Research

Basis of the MAPPS Program

Prior and current work in two U.S. Department of Education, OERI-funded projects (The Funds of Knowledge for Teaching by Moll, González, & Civil, 1995 and Linking home and school: A bridge to the many faces of mathematics by Civil, González, & Andrade, 1996), have provided the theoretical basis for the MAPPS Program.

Our workshops in Tucson have included a core group of working-class, Spanish speaking mothers where we engage them in two-way conversations about the teaching and learning of mathematics. On the one hand, these workshops enhance the participants’ understanding of mathematics; on the other hand, we learn what they think about mathematics as well as what their everyday uses of mathematics are.

In small groups, they work on reform-based activities and are encouraged to come up with their own approaches to solving problems. Throughout these workshops they show an eagerness to investigate and to learn. One reason why these women are participating is so they can help their children at home with school mathematics.

For more information regarding the MAPPS Program, we invite you to review the following papers. They may be downloaded or printed for your convenience.

:: Theory Behind the Project
An overview of how and why the MAPPS Program was started.

:: Parental Involvement in Mathematics: A Focus On
Parent’s Voices (2003)
In this paper we focus on parents’ perceptions of and expectations for the teaching and learning of mathematics for their children. This research is part of a large parental involvement project in mathematics in several working class, Latino communities in the Southwest.

:: Teachers, Parents and Mathematics: Exploring Contexts for Collaboration and Partnership (2003)
This paper’s aim is to explore avenues for parent and teacher collaboration and experiences of teachers involved in a four year project whose goal was to involve minority working class K-12 parents in supporting their children’s mathematical learning.

:: Parents as Observers in the Mathematics Classroom: Establishing a Dialogue
Between School and Community (2003)
In this paper we present a model for mathematics classroom observations conducted with parents that allows us to engage in a dialogue on issues around reform-oriented mathematics teaching. We will report on our findings on Hispanic, working-class parents’ perceptions about the teaching and learning of mathematics.

:: Schools as the Unit of Change: Principle Roles in the Support of Parental
Involvement in Mathematics Reform (2003)
This paper examines the potentials and challenges identified by principles in a collaborative project with parents and teachers who had a collaborative goal of improving mathematics learning in K-12 schools with high numbers of Latino students.

:: Mathematics for Parents: Facilitating Parent’s and Children’s
Understanding in Mathematics (2002)
The study examines ethnically and linguistically diverse parents’ learning in an eight-week Math for Parents course on fractions, decimals and percentages. Analysis of classroom observations, interviews, focus groups, written feedback, videotapes, and task-based/clinical interviews provided rich data yielding findings about both parents’ affective and cognitive learning as well as their understandings of how to support their children’s learning of mathematics.