Marcy B Wood

Interests

Research

My scholarship focuses on understanding the mathematical learning of underperforming children. Teachers and researchers have long struggled with the problem of differences in mathematical achievement among children, an important concern because children who are successful in math are more likely to graduate from high school and college and tend to earn higher wages over their lifetimes. In addition, this difference in mathematical success tends to fall along gender, race, and class lines, reinforcing widely held beliefs that some people (particularly white or Asian men) are better endowed by nature to understand and create mathematics.In my research, I address this achievement gap and the misconceptions that support it by developing instructional theories and resources to support teachers and children in reimagining who can do challenging mathematics. My research follows two related strands: the role of children’s talk in mathematical learning (including designations of who can and cannot learn mathematics); and the role of teachers in supporting (and learning to support) children as they learn mathematics, with, again, a particular focus on children who are identified as less able to learn mathematics.

Teaching

My teaching takes up my research interests in identity, status, and discourse, particularly related to mathematics teaching and learning. I draw extensively upon the tenets of Complex Instruction in my pedagogy and course design. As such, I structure activities and participation opportunities so that I can address identity issues that arise and then use those moments to help all students better engage in challenging content. For example, when I work with prospective elementary teachers on teaching mathematics, I use instructional strategies from the Smarter Together! book to help these teachers see themselves as capable mathematical learners. As a class, we then explore my pedagogical moves and reflect upon how they might use similar strategies to support their elementary students. I teach graduate courses including TTE 580 Groupwork for Diverse Classrooms, TTE 585 Discourse and Identity, TTE 541 Equity and Social Justice in Science and Mathematics Education, andTTE 519 Learning in Science and Mathematics.I also teach an undergraduate course:TTE 326 Teaching Elementary School Mathematics in a Technological Age.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Eli, J. A., & Wood, M. B. (2016). Learning to facilitate groupwork through complex instruction. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.
• Wood, M. B., Wood, M. B., Turner, E. E., Turner, E. E., Civil, M., Civil, M., Eli, J. A., & Eli, J. A. (2016). Proceedings of the 38th Annual North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona.

