Teacher-Researcher Alliance for Investigating Learning (TRAIL)
Leading team:
- Dr. Jason Cooper
- Dr. Mirela Widder
- Dr. Alon Pinto
- Prof. Boris Koichu
Project team:
- Dr. Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy
- Chaya Menucha Farber
- Galia Gonen
- Rachel Zaks
Secretariat and Administration:
Shani MotsaBrief
Teacher-Researcher Alliance for Investigating Learning (TRAIL): Teacher-researcher co-learning partnerships, including communities of inquiry and larger-scope Citizen Science programs.
The goal of the TRAIL project (Teacher-Researcher Alliance for Investigating Learning) is to boost collaboration and cooperation between mathematics education researchers and mathematics teachers. The various TRAIL programs are organized as teacher-researcher communities of inquiry for professional development, or as Citizen Science programs of a larger scope. In the community-based programs, groups of practicing teachers partner with education researchers to co-design and conduct research directly related to the teaching and learning that takes place in the teachers’ classrooms. The TRAIL Citizen Science programs are extensions of the community-based programs, where the developed tools – both pedagogical interventions and research tools – can be implemented at scale. Much of the research that takes place in TRAIL programs can be considered Participatory Action Research or Design Based Implementation Research. Five TRAIL communities of inquiry and one Citizen Science project have been active between 2017 and 2020. In 2021, elements of TRIAL are being integrated in the Heads of Mathematics Department project and the Raising the Bar in Mathematics Classroom project.
Further reading:
Links to two projects: Raising the Bar in Mathematics Classrooms, and PD-HMD:
- Koichu, B., & Pinto, A. (2018). Developing education research competencies in mathematics teachers through TRAIL: Teacher-Research Alliance for Investigating Learning. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 18, 68-85.
- Koichu, B., & Pinto, A. (2019). Implementation through participation: Theoretical considerations and an illustrative case. Proceedings of the 11th Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Utrecht, the Netherlands.
- Koichu, B., Zaks, R., & Farber, M. (2020). Teachers' voices from two communities of inquiry engaged in practices of mathematics education research. In Borko, H., & Potari, D. (Eds.), Proceedings of ICMI Study 25 Conference "Teachers of mathematics working and learning in collaborative groups", pp. 364-371. Lisbon, Portugal. http://icmistudy25.ie.ulisboa.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/201114-ICMI25Proceedings6.13.2020.pdf#page=377
- Pinto, A., & Koichu, B. (2021). Implementation of mathematics education research as crossing the boundary between disciplined inquiry and teacher inquiry. ZDM – Mathematics Education.
- Cooper, J., & Koichu, B. (in press). In the pursuit of impact: Design and practice of three innovative professional development programs for mathematics teachers. In A. Hofstein, A. Arcavi, & A. Yarden (Eds.), Fifty Years of Curriculum Development, Implementation and Research in the Department of Science Teaching, the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Dordrecht, NL: Sense-Brill.