DR. DESHEILA RUMPH
Research & Professional Learning
Connecting research, evidence, professional learning, and reflection to the questions and challenges that emerge through practice.
Doctoral Research
Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Instructional Reasoning in High-Density Black Populations
DeSheila Rumph | University of Central Florida | 2021
My doctoral research examined instructional reasoning among elementary mathematics educators working in schools serving high-density Black student populations.
The study sought to understand the meaning educators with average mathematical knowledge for teaching ascribed to their instructional reasoning and how their knowledge and experiences influenced the instructional decisions they made.
Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, the research explored educators’ lived experiences and the thinking that informed their decisions about teaching and learning.
The Larger Question
Mathematics was the context. Decision-making became the larger question.
Dissertation Findings
What My Research Revealed
Analysis of the interviews and focus group revealed four themes connected to how participating educators described the reasoning behind their instructional decisions.
Theme One
Descriptions About How Students Learn
Participants’ descriptions of their instructional reasoning included their thinking about how students learn mathematics.
Subthemes: Use of Models • Connections to Prior Knowledge
Theme Two
Resources
The availability or lack of resources for teaching mathematics was part of the participants’ instructional reasoning.
Subthemes: Assessment • Curriculum Support • Accessible Digital Teaching Tools
Theme Three
Knowledge of Content Progression
Participants identified knowledge of mathematics content progression as part of the thinking that informed their instructional decisions.
Theme Four
Understanding Students’ Knowledge
Participants also described understanding what students knew as part of the reasoning used to make instructional decisions.
Subthemes: Checking for Understanding • Lesson Analysis
Together, these findings provided a deeper view of the knowledge, experiences, resources, and understandings educators drew upon when reasoning through instructional decisions.
From Research to Practice
What I Carried Forward
My dissertation was situated in mathematics, but what I learned from the study did not remain there. The findings deepened my understanding of instructional reasoning and the different sources of knowledge educators draw upon when making decisions about teaching and learning.
As my work expanded into coaching, professional learning, data analysis, school improvement, and systems-level support, I continued to encounter many of the same ideas that emerged through my research.
Understanding the Learner Matters
My research reinforced the importance of understanding what students know, how they are making sense of the learning, and what their responses reveal. That same attention is reflected in my later work with assessment, data analysis, small-group planning, progress monitoring, and instructional support.
Resources Shape What Is Possible
Resources emerged in my research as part of instructional reasoning. That finding continues to influence the questions I ask about implementation: Do people have the tools, knowledge, structures, materials, and support they need to carry out the work?
Understanding What Comes Before and After Matters
Knowledge of content progression was one of the four findings of my study. In my later work, that attention to progression can be seen in how I examine standards, prerequisite learning, instructional gaps, intervention needs, and the sequence of support required to move learning forward.
Evidence Should Inform the Next Decision
Checking for understanding and lesson analysis emerged from the educators in my study. Across my later work, this same attention to evidence appears through data analysis, observation, walkthroughs, progress monitoring, implementation monitoring, and the use of what is learned to determine next steps.
A Continuing Thread
The context of my work has expanded, but the questions remain connected: What do people know? What do they need? What evidence do we have? What is influencing the decisions being made? And what should happen next?
Continuing the Work
Research in My Practice
My dissertation gave me an opportunity to study instructional reasoning deeply. As my professional responsibilities expanded, I continued to explore many of those same questions through the tools, learning experiences, coaching structures, and improvement processes I developed to support educators and leaders.
Instruction & Implementation
Small-Group Launch
My small-group rollout work uses student evidence to identify needs, organize groups, plan targeted instruction, establish implementation expectations, and monitor how the structure is working over time.
Evidence & Decision Making
Data Leadership
My data leadership work helps leaders examine what different forms of evidence can tell them, identify patterns and gaps, ask additional questions, and use what they learn to inform instructional and organizational decisions.
Capacity & Support
Coaching & Instructional Support
Through coaching, PLC support, observation, and walkthroughs, I use evidence from practice to identify needs and connect educators with targeted learning, resources, feedback, and continued support.
Systems & Improvement
Continuous Improvement
My continuous improvement work extends the examination of evidence beyond individual instruction. Implementation, capacity, progress, and outcomes are monitored so that evidence can inform support, adjustments, and next steps.
The scale of the work changed, from understanding instructional decisions to supporting improvement across classrooms, schools, and systems, but inquiry, evidence, capacity, and the decisions that follow remain important threads throughout my work.
Doctoral Scholarship
Explore the Full Research
Read the complete dissertation to explore the research problem, literature, methodology, participant experiences, findings, conclusions, and recommendations that shaped this study.
View My DissertationDissertation
Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Instructional Reasoning in High-Density Black Populations
Author: DeSheila Rumph
Institution: University of Central Florida
Degree: Doctor of Education
Year: 2021
The Work Continues
The Questions Have Grown With the Work.
My doctoral research began with a question about the reasoning behind educators’ instructional decisions. The findings gave me a deeper understanding of the knowledge, experiences, resources, and understandings educators draw upon as they make those decisions.
Since then, the scope of my work has expanded from classrooms and instruction to coaching, leadership, implementation, and continuous improvement. Across those different contexts, I continue to examine how people make decisions, what informs those decisions, what support they need to carry out the work, and what the evidence tells us should happen next.