Journals/Publications

• Gunckel, K. L., & Wood, M. B. (2016). The Principle-Practical Discourse Edge: Elementary Preservice and Mentor Teachers Working Together on Co-Learning Tasks. Science Education, 100(1), 96-121. doi:10.1002/sce.21187
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  A major challenge in preparing elementary teachers to teach inquiry-basedscience is finding qualified mentor teacherswho use research-based approaches to teach science in their classrooms. This situation means preservice teachers often see few connections between the research-based principles for teaching science they learn in university-based coursework and the science teaching practices they see in their classroom field placements. We attempted to resolve this situation by creating opportunities for preservice and mentor teachers to learn together. We developed colearning tasks where preservice and mentorteachers collaborated to apply principles of science inquiry and equitable learning to analyze and modify common elementary science curriculum materials.We borrowed from the field of ecology to develop an edge effects framework that enabled an analysis of when and how preservice and mentor teachers connected principle- and practical-based discourses while engaged in the colearning tasks. Our findings suggest that the colearning tasks supportedpreservice and mentor teachers in connecting research-based principles to practical classroom contexts. However, working on these tasks together was sometimes challenging for both preservice and mentor teachers. We discuss the affordances and constraints of the colearning tasks and the framing of the principle–practical divide as an edge rather than a gap.
• Wood, M. B. (2016). Rituals and right answers: Barriers and supports to autonomous activity.. Educational Studies in Mathematics.
• Wood, M. B., & Turner, E. E. (2015). Bringing the teacher into teacher preparation: learning from mentor teachers in joint methods activities. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 18(1), 27-51.
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  Abstract: Studies of mathematics teacher preparation frequently lament the divide between the more theoretically based university methods course and the practically grounded classroom field experience. In many instances, attempts to mediate this gap involve creating hybrid or third spaces, which seek to dissipate the differences in knowledge status as individuals from the university and from K-12 classrooms work together in support of prospective teacher (PST) learning. However, what is missing in the literature on these third-space enactments is an exploration of the contributions of different contexts (i.e., methods and the field) to PST learning and an articulation of the synergistic knowledge arising in the third space. This exploratory study draws on Lampert's three-pronged teacher-child-content model to examine the possible contributions of elementary mentor teachers (MTs) to the learning-to-teach-mathematics experiences of PSTs. More specifically, we focus on a third-space learning context in which university-based teacher educators, MTs, and PSTs collaborated to conduct and analyze task-based problem-solving interviews of elementary children. Our analysis identified ways that MTs could potentially enhanced the learning-to-teach context as well as moments when MTs' contributions introduced problematic ideas about children and teaching. Finally, we explore the benefits and complexities of leveraging these MT contributions to create a third-space learning opportunity. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
• Good, T. L., Wood, M. B., Sabers, D., Olson, A. M., Lavigne, A. L., Sun, H., & Kalinec-Craig, C. (2013). Strengthening grade 3-5 students' foundational knowledge of rational numbers. Teachers College Record, 115(7).
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  Abstract: Background: American students have done poorly in algebra and that has generated policy concerns about preparing students for STEM careers. There has been growing recognition that the algebra problem may begin in earlier grades when students do not adequately master rational numbers. Purpose: The study provided a series of workshops organized around problematic issues that students have in learning rational numbers. The research was designed to help all grade 3-5 teachers in a single school district help students gain in their knowledge of rational numbers. Population: The population was drawn from one large school district (13 schools) and included 140 teachers and 2,845 students matched pre to post. Research Design: The study used a quasi-experimental design. As all teachers in the district were involved, there was no control group. Findings: On the basis of pre-post testing, girl and boy students, as well as students from diverse SES schools demonstrated large gains in their knowledge of rational numbers. There were no significant differences in gains for girls and boys at any of the three grade levels, but SES remained a main effect for gains in achievement for grades 3 and 4 even after entering prior achievement as a covariate and the interaction between SES and gender was significant for grade 5. Recommendations: The findings provide clear evidence that students can make notable gains in learning rational numbers if they are given the opportunity to do so. The authors provide their intentions to further analyze the quantitative data (presented in this paper) with qualitative data that were collected in the study (e.g., providing open-ended response opportunities for students to respond to rational number questions like, "What is a fraction? What is a decimal? What is a percent?" © by Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Newton, J. A., Wood, M. B., Spangler, D. A., Wilson, P. S., Drake, C., & Kasten, S. (2013). Investigating the impact of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) on mathematics teacher preparation. AMTE Connections, 23(1), 9-11.
