RBMC: Raising the Bar in Mathematics Classrooms

(Funded by ISF and Tramp Family Foundation)

RBMC is an R&D project aimed at facilitating and exploring ways to teach and learn mathematics as a problem-solving discipline. The RBMC vision is that mathematics teachers will engage their students in increasingly demanding problem-solving activities, at an increasing frequency (hence the metaphor of raising the bar). The project’s team has developed an assemblage of original problem-solving resources , reflective tools for teachers and for students, and has organized more PD courses conducted in Hebrew and Arabic around classroom implementation of these resources. The research component consists of an exploration of the evolution of the resources throughout the problem-solving implementation chain containing four main elements: problem solving (PS) as intended by the design team, PS as negotiated between PD facilitators and teachers in PD courses, PS as planned and enacted by the teachers, and PS as experienced by students. In 2020-2024, more than 1,000 mathematics teachers in Israel have become familiar with RBMC resources, more than 300 teachers took part in RBMC PD courses, and more than 100 teachers shared a total of over 540 reflections.

In addition, the RBMC team initiated in 2023 an online problem-solving club. Mathematics teachers are invited to participate in biweekly online club meetings with or without professional accreditation. The former pathway requires teachers to enact several PS activities in their classes and to reflect on their experiences with the RBMC tools. The latter pathway enables teachers to join as many meetings of the club as they wish for the enjoyment of problem solving and sharing experiences.

Publications based on RBMC-related research:

  1.  Koichu, B., Cooper, J., & Widder, M. (2022). Implementation of problem solving in school: from intended to experienced. Implementation and Replication Studies in Mathematics Education, 2(1), 76-106.
  2. Cooper, J., Koichu, B., Widder, M. Aiber, S. Amir, Y., Badarneh, A., Farber, M., Gorodin, M. Gottlib, O., Gruenhut, E., Hihi, F. (2023). Many chefs in the kitchen – A collaborative model for problem-posing. In D. Sarikaya, L. Baumanns, K. Heuer, & B. Rott (Eds.). Problem posing and solving for mathematically gifted and interested students – best practices, research and enrichment (pp. 27-48). Springer.  
  3. Koichu, B., Badarneh, A., & Farber, M. (2023). What can researchers and teachers co-learn from data on students’ problem-solving experiences? In P. Drijvers, C. Csapodi, H. Palmér, K. Gosztonyi and E. Kónya (Eds.), Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (pp. 4316-4323). Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Budapest, Hungary and ERME.
  4. Cooper, J., & Gruenhut, E. (2023). What can we learn from teachers’ reflections on implementation of problem solving in middle school? In P. Drijvers, C. Csapodi, H. Palmér, K. Gosztonyi and E. Kónya (Eds.). Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (pp. 4292-4299). Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Budapest, Hungary and ERME.
  5. Koichu, B., Papadopoulos, I., Cooper, J., Buchbinder, O., & McCrone, S. (2023). Policies and implementation of digital resources: Theoretical considerations and illustrative cases from Greece, Israel and the US. In B. Pepin, G. Gueudet, & Choppin, J. (Eds.), Handbook of digital resources in mathematics education. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95060-6_53-1.
  6. Koichu, B., & Cooper, J. (2024). Multi-variable narratives in qualitative research on mathematical problem posing. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 74, 101157.
  7. Koichu, B. (2024). Plenary address: The secret life of mathematical problems through the lens of research-practice partnerships. In T. Evans, O. Marmur, J. Hunter, G. Leash, J. Jhagroo (Eds.), Proceedings of the 47th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (vol. 1, pp. 14-29). Auckland, New Zealand: PME.