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Three Steps for Achieving Equity and Access in the Math Classroom
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of equity and equality in math education. This holds true particularly in the math classroom, where historically marginalized students, i.e., students of African American and Hispanic descent, have faced significant barriers to success. Achieving equity in the math classroom is crucial for ensuring that all students have equal opportunities to excel. According to the 2022 National Assessment for Educational Progressing (NAEP) data, there has been a decrease in academic achievement among underserved diverse learners. Further, there has been a decrease in access to advanced courses, noting that only 24% of all 13-year-olds took algebra in 2022 compared to 34% of 13-year-olds a decade ago (NAEP, 2022).
NAEP data reported the following regarding all fourth- and eighth-grade math students, stating that:
In 2022, the average fourth-grade mathematics score decreased by 5 points and was lower than all previous assessment years going back to 2005; the average score was one point higher compared to 2003. The average eighth-grade mathematics score decreased by 8 points compared to 2019 and was lower than all previous assessment years going back to 2003. In 2022, fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics scores declined for most states/jurisdictions as well as for most participating urban districts compared to 2019. Average scores are reported on NAEP mathematics scales at grades 4 and 8 that range from 0 to 500.
In this article, we will explore three essential steps that educators can take to promote equity in their math classrooms, which are to 1) Cultivate an inclusive classroom environment; 2) Differentiate Instruction in the math classroom; 3) Address Implicit Biases and Stereotypes. As we further understand these strategies, educators will be able to effectively have an equitable experience for all learners in the classroom.
In their article, “Learning Mathematics in an Inclusive and Open Environment: An Interdisciplinary Approach” Demo et al. (2021) mention how researcher Mel Ainscow defines inclusion as, “aiming at the presence of all in school… the meaning participation and learning for all (p.3).” Creating an all-inclusive classroom environment is a foundational component for teachers striving to achieve equity in the math classroom. It involves fostering a sense of belonging and respect for all students, regardless of their background or abilities. In his book College Students Sense of Belonging: A Key to Academic Success, Strayhorn (2012) found that when a student’s sense of belonging increases, it increases their academic achievement (p.59). However, sometimes teachers lack the ideal strategies needed to create an environment where all students feel like their presence and contributions matter in the math space. This can create social awkwardness, causing students to hold back from contributing to their math lesson.
Some strategies to consider for implementing inclusion in a math classroom are to: 1) Include Diverse Representation; 2) Explore Collaborative Learning; and 3) Create a Safe Place for Mistakes. We will look deeper into each strategy to better comprehend how to implement each one so that results of proficiency and success for all students may follow.
Strategy 1. Include Diverse Representation: Teachers should strive to incorporate diverse mathematical examples, problems, and real-world applications that reflect the experiences and cultures of all students. This helps students see themselves in the math curriculum and promotes engagement. Sometimes, teachers can open up the learning space for students to partake in how to include diversity in the math content and in math discussion during learning. For instance, teachers can find out who their students’ favorite athletes are and give a real-world math example for students to work out during the lesson. Further, teachers can be intentional at highlighting mathematicians who contributed to the field of math from diverse backgrounds. Teachers can also highlight various facets of culture to celebrate the culture of learners from various regions. When implementing diverse representation, it should always feel like it is done with an intention to honor and celebrate various diverse groups, so that students from these ethnic groups can become motivated that they can achieve as much as leaders from their cultural group, causing them to give a greater effort toward learning and proficiency in the math classroom.
Strategy 2. Explore Collaborative Learning: Encourage collaborative learning activities that promote teamwork and cooperation. Group work allows students to learn from one another, share different perspectives, and build empathy. In her article, “Cooperative Learning Structures Can Increase Student Achievement,” Dotson (2001) speaks about collaboration for students by using Kagan structures , which are collaborative structures founded by Dr. Linda Kagan that have been proven to increase student engagement (Wetering, 2009), and that these structures improve student achievement in the classroom. When students collaborate with their peers, they benefit from peer-to-peer interaction, teaching each other during the metacognitive process. Further, when students are working on math problems, allowing them to work together in pairs or in groups will help them conceptually grasp the math while using grit to motivate each other to thrive (White, 2020; Duckworth, 2016). Hence, collaborative learning can contribute to a sense of belonging and improve access and equitable practices for all learners.
Strategy 3. Create a Safe Space for Mistakes: In the classroom, a teacher must be intentional about creating a safe place for learning. Seeing some students who struggle from math anxiety, a low sense of self, and are afraid to take risks, educators must be intentional and proactive at helping students to grow beyond the fears and barriers they face have when they approach the process of learning math. In their article, “Effect of Classroom Learning Environment on Students’ Academic Achievement in Mathematics at Secondary Level” Riaz Hussain Malik and Asad Abbas Rizvi (2018) mention that, “In a classroom, the teacher’s role is much important to enhance the morale, self-concept, self-confidence of a learner because he/she may be tool of inspiration or torture (p. 212).” They elaborate, stating that teachers can “humiliate or humor, hurt or heal a student in a class (p. 1).” Hence, educators must be intentional at creating a safe space where students of all backgrounds feel comfortable making mistakes and taking risks.