• Wood, M. B. (2013). Mathematical micro-identities: Moment-to-moment positioning and learning in a fourth-grade classroom. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(5), 775-808.
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  Abstract: Identity is an important tool for understanding students' participation in mathematics lessons. Researchers usually examine identity at a macro-scale: across typical classroom activity and in students' self-reports. However, learning occurs on a micro-scale: in moments during a lesson. To capture identity in these moments, I used positioning theory to develop a frame-work of micro-identity and then to examine the identities and learning of 1 fourth-grade student during 1 mathematics lesson. This study demonstrates how mathematical identities can shift in dramatic ways in response to minor changes in context so that a student might be, in one moment, engaged in an identity that undermines learning and then later engaged in an academically productive identity. These shifting micro-identities have important implications for mathematical learning, classroom contexts, and macro-identities.
• Wood, M. B., Olson, A. M., Freiberg, E. J., & Vega, R. I. (2013). Fractions as subtraction: An activity-oriented perspective from elementary children. School Science and Mathematics, 113(8), 390-399.
• Wood, M. B., & Kalinec, C. A. (2012). Student talk and opportunities for mathematical learning in small group interactions. International Journal of Educational Research, 51-52, 109-127.
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  Abstract: Small group interactions are an important tool for mathematical learning and yet researchers have neither examined small group talk across entire lessons nor have they focused on moments of mathematical learning in small groups. We examined such talk and identified kinds of interactions and connections between interactions and mathematical learning. We differentiated talk based upon its focus: mathematical objects (mathematizing), people (subjectifying), or more specifically, people's attributes (identifying). Most of the talk focused on what students were doing or should be doing as opposed to focusing on mathematics. Students also spent considerable time on identifying - talk that revolved around people and their features. Also, there was a struggle over who could talk and about what. In spite of limited mathematical talk, we found evidence of mathematical learning during the task. These findings support a number of conjectures about learners' vision of their roles as their peers' teachers or students and the way this vision impacts learning interactions and learning outcomes. It also leads to several suggestions about how to enhance learning in small groups as well as about areas for future research into student interactions. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.
• Wood, M. B., Jilk, L. M., & Paine, L. W. (2012). Moving beyond sinking or swimming: Reconceptualizing the needs of beginning mathematics teachers. Teachers College Record, 114(8).
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  Abstract: Background/Context: New teacher induction programs frequently focus on the struggles of teachers who are, metaphorically speaking, sinking rather than swimming in the challenging waters of actual classroom teaching. Also, research on induction and induction programs doesn't typically address the subject-specific needs of new teachers. Yet new teachers are not in generic environments in which content plays a minor role: They are negotiating the enormously complex context of teaching particular content to particular students in a particular moment. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Our goal is to add to and challenge the conversations about what learning to teach mathematics requires and how its complexity makes content-specific induction and rich opportunities to learn not only desirable but also essential. We use a framing of teaching as a practice that is fundamentally about connection of students and content. Population/Participants/Subjects: We report on the cases of two well-started novice mathematics teachers. These cases come from a larger study of novice mathematics and science teachers in subject-specific induction programs across the United States. Research Design: Exploratory case study based on interviews and observations. Findings/Results: One new teacher made considerable progress in thinking about and using knowledge of students to enhance mathematical learning. However, there were still several areas in which the new teacher missed opportunities to probe student understanding and further connect students to mathematics. And yet, because of the teacher's competence relative to other new teachers, her support from her mentor was diminishing. This left her with few opportunities for support in reflecting on her practice. The second new teacher struggled to make sense of the role of the teacher. She was a strong beginning teacher in a context that provided support and encouragement for student-centered teaching. However, she struggled to envision and enact a teaching role that either allowed students to make their own connections to mathematics or enabled her to learn how to work toward that role. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our two new teachers made considerable progress in their teaching. Although there was much to celebrate about their progress, there was still much about the complexity of teaching, specifically teaching math, that the new teachers had to learn. This study suggests that we need to go beyond evaluation of visible performance or attention to instructional strategies to help new teachers think about how to simultaneously manage the complex relationships with students, with mathematical content, and with the connection between students and mathematics in ways that help them to continually teach and learn from teaching. © Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Wood, M. B. (2010). Not understanding Andy: A metaphorical analysis of students’ resistance to learning. For the Learning of Mathematics, 30(3), 17-22.

