within five weeks and the 20 minutes gave me enough script so that I could later identify growth mindset messages as the teacher taught or communicated with students. Because we did not meet to complete the PDSA templates for communicating a growth mindset, teachers did not see the observation scripts themselves until the end of the project.  The observations revealed a very small number of growth mindset messages being used over the course of four observations for each teacher. This makes sense though as the PDSAs were supposed to be feedback loops towards improvement

Finally the Aim of this project was that by May 1, 2015 100% of students with medium to high levels of math anxiety in two fourth grade classes will see a reduction in their math anxiety scale score of 10 points and an increase in their mindset assessment profile of 5 points. The ultimate outcome measures were student math anxiety scores from the modified Scale of Elementary Math Anxiety (SEMA), student mindset scores from the Mindset Assessment Profile (MAP), and the difference in grade points for math on their report cards before and after the project. Only 2 out of the 11 students with medium math anxiety levels had a decreased of 10 points, but they were dramatic as these two students saw a drop in their SEMA scores of -21 and -26, both were at least two standard deviation drops. Three out of the 11 students with medium math anxiety levels saw an increase in their MAP of at least five points; in each case the student’s MAP score increased by at least 10 points, which is a two standard deviation increase. Finally in comparing grade point difference over the entire course of the project, with grades in the range of 1 to 4 for the 11 students, one student increased his math grade by one grade point, while 1 student had a decrease by one grade point, and the other 9 students had no change in their math grade. However it is important to point out that the student whose math grade increased had 26 point drop in his math anxiety, the largest of all the students with a medium level of math anxiety.

Despite not meeting the aim I learned a lot in the gathering and analysis of data for Reducing Math Anxiety Project.

First of all I understand from experience how important it is to engage in all components of the PDSA cycle process with your team during the entire action research project in order to build a shared knowledge base and reduce variability across the network in seeking continuous improvement.

Moreover I learned that the practical theory of action, the driver diagram, I developed based on an extensive literature review was accurate in that it the overall classes demonstrated growth in mindset and a reduction in math anxiety. Other factors are certainly an influence as well such as disposition towards math (affective and conative) as well as self-efficacy based on the student survey data. Moreover I learned how to create surveys that measure multiple contributing psychological constructs, involve scales that provide a best choice without a neutral option, and the importance in providing statements in both positive and negative form, how to reverse code questions, and the importance of copying Google Form surveys to use for each separate administration, which makes it easier to summary and disaggregate the data. Finally I learned that the other improvement pathway, which we did not address in this project, quality instruction and assessment, is also very important based on my multiple observations of math lessons for both fourth grade teachers.

Modifications and Improvements

The primary drivers I identified including teacher mindset and self efficacy in doing and teaching math, classroom climate, student mindset and self efficacy in doing math, and quality instruction and assessment (not addressed in this project) were I believe the right ones, mainly due to their high leverage impact, based on my own literature review, conversations with various professors at UCLA including a psychology professor, who is an expert on math anxiety, and anecdotal observations before the project began. This was supported by the student survey data especially, even though it came at the end of the project. However the implementation of the PDSA cycles meant test changes for communicating and teaching a growth mindset could have been greatly improved through training all action research team member on this process, better coordination on my part as the project leader and the use of online collaboration for conducting data analysis and finishing the ‘study’ and ‘act’ parts of each PDSA cycle. Because this didn’t happen there was larger variability between the classes in implementation as evidenced by the observations and the checklists. Moreover I came to realize that the action research team should have been bigger and included the instructional coach on site and maybe the other fourth grade teacher, but both could not commit to be apart of this team.

Having a bigger action research team would have allowed us to handle the three improvement pathways this project was meant to address and possibly included the fourth improvement pathway, quality instruction and assessment, which probably would have made a difference with addressing math anxiety in the students with a medium math anxiety level.  With a larger team we could have also had more people involved in conducting a root-cause analysis in addition to the literature review and anecdotal observations, creating the survey, monitoring progress as measured by the process measures for the change ideas, and analyzing the data in small groups as this project had a massive amount of data to filter through, analyze, and present in a clear visual manner. Finally having a larger team would have contributed to the work load being more dispersed among more people, as the teachers on the action research team already had a number of priorities in addition to their work on this project.

Leadership Trajectory

Over the course of the project my role changed and developed in several ways. At the beginning of the project my role was mainly about bringing awareness to the problem for other members of the action research team as math anxiety is never talked about as a social justice issue in elementary school, but addressing this problem provides for a more holistic approach to meeting the needs of students in achieving in mathematics and it does exist as a problem in elementary.

