Jeffrey Choppin

Biography

Jeffrey Choppin teaches courses in the mathematics education program and a doctoral course on learning theory and is a principal investigator (PI) on two current National Science Foundation (NSF) projects. He previously served as chair of teaching and curriculum for five years. One of his current NSF-funded research projects focuses on mathematics coaches in rural contexts. This project, which builds from a prior NSF grant focused on mathematics teachers, employs a three-part fully online professional development model designed to give mathematics coaches access to professional support they would otherwise be unlikely to receive. In addition to an online course and video-based support of the coaches, the project also includes an online video club in which the coaches will share artifacts of practice and accounts of their coaching experiences with the guidance of mentor coaches.

The second NSF-funded project will develop a model of the mathematics program developed at the East EPO over the last five years. The East mathematics program has had a sustained implementation of a demanding mathematics curriculum, something that is unusual for high-poverty settings. The grant will involve a collaborative effort between researchers, professional development experts from the Warner Center, and East EPO personnel, including co-PI and East Superintendent Shaun Nelms. A culminating piece of this project will be a conference, which will gather other educators from around the U.S. who share an interest in developing demanding mathematics programs in high-poverty settings.

Choppin previously worked on the NSF-funded Developing Principles for Mathematics Curriculum Design and Use in the Common Core Era that explored teachers’ understanding and use of curriculum materials in states that adopted the Common Core Standards for Mathematics. That study found that conventional curricula narrowed the forms of mathematical activity in classrooms compared to classrooms in which more innovative materials were in use. That work also began Choppin’s foray into the study of digital curriculum and theorizing how teachers take up curriculum materials.

In work from his CAREER grant, Choppin explored what teachers learned from using innovative curriculum materials, particularly with respect to teacher knowledge of how the materials develop student reasoning around key mathematical concepts. His research linked teachers’ discourse practices, their observations of student thinking, their understanding of the curriculum materials, and the ways their adaptations of curriculum materials enhanced students’ opportunities to engage in mathematical practices.