The positive relationship between students' attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics achievement is well documented. Yet there is a worsening problem of low appeal of mathematics especially at the secondary level. Therefore, in this paper we focus on three high school students who report a strong dislike of mathematics. By analyzing student…

A study was done at a mid-sized public university in the Midwest of the United States. At this university, there are three large classes taught in Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies (SCALE-UP) classrooms: algebra-based introductory physics, calculus-based introductory physics, and introductory statistics.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact and interactions of student-centered instructional techniques on College Algebra student engagement, mathematics attitudes, and achievement. At my place of practice, instructional shifts towards student-centered and social-efficiency models of instruction are taking place, supported by…

This report presents key lessons from the third year of the Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN), a networked improvement community aimed at improving student-centered instructional practices. As a networked improvement community, BMTN educators use a collaborative work approach and quick-cycle testing to refine instructional routines, adjusting…

The Better Math Teaching Network offers a promising, practical model for teacher learning. Its practitioner members--who all teach at least one section of high school algebra and all joined voluntarily--are working with each other and a team of researchers to make their teaching more student-centered through an improvement science approach. With…

Over the past thirty years, policies have been enacted at the local and state levels to reform mathematics instruction to be student-centered (see Cohen & Ball, 1990; Resnick, Stein, & Coon, 2008). Despite the wave of instructional reforms, several critical gaps remain in our understanding of student-centered mathematics instruction.…

The Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) is organized as a networked improvement community, which is a structured network of researchers and practitioners working together to address a common problem of practice, in this case, how to improve opportunities to increase student engagement in high school mathematics. During the 2017-18 school year, 41…

The Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) is a networked improvement community of researchers, teachers, and instructional leaders from New England who use improvement science principles to increase the number of students who are actively and deeply engaged in algebra content. The BMTN's second year of implementation occurred during the 2017-18…