Science of Math: The movement everyone's talking about with Sarah Powell (Ep. 65)

About this episode

Anna Stokke and Dr. Sarah Powell discuss the Science of Math movement and its implications for math education.

In this episode, Anna is joined once again by Dr. Sarah Powell, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin whose research focusses on supporting students with math difficulties. They respond to a recent NCSM statement criticizing the Science of Math movement. Anna and Sarah unpack what the Science of Math is and why high-quality evidence matters. They address misconceptions about explicit instruction and “one-size-fits-all” teaching and explore why math instruction deserves the same scientific scrutiny as reading instruction. This episode is a must-listen for educators, school leaders, policymakers, and parents navigating the current math education landscape. This episode is also available in video at www.youtube.com/@chalktalk-stokke SHORT COURSE La Trobe Short Course: Evidence-informed Mathematics Teaching – An Introduction https://shortcourses.latrobe.edu.au/evidence-informed-mathematics-teaching TIMESTAMPS [00:00:22] Introduction and an overview of the NCSM statement [00:10:25] What is the Science of Math? [00:12:07] Is this only about special education? [00:14:24] Math learning through the general lens of learning science [00:17:19] Is the Science of Math equivalent to…

People in this episode

Host: Anna Stokke

Guest: Dr. Sarah Powell

Topics covered

• Science of Math
• math education
• explicit instruction
• learning science
• evidence-based teaching
• misconceptions in education

Keywords

• math difficulties
• education
• evidence-informed teaching
• instructional hierarchy
• quantitative research
• NCSM statement

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Texas at Austin, NCSM, What Works Clearinghouse, La Trobe

Places: Austin

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