Students' Opportunity to Struggle in Middle Grades Mathematics Lessons

Mathematics education researchers suggest that providing the opportunity to struggle with important mathematics (SOS) is a necessary component of lessons in order for students to conceptually understand mathematics. There are many ways to promote and support SOS, yet very few lessons demonstrate SOS in today’s middle grades classrooms. This study illuminates 12 lessons found to demonstrate high levels of SOS in four middle grades classrooms. It specifically examines the way lessons are structured and the teaching practices used within lessons containing high levels of SOS. It seeks to answer the questions: What lesson structures were implemented in middle grades mathematics classrooms with high levels of SOS? and What teaching practices were implemented in middle grades mathematics classrooms with high levels of SOS? I used a collective instrumental case study approach to illuminate the ways teachers sequenced and organized phases of activities within their lessons and the teaching practices used within those lesson phases in four middle grades classrooms exhibiting high levels of SOS within a larger study in the state of Idaho. Classroom videos of selected lessons provided the source of data for this study. Inductive and deductive analysis uncovered lesson structures and teaching practices within the lessons with high levels of SOS which are described in this study. The data showed overall patterns of using a three-phase lesson structure and the use of teaching practices categorized into four instructional elements within the lessons. However, there was variability in terms of the amount of time spent in each of the lesson phases and the number of mathematical tasks used per lesson as well as variability in the teaching practices used. Vignettes describe rich and/or unique instances of SOS found within the study’s sample lessons.