Students must be convinced that their teacher is an advocate and is there to support them when they are learning a new concept or struggling to solve a rigorous math problem. Teachers should encourage students to learn from their errors and emphasize that mistakes are an essential part of the learning process. As they do this, learners will become convinced that they can understand math and become proficient in it.
Differentiating instruction is a process in which teachers are able to diversify instruction in a way that meets students where they are in their learning and simplifies concepts so that all students can understand what they are learning. Differentiation is crucial for meeting the diverse needs of students in the math classroom. Since students are learning at various paces, and enter their math classrooms on different levels, choosing to differentiate instruction can help teachers check students’ understanding as they help support students who are in various levels on their path toward proficiency in the math classroom. Further, by tailoring instruction to individual students, educators can ensure that all students have access to high-quality math education. In their research article titled “Using Assessment to Individualize Early Mathematics Instruction,” Connor et al. (2017) found that, “teachers’ instructional practices do affect students’ mathematics achievement gains and are more effective when individual student differences in mathematics skills are considered.” This takes place when educators tailor instruction to individual students. Hence, to effectively differentiate instruction, educators can start with three strategies: 1. Give Pre-Assessments; 2. Allow Flexible Grouping, and 3. Have Varied Instructional Materials.
Strategy 1. Pre-Assessment: When starting with a new classroom of learners, it is in the best interest of educators to conduct pre-assessments to identify students’ prior knowledge and skills. As teachers do this, it can help them plan and determine what skills need to be revisited before introducing new content. In their research article titled “Using Assessment to Individualize Early Mathematics Instruction,” Connor et al. (2017) found in their research that, “Accumulating evidence suggests that assessment-informed personalized instruction, tailored to students’ individual skills and abilities is more effective than more one-size-fits-all approaches.” Further, it will help teachers identify strong math identities that exist among learners or see students who are really exposed and vulnerable during learning. In addition, having pre-assessments for students allows teachers to differentiate instruction by providing appropriate challenges and support to each student.
Strategy 2. Flexible Grouping: When grouping students based on their needs and abilities teachers can provide targeted instruction and support to different groups, ensuring that all students receive the attention they need; flexible grouping can set students up for academic success. Further, it can help build student-to-student relationships in the classroom, fostering a stronger sense of community in the learning environment. Flexible grouping can help support natural leaders in the classroom as they contribute to the environment by sharing their strengths with their peers through scaffolding and modeling how they understood the content. It also motivates lower-performing learners in a way that helps them see that not all hope is gone, and that with grit and persistence they will eventually comprehend the subject at hand (White, 2020; Duckworth, 2016). Through using flexibility grouping, math students are opened to a world of opportunity and access during their learning experience in the classroom.
Strategy 3. Varied Instructional Materials: Utilizing a variety of instructional materials, such as manipulatives, visual aids, technology, and real-world examples is a great way to create access to math for all learners. These methods help to support various learning styles and ensure that all students can access the content. For instance, educators can expose students of diverse backgrounds to understanding math by allowing them to explore various parts of the world through technology and real-world examples, (i.e., pyramids, building structures, etc.) Sometimes, having an expert speak on their field of interest, i.e., National Geographic Explorers, Black Women in Math, NASA engineers, etc., can help make sense of the math and create a sense of reality for learners that might struggle with abstract concepts within a lesson.
When these tools are utilized, learners can pursue learning with an increased amount of engagement, which affects their learning progression in a positive manner. Some colleges have begun adopting these ideas via internships for diverse learners with “institutional diversity partnerships.” In their article entitled “Cultivating Diversity and Competency in STEM: Challenges and Remedies for Removing Virtual Barriers to Constructing Diverse Higher Education Communities of Success,” Whitaker et al. (2015) concluded that “institutional diversity partnerships are generally established on the basis of leveraging the strengths of HBCUs’ success with producing a large proportion of students of color who complete degrees in STEM majors with the fiscal and infrastructure resource bases of large majority institutions,” suggesting that various internships at universities for diverse learners can help create a more equitable, and inclusive learning environment that will also retain students of ethnic backgrounds.