Moreover I communicated with the action team, based on a moral imperative, that the focus of this project was addressing math anxiety alongside excellent math teaching for the marginalized group of Latinos. This is important because Latinos are excluded from equal education opportunities in America such that one outcome is that Latinos are not entering STEM fields at the college level or graduating with STEM degrees in proportion to the overall Latino youth population in America.

Furthermore in presenting the proposal to the other members I focused on trying to connect this problem to their own students in part by sharing the impetus for the project which came out of my own observations during a demonstration lesson on using math word problems to teach math concepts.  Finally I connected the issue of reducing math anxiety to the school’s mission and vision, which values supporting the needs of the whole child, not just their academic needs.

Later as the project began in earnest with a series of PDs my role switched to translating the vision based on the aim of the project into action through creating the infrastructure for our system with the other action research team members including measurement tools, action plans, the project timelines, and training. As a result we created a system that allowed for effective data collection; however as mentioned previously the limitation of not being able to meet face to face and complete the data analysis through finishing the PDSA cycles meant that there was no sustained inquiry or feedback loop to construct shared knowledge and make adjustments all along the way. Moreover I sought to remind the action research team members consistently about the aim of our project during each of the five PD sessions we had mainly through creating the SMART Goals action plans. It was much harder to do this afterwards though in terms of meeting face to face as an entire team once the project was fully underway and so I consistently in my email communication sought to express appreciation for their hard work and the support they were providing to their students by addressing these additional psychological needs. I also asked each teacher frequently in person how things were going.

At the end of the project due whenever I touched base with each teacher in collecting pieces of data in person, in emails, or in assessing each of their students at the end of the project I mainly became focused on trying to sustain the motivation as this project had to compete with end of the year testing, school events, and other school wide or classroom level priorities including field trips.

Final Reflection: CAPE Connections

CAPE 5-Promoting Implementation of K-12 Standards, Pedagogical Skills, Effective Instructional Practices, and Students Assessments for Content Instruction

In bringing awareness to the issues of math anxiety for Latinos in elementary school through professional development for the teachers involved in this project, I helped to facilitate teacher understanding of the importance of addressing non-cognitive factors in support of student achievement with the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM). This included training on socio-psychological interventions through communicating and teaching a growth mindset in their classrooms. It is important for me as a school leader to bring issues of marginalization into the light and for discussion with teachers. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 5.

CAPE 7 Demonstrating Understanding of the School and Community Context, including the Instructional implication of Cultural/Linguistic Socioeconomic, and Political Factors

In designing the project for particular school context, I looked at the school mission and vision, the current school goals and priorities, and informally observed classrooms. I also gathered and analyzed additional demographic and student achievement data from the school and learned about the history of the school through meeting with the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and in talking to school staff. More over I personally gathered student data for 85 third and fourth graders on their math anxiety levels and current level of growth mindset before the project began to inform the design of this project. This allowed me to demonstrate in the design of the driver diagram my understanding of this school context. When creating and administering the various students survey I also consider the linguistic needs of the school’s populations, which served a sizable English Learner population. Because of my previous experience as a Title III Instructional Coach I also offered teachers suggestions for supporting their English Language Learners through expressive writing and the use of reading supports when teaching some of the growth mindset lessons. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 7.

CAPE 8 – Communicating With the School Community about Schoolwide Outcomes Data and Improvement Goals

In presenting the proposal to the other members of the action research team and the ILT I communicated the aim of the project and did so on a consistent basis thereafter through a series of PDs before implementation of classroom activities. This aim was informed by student achievement data, math anxiety level data, and growth mindset level data before the project began and I provided visual representations and the list of math anxious students to each teacher participating in the project. I presented this initial baseline data in visual charts to the action teams and the ILT before the project began. Moreover the aim informed the short-term, medium term, and long term outcomes and measurement tools for the driver diagram. This formed the projects’ practical measurement system and was meant to provide ongoing data about whether our test ideas were succeeding towards the aim or not. At the end of the project I also provided the post –project math anxiety level, report card grades for math, and growth mindset level data to each teachers including visuals comparing the results to the pre project data. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 8.

CAPE 9-Working with Others to Identify Student and School Needs and Developing a Data-Based School Growth Plan

I presented a practical theory of action, the drive diagram with a possible practical measurement system, for reducing math anxiety to my action research team and in doing so teachers requested adjustments to the data plan. There was a concern about the frequency and length of observations. Thus in discussions with teachers, the number and length of observations were reduced. In addition the other action team members helped to create the checklists for the improvement pathways of communicating and teaching a growth mindset in their classrooms. Moreover we worked together to design to SMART Goal action plans to address those same improvement pathways. All of this work was tied to the project’s aim. Choosing the specific measures for short term, medium term, and long term project outcomes was informed by the need for triangulation of data and reliable and valid measures for the change ideas tested. The teachers on their own communicated with each other and made adjustments to the growth mindset units and shared additional activities they created with each other. Finally I used email, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Forms extensively to support and manage this project, remotely at times. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 9.

