Implementation research as a means to link systemic reform and applied psychology in mathematics education

To link reform efforts in science and mathematics education to the research on student cognition, researchers must engage in an understanding of systemic change. This article reports on an initiative linking a university research team and an urban high-school mathematics department in efforts to improve student learning. The article explores the ideas of systemic reform and implementation research in which researchers partner with teachers and schools over sustained periods of time to implement reform initiatives. It reports on the implementation of an 8-week replacement unit in all Algebra I classes and describes its results. It also provides an example of student and teacher learning with technology on a central concept of rate of change and discusses how those interviews illustrate differences in student and teacher learning. We discuss how cognitive research needs to be transformed to be successfully applied toward improvement within the challenges and opportunities of urban schools.