There are three types of biases that are commonly discussed among educators: Implicit biases, explicit biases, and unconscious bias. In their article titled “Teachers’ Bias Against the Mathematical Ability of Female, Black, and Hispanic Students,” Copur-Gencturk et al. (2020) define explicit biases as “discriminatory attitudes and stereotyping behaviors that individuals are consciously aware of, are intentional, and are under the control of the individual.” They define implicit biases as “biases that individuals are unaware of, operate below the surface of consciousness, are out of the control of the individual.” Further, Copur-Gencturk et al. (2020) define unconscious biases as, “overestimation or underestimation of students’ ability, as measured by the variance in teachers’ assessments of their students’ ability not explained by the students’ performance on a direct assessment.” These biases and stereotypes can significantly impact students’ experiences and achievement in the math classroom.
Biases and stereotypes can cause students of diverse and ethnic backgrounds to have a low sense of math identity, creating a mindset of hopelessness. Some learners might experience little to no motivation because they feel like their math teacher does not believe they can excel in their math class because of their skin color, language, or cultural background. It is crucial for educators to be aware of their biases and actively work to counteract them so that invisible social barriers that exist may be removed, and students can develop trust in their teachers and thrive in their learning. Three strategies to consider when addressing implicit biases and stereotypes include 1) Reflect on personal bias; 2) Promote positive attributes of learners; 3) Encourage a Growth Mindset.
Strategy 1. Reflect on Personal Biases: Sometimes, people develop biases due to daily interactions with society. However, these biases can trickle into the learning environment in math class, affecting the perspective of teachers toward students of various backgrounds. As a result, grading can be subtly detrimental to learners, interactions can be rigid, cold, and uninviting for diverse learners. Copur-Gencturk (2020) mentioned how biases affected teacher grading for students of color, finding that “for partially correct responses, teachers’ ratings of White-sounding names were rated significantly higher than those of Black- and Hispanic-sounding names.” Hence, in efforts to eliminate biases that might exist in various tasks such as grading, educators must be honest by engaging in self-reflection to identify and challenge personal biases. This can be done through professional development, workshops, or discussions with colleagues. Other ways is by documenting interactions between teachers and students with diverse backgrounds to see progress that has been made in social interactions, establishing trust and strengthening of teacher-student relationships.
Strategy 2. Promote Positive Attributes of Learners: Highlight positive role models and success stories from diverse backgrounds in math. This helps challenge negative stereotypes and encourages all students to believe in their own abilities. In their article, “Equity in Mathematics Education,” Vital et al. (2023) emphasize scholarly research that points to various frameworks to promote social justice for learners of diverse backgrounds and caring for diverse learners in the math classroom. As this is accomplished inequities are exposed, and teachers are better equipped to help level the learning experience. Vital et al. (2023) also summarize Anne Watson’s work on caring of learners in mathematics education, stating that “care for mathematics, care for learners and care for learning mathematics are developed through collaborative inquiry and power-sharing among teachers, learners and communities” and that “listening and noticing are important for both the emotional and cognitive work involved in learning mathematics.” In her book, Care in mathematics education: Alternative educational spaces and Practices, Watson (2021) emphasizes the possibility of transformative math spaces that can become a part of a learner’s math identity when there is care as a part of the learning environment. Hence, through caring for learners and pointing out their strengths during learning, students can improve their ability through these equitable math practices.
Strategy 3. Encourage a Growth Mindset: In the article, “Carol Dweck Revisits the ’Growth Mindset,’” Dr. Carol Dweck (2015) elaborates on what a growth mindset is stating that it is when “people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” Hence, teachers can foster a growth mindset in diverse students by emphasizing that intelligence and math abilities can be developed through effort and perseverance. As teachers cultivate a growth mindset for learners, it triumphs over a fixed mindset that would convince them that they can’t do math, or that the math is just too hard for them (Dweck, 2006). A growth mindset coupled with grit, which Duckworth (2016) defines as “passion and perseverance to obtain long-term goals,” can help students feel like they are invincible mathematicians in the classroom, and will cultivate an intrinsic motivation toward learning math.
Conclusion
Achieving equity in the math classroom is a continuous process that requires intentional efforts from educators. By cultivating an inclusive classroom environment, differentiating instruction, and addressing implicit bias and stereotypes, educators can create a space where all students have equal opportunities to succeed in math. Further, when educators promote equity in the math classroom, it benefits marginalized students and enhances the learning experience for all students. When students from diverse backgrounds and abilities are given the support and resources they need, they can contribute unique perspectives, ideas, and problem-solving skills to the math classroom. As educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that every student feels valued, respected, and empowered in the math classroom. By implementing these three steps, we can create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment where all students can thrive and reach their full potential in mathematics. Let’s work together to build a math classroom that celebrates diversity, promotes equity, and fosters a love for learning.
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Credits
Photo of India White is courtesy of Big Ideas Learning and Larson Texts Incorporated.