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Author Biography

Mary-Katherine Miller is a University of North Florida (UNF) doctoral student who has a passion for education. She has over 7 years of progressive educational experiences in Jacksonville, Florida ranging from classroom teaching to educational leadership. She studied at the University of Florida where she was awarded both a B.A. and M.Ed. in Elementary Education. At UNF, she serves as the Teacher Fellow with Project PREP (Partnering to Renew the Educator Pipeline): a school-university-district partnership with Clay County District Schools (CCDS). In this role, she supports coursework design and implementation, ongoing research, and provides coaching with early career teachers connected to the grant. With her varied experiences, she hopes to support both teacher candidates, early career, and experienced teachers alike, ultimately improving K-12 student outcomes.

Abstract

In this inquiry, the teacher worked alongside a university mentor to develop, monitor, and analyze the teacher’s wonderings. In a 3rd grade classroom, the teacher wanted to explore how hands-on and discourse strategies could impact mathematics achievement for all students. Specifically, the teacher explored how utilizing hands-on activities and discourse strategies in collaborative groups could lead to increased engagement and better outcomes for her exceptional student education (ESE) population in learning multiplication and division. Throughout the inquiry, the teacher used checklists, anecdotal notes, and student exit ticket scores to monitor student progress. At the end of the inquiry cycle, the teacher discovered that the strategies helped to improve outcomes for all students in different ways that was unexpected. This led to interesting discussions about the teacher’s inquiry and led to more wonderings that the teacher will pursue to add to her pedagogical toolkit. Overall, this paper discusses the impact of this inquiry on the teacher’s thinking and about how she can best serve all students in her classroom.

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