We are recruiting at least one graduate student at the master’s or PhD levels to work with us in the development of a mathematical mindsets and identities tool that will be used in a larger project that will explore students’ different pathways through middle and high school algebra (see text below). We have funding for up to 20 hours per week for Fall of 2022. The position begins September 1st. All work could be done remotely. If you are interested, please send a brief email and your CV to Susanne.Strachota@tufts.edu.

Developing and piloting a measure for mathematical mindsets and identities

The proposed work aims to develop and pilot a measure for identifying students’ mathematical mindsets and identities in 8th and 9th grade. Building on prior work on mathematical mindsets and identities we will develop, pilot, and refine a tool with the intention of using this tool in a larger, scaled-up version of our study in which we will examine how the compacted pathway (taking Algebra 1 in middle school) versus the regular pathway (taking Algebra 1 in high school) impact students on three dimensions: mindsets and identities, ability to generalize mathematical relationships, and performance in mathematics. The proposed study is one small slice of the larger, scaled-up study, for which we will apply for extramural funding, and which will result in direct recommendations to support school districts as they design algebra pathways for their students.

Each data collection cycle has two parts. First, we will administer the questionnaire as a written assessment with 2-3 classes of 8th and 9th grade students. Second, we will interview a representative subset of students from each class using the cognitive interview method to evaluate if the results of the written assessment align with what we learn about students’ mathematical mindsets and identities. Based on the outcome of the interviews, we will modify the assessment as needed.

We might conduct additional cycles of written assessments with all students and cognitive interviews with representative subsets of the students that took the written assessment. All data collection will be conducted remotely.