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Mathematical modeling is a high-leverage topic; it is critical to students' participation in STEM education and supports civic engagement. Until recently, research on modeling at the elementary level has been underemphasized, particularly research on supports and challenges for teachers who engage in designing authentic modeling tasks. In this study, we employed qualitative case study methods to investigate how elementary teachers designed and implemented authentic mathematical modeling tasks, with an explicit focus on how their tasks evidenced different dimensions of authenticity. We analyzed three cases of teams of elementary teachers as they developed modeling tasks connected to school and community contexts. The three cases were: 1) a student-driven modeling task related to paper and plastic waste in a school cafeteria, 2) a modeling task based on authentic situations at a community-run resource center, and 3) a modeling task focused on designing and monitoring a school community-building art project. Our cases illustrate that elementary teachers can successfully design and implement modeling activities that utilize different entry points and evidence multiple dimensions of authenticity. Furthermore, we found that the specific dimensions of authenticity may vary depending on the design supports and curriculum challenges within each context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mathematizing-the-World routine (MWR) is an efficient culturally responsive instructional routine for mathematizing that explicitly supports problem posing using an image or object. Given the under-representation of problem-posing studies in elementary school settings, our qualitative study analyzed student responses from 56 MWR enactments in grade 3–5 classrooms in two regions of the United States. Our findings include detailed examples of the MWR in action, including how three open-ended prompts engaged younger students in mathematizing and posing problems related to authentic, real-world situations. We summarize findings across the 56 MWR classroom enactments focusing on the understandings about the context and the mathematical ideas evidenced in student responses. Our findings demonstrate the potential of the MWR as a catalyst for eliciting and communicating diverse student ideas while engaged in the problem-posing process. We discuss research and practice implications for this routine to support mathematizing, and specifically problem posing in the elementary classroom. • Mathematizing-the-World Routine created an efficient culturally responsive entry point to mathematization and problem posing. • Mathematizing-the-World Routine supports teacher learning about students' diverse math ideas and real-world understandings. • Strategic image selection for a Mathematizing-the-World Routine may promote diverse mathematical questions posed by students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elementary mathematics curriculum materials can serve as a lever for instructional change. In this paper, we promote a particular kind of instructional change: supporting teachers in learning to integrate children's multiple mathematical knowledge bases (MMKB), including children's mathematical thinking and children's home and community-based mathematical funds of knowledge, in instruction. A powerful means of supporting pre-service teachers in integrating children's MMKB in instruction may be to scaffold teachers' noticing of potential spaces in elementary mathematics curriculum materials for connecting to children's MMKB and then developing practices for leveraging these spaces during instruction. We focus on existing and potential spaces in written curriculum materials, or curriculum spaces, so as to better support teachers in enacting curriculum that opens spaces for connecting to children's MMKB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Teacher educators need an awareness of orientations that prospective teachers (PSTs) hold about children's families and communities, so that they can support PSTs in developing positive perspectives and addressing deficit perspectives. Orientations expressed by 20 PSTs while in preK-8 mathematics methods courses are examined. Results from interviews indicate that PSTs recognize the importance of connecting with parents, understanding home and community practices, and building on these practices to support children's mathematical learning. They also, however, exhibit inconsistent perspectives, at times indicating a lack of understanding as to why some families appear to be less able to support students' academic efforts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]