AIM-TRU (Analyzing Instruction in Mathematics using the Teaching for Robust Understanding Framework) is a research project funded by a four-year National Science Foundation Discovery Research Pre K-12 grant. The project explores how teachers generate shared, classroom-based knowledge through professional development based on freely available, high-quality instructional resources that can improve student learning outcomes. The project is a collaboration between Montclair State University, SUNY Buffalo, Math for America and DePaul University. Doug O'Roark is the Project Director at DePaul.
In AIM-TRU, Professional Learning Teams of CPS teachers meet monthly to engage in the collaborative investigation of video cases utilizing a shared repertoire that includes questioning protocols adapted from the Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) framework. This framework articulates five dimensions of classroom instruction that are necessary and sufficient to support students in becoming powerful mathematical thinkers.
Each workshop is built around the study of one high quality activity taken from the Formative Assessment Lessons from the Math Assessment Project website. The workshop protocol involves reflecting on the deep mathematical ideas of the FAL, enacting the main activity, and then discussing a short video of children engaging in that lesson.
The researchers are studying the teachers' discourse and classroom practices in order to deepen understanding of how job-embedded professional development based in the analysis of authentic video from urban classrooms can have a significant impact on teaching and learning.
