Teaching Fractions Toolkit Evaluation Teacher Interview

Appendix D: Teaching Fractions Toolkit Evaluation Teacher Interview Protocol

Purpose

We’re interviewing teachers about the Teaching Fractions Toolkit (the toolkit) your school utilized this school year for professional development on math instruction. Please be assured this study is not to evaluate you or your instructional methods. It is to learn about your experiences using this toolkit to help evaluate the effectiveness of the professional development, consider future changes, and provide guidance on best practices for implementation. Do you have any questions about the background information on our study?

Consent

We also sent you a consent form with more detailed information about this interview and your rights as a participant. As a reminder, your participation in this interview is completely voluntary and will not affect your employment. You may skip any question that you do not feel comfortable answering, and you may choose to stop the interview at any time. Be assured there are no right or wrong answers; we are seeking what you know to be true about your experience and/or school, and we are also seeking your opinions, so please share with us to the best of your ability. Do you have any questions about the interview?

Virtual Meeting/Conference Recording Notice

The American Institutes for Research^® (AIR^®) allows for the recording of audio, visuals, participants, and other information sent, verbalized, or utilized during business related meetings. By joining a meeting, you automatically consent to such recordings. Any participant who prefers to participate via audio only should disable their video camera so only their audio will be captured. Video and/or audio recordings of any AIR session shall not be transmitted to an external third party without the permission of AIR.

Reporting

Please know that everything you tell us is under the confidentiality and data protection requirements of the Institute of Education Sciences (The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Part E, Section 183). We will never use your name when we report our findings or repeat anything you say. Only I, the REL Midwest research team members that are responsible for analyzing the data and writing a report about our findings, and an external transcription company will have access to what you say. 

Teacher interview questions

First, could you tell me

1. How long you have been teaching math?

   1. Teaching math at this school?

Next, I would like to get your overall thoughts on the toolkit and its components, such as the PD modules and the diagnostic and monitoring resources.

2. How would you describe the quality of the toolkit?

   1. Was there anything that might have been more useful for the toolkit?

   2. Do you find the toolkit materials are clear and easy to understand? Do you find them accessible and easy to use?

   3. Do you find the toolkit meet your need of increasing effective fraction instruction for your students?

3. What did you learn from reviewing and reflecting the teacher practice monitoring tool?

   1. Were you able to assess how your current practices aligned with the toolkit recommendations?

4. What did you learn from the modules? What was your favorite activity?

   1. Did the activities help you improve your instruction? In what ways?

   2. Did you find the duration and density of the PD modules appropriate?

5. What did you think about the various resources to support engagement in PD (mathematics tasks, interactive applets, protocols for student work analysis and planning, videos, student artifacts, readings, and reflection prompts)?

   1. Do you find them useful? How frequently did you use them?

6. If you could change any element of the toolkit, what would you change?

a. If you could change any aspect of the toolkit PD, what would you change?

Next, I would like to discuss any useful supports or any barriers that you encountered as you implemented the toolkit and the practices described in the toolkit.

7. What supports were available to you and your team as you completed the professional development modules?

   1. Probe: School leadership? District-level support? Teacher collaboration? Trusting relationships? Increased use of student data?

8. Did you or your team face any challenges as you completed the professional development modules?

   1. Probe: Time constraints? Schedule challenges? Role of team members that participated in implementation? Communication issues? Lack of training? Staff buy-in?

   2. Did you use any resources listed in the toolkit to overcome any challenges? In what ways?

9. What aspects of the toolkit were easiest to implement? Why?

10. Were there any particular aspects of implementation that you struggled with?

We are approaching the end of our time together today. To wrap up:

Is there anything else you think we should know about the toolkit that we haven’t covered?

Thank you for your time today.

Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest Toolkit Evaluation 2