The project investigates the components of a professional development intervention that enhance teachers’ attention to students’ prior knowledge in high-need schools.  In particular, the project examines how to combine animations and videos of classroom instruction to help teachers learn to notice students’ prior knowledge and also to perform teaching actions to use that prior knowledge in problem-based instruction.  The ultimate goal of the project is to create a professional development framework.  The framework will specify the resources and activities that increase teachers’ capabilities to teach in ways that improve students’ learning opportunities through attention to student thinking. The project, informed by Lesson Study, engages geometry teachers in a teacher learning community over two years.  Participating teachers will collaborate in planning, implementing, and analyzing geometry lessons aligned with the Common Core Standards.  The professional development intervention intends to support teachers’ effective implementation of problem-based instruction in their own classrooms.

The research is supported by a National Science Foundation’s grant to Gloriana González for the project entitled “CAREER: Noticing and Using Students’ Prior Knowledge in Problem-Based Instruction,” Grant No. DRL-1253081.  Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.