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ERIC Number: ED660105
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Aug
Pages: 48
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Scaffolding Middle-School Mathematics Curricula with Large Language Models. EdWorkingPaper No. 24-1028
Rizwaan Malik; Dorna Abdi; Rose Wang; Dorottya Demszky
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Despite well-designed curriculum materials, teachers often face challenges in their implementation due to diverse classroom needs. This paper investigates whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can support middle-school math teachers by helping create high-quality curriculum scaffolds, which we define as the adaptations and supplements teachers employ to ensure all students can access and engage with the curriculum. Through Cognitive Task Analysis with expert teachers, we identify a three-stage process for curriculum scaffolding: observation, strategy formulation, and implementation. We incorporate these insights into three LLM approaches to create warmup tasks that activate background knowledge. The best-performing approach, which provides the model with the original curriculum materials and an expert-informed prompt, generates warmups that are rated significantly higher than warmups created by expert teachers in terms of alignment to learning objectives, accessibility to students working below grade level, and teacher preference. This research demonstrates the potential of LLMs to support teachers in creating effective scaffolds and provides a methodology for developing AI-driven educational tools. [This report was funded by Stanford's Center for Human-Centered AI and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning.]
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: AISR_Info@brown.edu; Web site: http://www.annenberginstitute.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Location: Washington; Illinois (Chicago)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A