1. Ambitious Mathematics Teaching
Our research of mathematics teaching and learning is rooted in an overarching vision of mathematics education that involves rich problems, collaborative student discourse, as well as responsiveness to students’ identities as learners. With this vision in mind, often described as ambitious mathematics teaching (Cobb et al., 2018; Horn & Garner, 2022; Lampert et al., 2013), our classroom research is strongly informed by our commitment to mobilize these investigations into opportunities for teacher learning, supporting teachers' pursuit of ambitious cognitive and social goals. For example, in Ehrenfeld & Horn (2020) we developed a framework for understanding teachers’ groupwork monitoring routines in math classrooms (see video in the presentation tab). By comparing different teachers and different lessons, we highlighted a variety of nuanced teaching practices and the pedagogical dilemmas they entail. In another example, Buenrostro & Ehrenfeld (2023), we further examined instructional mediators that can influence how students collaboratively solve mathematics problems, setting up mathematics learning that is neither beyond the students’ grasp nor too easy, apparent, or procedural.
Illustrative publications:
Buenrostro, P. & Ehrenfeld, N. (2023). Beyond mere persistence: A conceptual framework for bridging perseverance and mathematical sensemaking in teaching and teacher learning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 114, 199–221.
Ehrenfeld, N., & Horn, I. S. (2020). Initiation-entry-focus-exit and participation: a framework for understanding teacher groupwork monitoring routines. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 103, 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-020-09939-2.
2. Undergraduate Mathematics (Rethinking Calculus)
The Rethinking Calculus program is an effort by the Mathematics Department in a private southern US university to better serve its Calculus students. The initiative is based on a collaborative problem-solving pedagogy which aims to support understanding of the content through active learning, as well as to support students' identities as math learners, and their sense of belonging to the course. The Course Assistants (CAs) are a group of undergraduate students who had already taken this course (or similar) and who support small groups of students who were enrolled. Enrolled students work in small groups on weekly problems with the CAs who facilitated their work. These problem-solving sessions are called “Math Labs.” The weekly problems are part of the course syllabus and contributed to students’ course grade. In this research we study different aspects of the program with a focus on the CAs professional development, including those CAs who are also pre-service mathematics teachers.
An illustrative publication:
Ehrenfeld, N., & Mark, A. (2024). Bridging the mathematical and social dimensions of undergraduate calculus: Students’
perspectives on a program of weekly guided collaborative problems solving. Research of Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (RUME 2024).
3. Mathematics Classrooms Discourse/Interaction Analysis
Talk plays a main role in mathematics learning processes and in the organization of classroom activities. For some, classroom discourse can serve as a means ("talk supports students' conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas"), as an end ("I want students to learn how to explain, argue, and participate in rich mathematical discourse"), and as an analytic focus. As an analytic focus, we study mathematics teaching and learning through a close analysis of real-time moment-to-moment classroom discourse with methodological traditions such as discourse analysis (Sfard, 2008) and interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995). Video technology is central to our work when studying classroom interaction and the analysis routines by themselves are social and ideally involves slow and deep processes by multiple viewers. On a side note, we are soon opening the Weizmann Interaction Analysis Lab (WIAL), where students and faculty could come together on a regular basis to watch and analyze video-based data.
An Illustrative publication:
Ehrenfeld, N. & Heyd-Metzuyanim, E. (2019). Intellective identities and the construction of a hybrid discourse: the case of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mathematics classroom. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. 17, 739–757. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-018-9885-z.