CAPE 10-Implementing Change Strategies Based Current, Relevant Theories, and Best Practices in School Improvement

As this project was largely an improvement project with respect to reducing math anxiety for student medium to high levels I designed the improvement process based on the ideas of improvement science and Networked Improvement Teams (NICs) which come from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching with the goal of learning to improve as a system through piloting testing ideas and scaling up the tests to different contexts and multiple test ideas. This includes conducting a root-cause analysis, mapping the system, identifying a goal or aim for the system, designing a driver diagram with high leverage drivers to move the system toward that aim by identifying change ideas and testing them through PDSA cycles, and creating a practical measurement system to monitor progress along the entire improvement pathway.

In addition I created the primary driver measures in the form of the student survey to measure various constructs related to math achievement in doing math and in the form of the teacher student survey to measure their self-efficacy with the growth mindset interventions and teaching the CCSSM. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 10.

CAPE 14-Helping Teachers Improve their Individual Practice Through Professional Growth Activities

Using adult and student centered learning theories and blended learning techniques I facilitated a series of PDs on math anxiety and how to address this issue using socio-psychological interventions including communicating and teaching a growth mindset. I employed constructivism and socio-cultural learning theory including learning in, from, and for practice in having teachers sort concepts, view videos and discuss questions with each other, and provide feedback for their partner based on applying the learning. Moreover I created a Google Doc playlist, blending learning technique, before each PD to support teacher learning at home and maximize the time together for practice, feedback, and action planning. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 14.

CAPE 16-Understanding and Managing the Complex Interaction of All of the School’s System to Promote Teaching and Learning

In conducting the literature review, talking with the school ILT, reading their school plan and current strategies for improving student achievement outcomes, gather anecdotal data through informal classroom observations and instructional rounds, and finally assessing 55 students math achievement, and 85 students math anxiety and growth mindset levels I was able to gather a good amount of data on the classroom and school level systems as it pertains to the problem of math anxiety. This along with my literature review informed the creation of the driver diagram and practical measurement system as a classroom level theory of action to reduce math anxiety for those students with medium to high levels of anxiety. The reducing math anxiety driver diagram and aligned practical measurement system were designed to monitor and evaluate each change idea, secondary driver, and primary driver along each of three improvement pathways in achieving the aim of the project. Together as team we engaged in the projects activities and gathered the data. I analyzed this data for the team and shared this data with each member of the action research team towards reducing math anxiety and raising growth mindset levels. One practical way I facilitated communication was through the use of Google Forms in creating surveys to measure short term and medium term outcomes and to gather teacher feedback about processes we were using in terms of usefulness, especially in being practical and impact on their students. I coordinated during the through in person PD, email, teacher surveys, and one on one informal conversations. More I created blending learning activities for teachers using Google Docs in order to maximize collaboration when we were in person. Thus this work connects to and addresses aspects of CAPE 16.

Next Steps for Reducing Math Anxiety Leadership Project

Next steps for the reducing math anxiety by addressing mindset project include the following:

• Next year I would like to pilot this training through the series of PDs on math anxiety and the growthmindset interventions at my school next year but using a blending learning model by incorporating the use of a wordpress blog which would house the learning pathway of articles and videos with some individual learning activities followed by practice and feedback together at the school site. Moreover to spread the awareness of math anxiety and use of growth mindset more fully across the district I want to create a salary point class to put placed on our district’s learning management system.

• Moreover I would also like to create an action research team with one or two grade levels

to address math anxiety for any student who is identified to have medium to high levels of math anxiety in those grade levels, but also include change ideas and measures to address the fourth improvement pathway of quality instruction and assessment. The timeline for the project would be at least one semester because of the complexity of this issues based on the local context and various contributing factors for math anxiety.  This time I would like to schedule regular times for data analysis and the completion of PDSA cycles in order to build a culture of inquiry and community of practice such that the we as the system are building collective professional knowledge and capacity. Moreover this time I would also explicitly provide other action research team members with training on the improvement science methods and tools.

Supporting Documents

• Math Anxiety Literature Review and Analysis

• Agendas for Reducing Math Anxiety PD Series
• Math Anxiety PD
• Communicating a Growth Mindset PD
• Action Planning: Communicating a Growth Mindset PD
• Teaching a Growth Mindset PD
• SMART Goal Action Plans
• PD Surveys for Communicating a Growth Mindset
• Communicating a Growth Mindset Checklist
• Teaching a Growth Mindset Checklist
• Student Survey Instrument
• Teacher Survey Instrument
• Math Observation Template
• Modified Scale for Elementary Math Anxiety Instrument
• Mindset Assessment Profile Instrument