Theory for Authoring Tools that Support Teacher Adaptation of

Mathlets (TATSTAM)

Dissertation Defense

Joel Duffin

December 12, 2003

Research Purposes

Develop TATSTAM – Theory to guide the design of authoring tools that help middle school math teachers reuse and adapt mathlets

Develop TADRIOLA – An authoring tool that helps teachers reuse and adapt mathlets

Context of Research

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

• Barriers identification

• Standards• Components• Product line• Authoring tool• Theory building

L-C-M-S model (Sumner & Dawe, 2001)

Approaches to Software Reuse

Formative Research DesignTATSTAM

Barriers

Guidelines

TADRIOLAData

Conclusions

Tasks

Evaluation

ImplementationAnalysis

Revise

Revise

Participants (N = 51)

1st Phase (1-on-1 evals.)

2 “experts”

7 – middle school math teachers (msmts) (UT)

2nd Phase (group evals.)

4 – msmts (MN)

1 – msmts (MA)

3 – msmts (VA,WV, MT)

14 – msmts (VA)

22 – msmts (TX)

Data Sources

Pre-TADRIOLA perspectives• Transcripts of reuse and barriers interviews• Reuse and barriers questionnaires• Goals, tasks, barriers, and guidelines surveys• Transcripts of discussionsDuring and post-TADRIOLA perspectives• Transcripts of user tests (observation)• Transcripts of debriefing interviews• Debriefing questionnaires

Triangulation,Consistency, and Reliability

• Multiple sources of data

• Multiple teachers

• Multiple groups from multiple states

• Strength of support

• Unprompted support

• Member checking

• Evaluation of inter-rater reliability

TADRIOLA Findings

• Liked mathlets• Liked flexibility to

adapt materials• Continuum of desires

to adapt• Wanted preview• Some wanted user

manuals and training

• Liked multiple indexes• Wanted assessment

features• Would use sharing tool

mainly to share withco-workers

• Thought was easy to use• Nearly all were positive

TATSTAM Findings

• Teacher goals play an important role

• Teacher use influences reuse and adaptation

• Teachers want a record of student activities

• Reuse occurs at multiple levels of granularity

• Different teachers and search contexts are supported by different indexes

TATSTAM Outcomes

• Formation of TATSTAM model of reuse(an extension of the L-C-M-S model)– Made teacher goals the context for all activities

– Added Use and Assess activities

– Added levels of granularity of reuse

• Revisions to TATSAM– Added goals component

– Removed, renamed, changed, and added items

– Changed guidelines to focus on features

TATSTAM Model of Reuse

Find

AdaptAssess

UnderstandShare

Grain SizesCourseLessonActivityMathlet

Teacher Goals

Monitor StudentPerformance

MotivateStudents

Meet IndividualNeeds

ManageTime

Use Effective Materials

Use

CoverImportantContent

TATSTAM Task CategoriesGrain Size

Activity

Course Lesson Activity Mathlet

Find        

Understand        

Adapt        

Use        

Assess        

Share        

Revisions to TATSTAM

Component InitialItems

ItemsKept

ItemsRenamed

ItemsAdded

Goals - - - 6

Barriers 13 8 2 1

Tasks 9 6 6 4

Guidelines 13 4 4 17

Discussion

• Formative research (qualitative) approach– Appropriate for developmental research

– Provided a rich data set

– Allowed me to identify unanticipated findings

• Future research– TADRIOLA authoring efficiency

– Longer term use of TADRIOLA

– Learning resulting from TADRIOLA created lessons

– Application of TATSTAM to author tools

Stories

• Week in the lab with two 9th grade Geometry classes• One-on-one interviews and user tests• NSF officers with opposing views of adaptation• Perspectives of college professors of math teachers• Wes Shumar questioning meaning of “lack of time”• Coincidental discussion with a middle school math

teacher resulting in the study of teacher goals• Guidelines survey failure• Recoding data across instruments