With a new five-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Oregon State University researchers are working with teachers, school administrators and college students to improve mathematical discourse in the classroom.

It just adds up n math education is about more than learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide, the educators say. It takes reasoning and creativity, skills that students learn by sharing ideas. In fact, it takes what researchers call developing “mathematical habits of mind.”

Collaborators include researchers at Portland State University, the nonprofit Teachers Development Group in West Linn, the Woodburn School District and RMC Research Corporation. Through a series of summer institutes and school-year workshops, they hope to create a cadre of math education leaders in school districts across the state.

The new grant supports participation by about 100 teachers from 50 schools in 10 Oregon school districts, from kindergarten through high school. These teachers are taking part in summer institutes and online courses during the school year, and they receive site-visit support over the five years of the grant. Another 80 teachers are supported through additional funding from the Oregon Department of Education and the participating school districts.

The project focuses on all content areas of math, says Karen Higgins, director of teacher education in the OSU College of Education.

“Writing and talking about math increases conceptual understanding,” she said. “The challenge for classroom teachers is to find worthwhile tasks that engage students in teamwork, debate and discussion.”

Such tasks include tests of reasoning ability. One example: there are four hats in a checking room. Four men receive their hats at random. What is the probability that exactly three of them will receive the correct hat?

And another: there are only two consecutive prime numbers between 0 and 1,000 that differ from each other by 18. Their sum is 1064. What are they?

How students approach their solutions contributes to their mathematical habits of mind. And ultimately, says Tom Dick, OSU mathematics professor and project leader, it’s about raising student achievement.

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