When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, New York City Public School educators and students, like many nationwide, quickly moved to digital platforms for math instruction. This rapid shift accelerated learning loss, isolation, and disengagement (Di Pietro, 2023). Many of these tools had minimal opportunities for collaboration, social interaction, and group problem-solving. Though digital tools have a proven capacity to support math learning (e.g., Bray & Tangney, 2017), there's a vital gap in our understanding of how supplemental digital support, particularly when integrating social interaction, can cultivate collaboration, reinforce identity, and build joy and belonging in mathematics.

A robust body of literature shows that students of color feel more belonging when their teachers value their intellectual input and encourage collaborative learning (e.g. Gray et al., 2020; King & Swartz, 2016; Booker & Lim, 2016). Creating varied and frequent opportunities for student collaboration is vital to fostering a sense of belonging in the math classroom, especially for marginalized students, including students of color, who may feel alienated by traditional, individualistic math instruction (Boaler, 2015; Radford, 2016).

The NYC Partnership for Math Equity is a collaborative effort of New York City Public Schools, NYU Metro Center, Research Alliance for New York City Schools, and Amplify, funded by the Gates Foundation. Through the partnership, NYU Metro Center and Research Alliance are studying the use of Amplify Desmos Math (ADM) as a supplemental resource for NYC middle grades math classes. ADM is designed for whole-class, synchronous use and to foster collaborative math learning and discourse. The platform includes tools to help students articulate and share their math ideas and for teachers to facilitate discourse built from students’ math thinking.

We are researching how, and under what conditions, using ADM lessons supports students’ positive mathematical identities, sense of belonging in the math classroom, math enjoyment and engagement. Our research study draws on extensive data from the ADM platform and teacher and student surveys as well as rich qualitative data from classroom observations and focus groups. Below, we highlight some emerging findings from our qualitative data collection.

The Collaborative Classroom: A Pathway to Engagement and Belonging

Opportunities to see and share math thinking

Share with class

One significant ADM feature designed to boost collaboration is the "Share with class" function. Within specific activities, students respond to prompts and articulate their reasoning, often using writing, drawings, or mathematical expressions. They then have the choice to share their work with the entire class. This function actively promotes collaboration by letting students examine peers' responses after submitting their own, revisit their initial thinking, and gain insights from diverse approaches, thereby fostering an inclusive and risk-friendly learning space. 

Students frequently mentioned the value of sharing written answers and reviewing peer work to deepen understanding. One student particularly appreciated the low-stakes sharing: "I like where you choose an answer and explain, and then you can share it with the class and see everyone's answers, but you don't have to share it out loud." The act of writing out explanations also proved valuable, as another student found it "good because [when you have to defend your choice in writing] makes you explain it a bit more about what you're doing."

Teachers shared that the opportunity to articulate math thinking in writing proved especially beneficial for quieter students, providing an equitable path to demonstrate understanding and engage in discourse without requiring verbal participation, for example, in whole-class discussion.: "I think students, overall, see that, when their voice is being shown, it really helps them to develop that math identity, their feelings of being a 'math person.' Everybody's responses matter, and also to be able to see, like, 'Hey, oh, someone else actually thought the same way that I did. I'm not alone in this thinking'."

Snapshots and Anonymize Tool

Both students and teachers brought up the ADM "snapshots" feature, which allows educators to curate and sequence student work for rich classroom discussions (illustrated in the image to the right). Often used in conjunction with snapshots is the "anonymize" feature, which replaces student names with those of famous mathematicians, creating a comfortable environment for students to share their ideas.

Teachers use snapshots to elevate students as experts and drive rich classroom discussions, as one example highlights, "I would put up like 3 student responses. That gave us discussion like 'What is maybe missing from someone's answer, or why is this the best answer? We got a lot of discussion out of looking at their actual work on the board." In classrooms where teachers consistently used the anonymize function, students expressed greater comfort with having their work shared and discussed via snapshots, even when uncertain about their responses. One student remarked, "[The teacher] usually keeps the work anonymous - she also shares work if we messed up and she's showing us something."

Collaboration in pairs and small groups

Working in pairs or small groups helped students feel like they belonged in their math classroom. This collaborative environment encouraged students to both offer and receive support in their mathematical thinking. As one student noted, "I like to work with other kids because I like finding different strategies." Another found value in shared understanding: "I like to compare my answers and see if we got to the same conclusion. If so, then I know I understand it." For many, helping classmates also built confidence and pride, with a student expressing, "Yes, not only am I learning more, I'm helping people learn more. Classmates who are stuck on a problem, they come to me when the teacher's not able to help them. It makes me feel proud of myself and proud of them."

Teachers highlighted the platform's versatility in offering varied levels of student collaboration, from whole-class engagement to small-group work. This flexibility allowed for diverse collaborative approaches in the classroom. For example, one teacher noted “(...) you can put people in groups and kind of, ‘Okay, you guys work on this problem.’ You can restrict them to certain slides and kind of, ‘You guys work through these slides, and then we'll come back when everybody is done.’ There's different ways that you can get various levels of collaboration in the classroom.”

What’s Next?

Our next steps involve a comprehensive analysis of both quantitative (platform usage data and surveys) and qualitative (interviews and focus groups with students, teachers, and coaches) data. We'll examine how platform features are used across schools and their relationship to student belonging and engagement. We’ll be sharing our findings through research briefs, conference presentations and blog posts - stay tuned!