Proceedings Publications

• Gunckel, K. L., & Wood, M. B. (2017, Fall). Do you see what I see? Connecting mathematics to the real world. In Proceedings of the 39th Annual North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 1218-1221.
• Eli, J. A., & Wood, M. B. (2016). Learning to facilitate groupwork through complex instruction.. In Proceedings of the 38th Annual North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education., 933.
• Wood, M. B., Kasten, S. E., Drake, C., Newton, J. A., Spangler, D. A., & Wilson, P. S. (2015, November 2015). Prospective Teachers and Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Activities Used by Mathematics Teacher Educators.. In 37th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 1016.
• Civil, M., Fede, B., & Wood, M. B. (2013, Summer). A third-space of mathematical practice: Implications for teacher education. In 37th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.
• Wood, M. B., Newton, J. A., Drake, C., Spangler, D. A., & Wilson, P. S. (2013, November). Investigating mathematics teacher educators’ practices in the context of Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. In 35th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.
• Wood, M. B., Oslund, J., Crespo, S., Parks, A., Jilk, L., & Featherstone, H. (2013, November). Complex Instruction working group: Investigating Complex Instruction in mathematics teacher education. In 35th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.

Presentations

• Parks, A., Crespo, S., Wagner, A., Felton-Koestler, M., Wood, M. B., Eli, J. A., Eli, J. A., Wood, M. B., Felton-Koestler, M., Wagner, A., Parks, A., & Crespo, S. (2016, January). Designing Complex Instruction Tasks to Support Prospective Teacher Learning in Elementary Content and Methods Courses. 20th Annual Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Conference. Irvine, CA: Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.
• Wood, M. B. (2016, February). Mathematical micro-identities: Students’ positioning during mathematics lessons.. Invited presentation for Critical Issues in Mathematics Education: Observing, Evaluating and Improving Mathematics Teaching from the Early Grades. Berkeley, CA: Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).
• Wood, M. B., & Kinser-Traut, J. Y. (2016, January). Teacher Coaching as Renarration: Supporting Mathematical Learning by Shifting Teacher Stories. 20th Annual Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Conference. Irvine, CA: Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.
• Drake, C., Newton, J. A., Spangler, D. A., Kasten, S. E., Wood, M. B., & Wilson, P. S. (2014, April). Mathematics teacher educators supporting prospective teachers in learning about CCSSM. Annual National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Research Conference. New Orleans, LA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
• Wood, M. B., & Gunckel, K. L. (2014, Spring). Celebrating not creating: Leveraging existing third spaces for teacher preparation. In W. Doyle (Chair), Using Third Spaces in Teacher Education Design.. Paper presented at the 94th meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Philadelphia, PA.
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  Teacher educators seek to close the metaphorical gap in teacher preparation byconstructing third spaces in which individuals representing the university and the K-12classroom are brought together to hybridize the disparate worlds of the university and theclassroom. Bruna (2009) critiqued this framing of third space in arguing that Bhabha’s(1994) initial description of third space assumes that hybridization already happens and isnot to be created or achieved, but rather affirmed.Our study starts with Bruna’s assumption that classroom teachers are already engaged inhybrid discourses that link principle and practical knowledge, but that they may not havemany opportunities to engage in this talk with prospective teachers or with each other.Our project seeks to explore these existing hybridizations in order to identify and thenenhance opportunities for mentor teachers (MTs) and prospective teachers (PSTs) toengage in this productive discourse.To reach our goal, we constructed a series of events in which MTs and PSTs workedtogether on professional development tasks related to mathematics and science teaching.We videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed these interactions, noting moments ofprinciple-based, practical-based, and hybridized (or intertwined) discourse. This researchhas suggested several principles for increasing MT/PST hybrid discourse.1) Hybrid discourse does not require the participation of individuals from disparateworlds (i.e. university faculty and classroom teachers). However, it is more likely tooccur as individuals introduce and build upon different perspectives. For example, twoMTs explored how their experiences at different grade levels resulted in differentexplanations for children’s activity.2) Hybrid discourse is more likely to occur when participants have equal footing.When individuals take up positions where their ideas have equal value, they are able tojointly explore connections across principle and practical discourses. This footing is notstable and may shift across a sequence of interactions. For example, a PST used her lifeexperiences to hybridize with MT talk about teaching. Later, the PST talk was limited topractical questions about how to teach a lesson.have multiple entry points, and are relevant to teaching and children’s learning. Whentasks rely too much on one person’s expertise, it limits the opportunities for allparticipants to explore the task, as when PSTs rely on MTs to tell them how to teach aparticular lesson. In contrast, when MTs and PSTs interviewed children about content,the novel joint experience raised many interesting questions that provoked rich, hybridexploration.By focusing on existing hybridization, we have shifted our conversations away fromlamentations of differences between the university and the K-12 classroom and towardmore positive and productive conversations about teacher (and teacher educator)discourses. This shift has provided opportunities to analyze hybrid discourses and betterunderstand how and when they occur so that we might better leverage them for thelearning of PSTs.
• Wood, M. B., Kinser-Traut, J., Radon, M., & Lyon, M. (2014, April). Learning to teach as a joint enterprise: Using instructional support liaisons in teacher preparation programs. 94th Annual Meeting of the c. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia, PA.
• Wood, M. B., Newton, J. A., Wilson, P. S., Spangler, D. A., & Kasten, S. E. (2014, April). Goals of mathematics teacher educators for prospective teachers and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. 94th Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Philadelphia, PA: American Educational Research Association.
