Conceptual understanding in mathematics goes beyond being able to produce correct answers by following procedures. When students have conceptual understanding, they are able to reason mathematically about why different solutions work and how they are related. When teaching for conceptual understanding, teachers are facilitators of student reasoning and work to develop students’ understanding of previous mathematics concepts to a more advanced understanding.
Formative assessment in mathematics instruction is when teachers elicit and respond to students’ mathematical reasoning. Eliciting and responding both identify and build on the mathematics students already know, often in the moment during instruction.
When coaches worked with teachers to promote HQMI, one of the biggest challenges they faced was helping teachers integrate technology to promote conceptual understanding and conduct formative assessment. Coaches often described situations where teachers were able to implement new HQMI strategies, but struggled to leverage technology in their instruction. Many coaches described limited, if any, use of technology by the teachers they coached, but they recognized that technology could be used in more robust ways to support HQMI.
Part of their challenge was identifying technology tools that are well suited to support students’ development of conceptual understanding or teachers’ practice of conducting formative assessment. One coach shared that while the iCoachTEAM partnership increased their knowledge of how technology can support learners’ conceptual understanding and formative assessment, “it’s difficult to find [tech tools]” that do this effectively.
To address this challenge, iCoachTEAM developed a Technology Selection Guide to help coaches, teachers, and administrators assess a technology tool’s potential to enhance students’ conceptual understanding and teachers’ ability to conduct formative assessment. The guide includes questions for reflecting on a tech tool’s baseline potential and can help coaches, teachers, and administrators evaluate how well a particular tech tool promotes conceptual understanding and helps teachers conduct formative assessment—ultimately enabling them to make more informed decisions.
For example, when assessing a tech tool’s potential to promote conceptual understanding, you might ask, “Does it provide opportunities to explore, discover, and play in order to engage in the mathematics being learned?” Tech tools that primarily present students with problems and check for correct or incorrect answers are less likely to provide opportunities that help students grow in their conceptual understanding.
Additionally, when assessing a tech tool’s potential to support formative assessment, you might ask, “Can a teacher access student reasoning with support from the tech tool (beyond just the right answer)?”For example, if the tech tool offers a teacher dashboard where teachers can monitor student work in real time, then it is naturally more likely to support teachers in conducting formative assessment than tech tools without this feature.
It’s important to note that technology tools are just that—tools. Whether a tech tool is used to promote conceptual understanding and conduct formative assessment depends on how a teacher uses it. A tech tool that is likely to support conceptual understanding could still be used in a way that promotes memorization of procedures. For example, a teacher might intervene to show students what steps to take rather than provide space for students to develop their own solution strategies. Conversely, a tech tool with low potential can be used to support and build conceptual understanding through teacher instruction. For example, a teacher can facilitate discussions where students compare and contrast different solution strategies to explore a concept from multiple perspectives.
Our Technology Selection Guide is part of a larger collection of resources we developed for the iCoachTEAM project. In the coming months, the full library of resources will be available on the Digital Promise website. Sign up for the Learning Sciences Connections newsletter to be notified when the website is live.
