Browsing by Author "Morton, Crystal Hill"

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    A Story of African American Students as Mathematics Learners
    (Ismail Sahin, 2014-07-01) Morton, Crystal Hill
    Educational systems throughout the world serve students from diverse populations. Often students from minority populations (i.e. racial, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic) face unique challenges when learning in contexts based on the cultural traditions and learning theories of the majority population. These challenges often leave minority populations labeled as incompetent, unmotivated, and cognitively deficit. In the United States, African American female students are among minority populations who are often positioned as deficit when compared to the majority White population. This study investigates middle school African American female perceptions of themselves as learners and students’ knowledge of the meaning of ratio, proportionality, and how to apply and explain their application of proportionality concepts by examining written problem solving strategies over a three-year period. Students’ responses are analyzed according to the strategies they used to reach their final solution. The categories of strategies include no-response, guess and check, additive build up with and without a pictorial representation, and multiplicative. The majority of students in this study 86.5%, 69.2%, and 68.6% did not attempt or demonstrated no understanding in year one, two, and three respectively. Additionally, participants reported positive dispositions about themselves as mathematics learners.
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    An investigation into sixth grade students’ understanding of ratio and proportion
    (Sociedade Brasileira de Educação Matemática, 2014) Morton, Crystal Hill
    Drawing on written assessments collected from 58 sixth grade students, this article discusses the results of a study that examined patterns in middle-grade boy’s and girl’s written problem solving strategies for a mathematical task involving proportional reasoning and their level of understanding of ratios and proportions. This work is a part of a larger, longitudinal project, Mathematics Identity Development and Learning (MIDDLE), that focused on the impact of mathematics reform on students’ development as mathematics knowers and learners and identifying processes the explains changes in students’ mathematical learning and self-conceptions. Findings the current work speaks to student strategy use, errors, and levels of understanding.
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    Faith Without Works is Dead II: Exploring the Role of Faith in Equity and Justice Centered Work
    (Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center, 2022-03-24) Morton, Crystal Hill
    In fall 2021, we had a powerful discussion with the following five Black women about the intersection of their faith tradition and community-engaged and justice-centered work. Today we will continue this critical discussion.
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    Lessons learned from a community math project: Ethnomathematical games & opportunities for teacher leadership
    (North American Study Group on Ethnomathematics, 2013) Yow, Jan A.; Morton, Crystal Hill; Cook, Daniella
    Minority Access to Revolutionary Instructional Extensions (MATRIX) is a two-part supplemental elementary mathematics curriculum based on six games coupled with a focus on parental involvement and advocacy. One curricular goal incorporates student’s culture into its design to show mathematics comes from many cultures and is an evolving discipline in which students can be active participants. The article data comes from a larger pilot study conducted in a rural African American community. This article speaks specifically about the ethnomathematical games in the curriculum in addition to discussing the “lessons learned” by the researchers for the opportunity for teachers to be leaders in incorporating community cultures into classroom practice
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    Socially transformative science pedagogy for African American males: Dispatches from the vanguard
    (Institute for the Study of the African-American Child, 2012) Mutegi, Jomo W.; Morton, Crystal Hill
    Although there is a significant body of work that underscores the importance of pedagogy aimed at being responsive to students’ unique racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, there is relatively little work that helps science practitioners to understand what this pedagogy looks like in practice. Drawing on Mutegi’s (2011) description of socially transformative mathematics and science curriculum and Ladson-Billings’ (1995) framing of culturally responsive pedagogy, this article describes a four-week summer science camp for African American adolescent males. The article employs the methodological approach of Critical Race Theory in order to illustrate for the reader what socially transformative and culturally relevant science instruction might look like in practice.