OpenComps CGI

No, I don't mean "computer-generated imagery." Or the "Clinton Global Initiative." Or "Common Gateway Interface." In the world of mathematics education, CGI stands for "Cognitively Guided Instruction," one of the most robust lines of research produced in the past several decades. If you study math education, you're probably going to study CGI. If you study math education and your advisor is from the University of Wisconsin, then you're definitely going to study CGI. Here's my reading list:

Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., & Franke, M. L. (1996). Cognitively guided instruction: A knowledge base for reform in primary mathematics instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 97(1), 3–20. doi:10.1086/461846

Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., Peterson, P. L., Chiang, C.-P., & Loef, M. (1989). Using knowledge of children’s mathematics thinking in classroom teaching: An experimental study. American Educational Research Journal, 26(4), 499–531. doi:10.3102/00028312026004499

Carpenter, T. P., & Moser, J. M. (1984). The acquisition of addition and subtraction concepts in grades one through three. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 15(3), 179–202. doi:10.2307/748348

Fennema, E., Carpenter, T. P., Franke, M. L., Levi, L., Jacobs, V. R., & Empson, S. B. (1996). A longitudinal study of learning to use children’s thinking in mathematics instruction. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 27(4), 403–434. doi:10.2307/749875

Franke, M. L., Carpenter, T. P., Levi, L., & Fennema, E. (2001). Capturing teachers’ generative change: A follow-up study of professional development in mathematics. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 653–689. doi:10.3102/00028312038003653

Knapp, N. F., & Peterson, P. L. (1995). Teachers’ interpretations of “CGI” after four years: Meanings and practices. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 26(1), 40–65. doi:10.2307/749227

This works out nicely because CGI also happens to be a topic of discussion this week in my "Advances in Assessment" class. (Related note: Due to Erin Furtak being out of town, Lorrie Shepard will be our "substitute teacher." That leads to the natural question: Great sub, or greatest sub?) CGI was also featured prominently in Randy Philipp's NCTM Research Handbook chapter on teacher beliefs and affect. Even though my knowledge of CGI is limited, I sense that lines of research like CGI are the stuff math education researchers dream about: long-lasting, productive, well-funded areas of study that help both students and teachers in measurable and meaningful ways.