• Crespo, S., Featherstone, H. J., Jilk, L. M., Parks, A., & Wood, M. B. (2013, January). Smarter together: (Re)learning to teach elementary school mathematics using complex instruction. 17th Annual Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Conference. Orlando, FL: Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.
• Doyle, W., Gunckel, K. L., Wood, M. B., & Turner, E. E. (2013, September). Blending pedagogical theory and practice in preservice science teacher education. Paper presented at the 10th Biannual Conference of the European Science Education Research Association. Nicosia, Cyprus.
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  University of ArizonaDespite decades of determined effort, the models of ambitious, inquiry-oriented science teaching promoted in university-based teacher education courses often do not make the transition to the actual classroom practices of preservice and beginning teachers. The work reported in this paper is drawn from the Beyond Bridging project currently underway at The University of Arizona (USA) and sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation. A fundamental premise of this project was that overcoming the disconnection between methods instruction and classroom practice is a bridging design problem, that is, structures and experiences can be invented to blend these realms. We initiated, therefore, a design study to learn more about how the distance between course and classroom could be reconfigured and how we could support the preservice teachers’ journey better to help insure that what they were learning in their methods classrooms could be situated and utilized in their classroom placements. This paper is a summary report of our experience to date in (a) understanding the complex dynamics that separate methods and classrooms and (b) designing and testing elements that promise to integrate the two domains.
• Gunckel, K. L., & Wood, M. B. (2013, May). Characteristics of joint events for constructing third spaces. In W. Doyle (Chair), Realizing third spaces in teacher education.. Paper presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA.
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  To address the disconnects between the cultural models, or Discourses (Gee, 1991) that PSTs experience in their science and mathematics methods courses and their field placement classrooms, we designed joint events to bring PSTs and MTs together for learning about science and mathematics teaching. We hypothesized that in these joint events, the sense-making resources of the various Discourses may be shared and taken up by others in ways that allow PSTs and MTs to make connections between methods course and field placement classroom experiences and perspectives. We refer to the space in which this sharing of resources happens as the third space (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, & Tajeda, 1999; Moje, et al., 2004).We designed three types of joint events to facilitate construction of a third space. These types of events were: • Methods Course Co-learning Events: PSTs and MTs participated as co-learners of science and mathematics pedagogical frameworks for inquiry science teaching, problem-solving mathematics teaching.• Methods Course Co-teaching Events: MTs visited science or mathematics methods class sessions to share classroom-based expertise. • Disciplinary Co-learning Events: PSTs and MTs participated as co-learners in conducting scientific and mathematical investigations.For this paper, the focal research question was: What features of these joint events facilitated opportunities for construction of a third space? Data collected included video and audio recordings of preservice and mentor teachers’ interactions, interviews with preservice and mentor teachers about their experiences in the joint events, and post-joint event audio recordings of preservice and mentor teacher conversations about planning and teaching. We analyzed the data using third space frameworks (Gorodetsky & Barak, 2008; Lampert, 2001) to identify instances in which PSTs and/or MTs took up each other’s talk, perspective, or activity as resources for sense-making. We then characterized common features across these instances.Across these three types of joint events, two features were important for creating third space opportunities. First, effective joint events afforded Discourse boundary spanning objects or tasks (Buxton, Carlone, Carlone, 2005) that were accessible through the Discourses of both the PSTs and the MTs. Examples included joint analysis of video of student mathematical or science talk in the both the science and mathematics methods course co-learning events, joint analysis of curriculum materials during a science methods co-learning event, and use of an observation protocol based on inquiry science teaching frameworks that MTs used to provide PSTs with feedback on teaching during the science methods course co-teaching event. Second, effective joint learning spaces provided a common experience for PSTs and MTs to reference during subsequent preservice-mentor teacher conversations about planning and teaching. Examples included conducting and analyzing student mathematics interviews in the mathematics methods course co-learning events, solving classic algebraic problems in order to understand the role of pattern seeking in mathematics during the mathematics co-learning events, and conducting an ecological inquiry project during a science co-learning event. These findings provide criteria for the design of PST-MT joint events that can facilitate construction of third spaces for PSTs and MTs learning about ambitious science and mathematics teaching.
• Wood, M. B., & Kinser-Traut, J. (2013, April). Elementary teachers’ perspectives on the role of mathematics curriculum. 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA: American Educational Research Association.
• Wood, M. B., & Kinser-Traut, J. (2013, April). Figured worlds, positions, and optimizing hybrid discourses in joint learning events. 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA: American Educational Research Association.
• Doyle, W., Gunckel, K. L., Wood, M. B., & Turner, E. E. (2012, April). Mapping the discourses of practice. In W. Doyle (Chair), Understanding and supporting teaching practice: Multiple perspectives.. Paper presented at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Wood, M. B., Turner, E. E., Koestler, C. A., & Civil, M. (2012, February). Experiences, Explanations, and Third Spaces: A New Model for Pre-Service Elementary Mathematics Teacher Education. 16th Annual Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Conference. Fort Worth, TX: Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.

Case Studies

• Wood, M. B., & Kinser-Traut, J. Y. (2017. Participant and Nonparticipant Observation: A Study of Instructional Support Liaisons(pp ??).
• Wood, M. B. (2016. Gender ≠ Sex ≠ Sexual Orientation, Commentary on Problematizing Gender: Learning to Embrace Uncertainty(pp 107-111).