Research Project

This inquiry project involved designing and implementing three weekly math support videos for parents of fifth-grade students, along with practice problems and reflection prompts to better understand their confidence in supporting math learning at home. The process included planning instructional content aligned to classroom strategies, creating step-by-step modeling videos, and collecting data through pre- and post-surveys, weekly reflections, and fieldnotes. Throughout the implementation, I focused on making the resources as clear and accessible as possible to support parent engagement and understanding of multi-step math strategies.

What surprised me most during this inquiry project was the decrease in parent participation over time, even though the intervention was designed to be accessible and supportive. I initially expected that engagement would remain steady or increase as parents became more comfortable with the weekly math videos and reflection activities. However, participation dropped from the pre-survey to the post-survey, and fewer families consistently completed the weekly reflections. This outcome challenged my assumption that providing clear, step-by-step instructional support alone would be enough to sustain ongoing involvement.

This experience led me to reflect on the importance of not only designing effective instructional resources, but also considering how engagement is maintained over time. While parents who participated often shared positive feedback about the clarity of the videos, especially those with step-by-step breakdowns, the overall drop in participation highlighted a barrier I did not fully anticipate. Moving forward, I would consider adding additional supports such as reminders, more structured guided notes, or shorter, more interactive tasks to help sustain engagement throughout the entire intervention period.