NSF Mathematics Teaching
Leadership Center
Dr. Robert Mayes
University of Wyoming
rmayes2@uwyo.edu
Dr. Jodie Novak
University of Northern Colorado
Jodie.Novak@unc.edu
This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Science
Foundation: Mathematics Teacher Leadership Center(DUE-0832026).
Math TLC Overview
• NSF MSP Institute 5-year project
• Joint project between
– University of Wyoming
– University of Northern Colorado
– 5 partner School Districts in Wyoming and Colorado
• Develop 2 programs to serve the Rocky
Mountain West
– Math TLC Master’s Program
– Math TLC Teacher Leadership Program
Math TLC Overview
• Teachers become content specialists
in their own practice in a master’s
program.
• In the teacher-leader program they
become specialists in helping their
peers and in working at the district
and state levels to improve
mathematics instruction for all.
• By separating the two strands of
professional development, we create
two access points for different types
of commitment to leadership
development.
http://www.newportjaycees.org/clubportal/images/clubimages/178/professional
%20development.gif
Math TLC Project Features
• Collaborative
Master’s Program
• Collaborative
Leadership Program
• Research Program
• Culturally Responsive
Teaching
• Teaching for
Understanding
• Advancing
Mathematics Content
Understanding
• Advancing PCK
• Innovative Online PD
Math TLC
Master’s Program
• Extend teachers’ content knowledge beyond the content they
customarily teach to students.
• Engage teachers in actively building their pedagogical content
knowledge (Shulman, 1987), enabling them to enlarge their
repertoire of pedagogical methods, skills and knowledge congruent
with Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM,
2000), the Colorado Model Content Standards (CDE, 2007) and the
Wyoming Mathematics Content and Performance Standards (WDE,
2003).
• Support teachers to evaluate and improve their teaching practice by
regularly engaging in lesson experiments and small-scale action
research projects.
• Develop teachers’ knowledge, skills and disposition to effectively
teach math in a culturally diverse classroom.
Math TLC Master’s Program
• 32 credit hours over 2 or 3 years (third summer)
• Summer: 9 to 10 credit hours over 6 weeks (June-July)
– Two content courses
– One teaching course
– Diversity or Assessment course
• Academic Year: 6 to 7 credit hours, one course per
semester and Action Research Seminar
– One content course
– One teaching course
– Action Research Project seminars
http://www.electrical-res.com/EX/10-16-15/masters-degree-online-programs-main_Full.jpg
Math TLC Master’s Program
Sum
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Applied Prob &Stat (3)
Modern Geometry (3)
Algebra & No. Th (3)
Teaching Prob & Stat (2) Teaching Geometry (2)
Fall
Mathematics
Assessment (1)
Mathematics
Assessments (1)
Teaching Diverse
Populations (1)
Continuous Math (3)
Discrete Math (3)
Continuous Math (3)
Math Ed
Research
(3)
Teaching
Diverse
Population
s (2)
Teaching
Discrete
Math (2)
Math Ed
Research
(3)
Act Res (1) Act Res (1)
Sp
Teaching Algebra (2)
Math Ed
Research
(3)
Teaching
Calculus
(2)
Act Res (1)
Math Modeling (3)
History of Math (3)
Problem Solving (3)
Action Research (1)
Action Research (1)
Action Research (1)
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 1: Collaborative course
development challenges university
teaching as “private practice”
– Explicit course development timelines and
standards that foster
•
•
•
•
deep mathematical content knowledge,
effective pedagogy,
culturally relevant pedagogy, and
teaching for mathematical understanding
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Uses the cultural experiences, characteristics, and
perspectives of the students in the room as generative
sites for shaping teaching and creating opportunities to
learn that are perceived by students to be opportunities
(Gay, 2002).
Challenged notion that math is “culture-free”
Including ethnomathematics and history of mathematics in
courses
Struggled to figure out what it looks like in practice
.
http://www.oswego.edu/~beyerbac/d1dgtbqc%5B1%5D.gif
Culturally Responsive
Pedagogy
Five key areas of teacher learning that increase teaching
effectiveness, particularly culturally and ethnically
diverse students
– developing a knowledge base about cultural diversity
– learning mathematical content from ethnically and culturally
diverse origins
– participating in and building a caring community of learners – this
includes developing ways to calibrate teacher intentions with
student perceptions
– seeing personal communication patterns and using that
awareness to learn to communicate effectively with diverse
students
– responding supportively to socio-economic, cultural, and ethnic
diversity in the delivery of instruction.
http://www.oswego.edu/~beyerbac/d1dgtbqc%5B1%5D.gif
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 1: Collaborative course development
challenges university teaching as “private
practice”
Sustainability Issue 1: Capture faculty
pedagogical content knowledge.
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 2: Using distance delivery technologies
challenges core beliefs about what makes a
mathematics classroom work and the faculty
role in making it work.
– Can’t see their faces
– Role of assessment
– Requires fundamental changes to patterns of
teaching
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 2: Using distance delivery technologies
challenges core beliefs about what makes a
mathematics classroom work and the faculty
role in making it work.
Sustainability Issue 2: To reach teachers “in their
place,” we need to understand and ease the
transitions issues for effectively using distance
delivery technologies
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 3: Joint program delivery challenges
the collaborating departments to revisit their
established role in supporting the professional
development of in-service teachers
– Research 1 versus doctoral
– Teaching versus research
– Online versus face-to-face
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 3: Joint program delivery challenges
the collaborating departments to revisit their
established role in supporting the professional
development of in-service teachers
Sustainability Issue 3: Establishing and
maintaining trust. Documentation.
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 3: Joint program delivery challenges
the collaborating departments to revisit their
established role in supporting the professional
development of in-service teachers
– Research 1 versus doctoral
– Teaching versus research
– Online versus face-to-face
Collaboration Challenges
Challenge 4: Joint program delivery challenges
the collaborating universities to establish an
affiliation agreement.
Sustainability Issue 4: Affiliation agreement, will
requires yearly monitoring to ensure that things
are running smoothly.
Math TLC Program Impact
• University Faculty Impact
– Integration of the course characteristics into their
teaching
• Culturally responsive teaching
• Understanding by Design performance tasks
based on 3 to 5 enduring understandings driving
the course
• Advanced perspective on mathematics teacher’s
teach, expanding content knowledge that is
meaningful to teachers
• Expanding pedagogical techniques from lecture to
active student engagement
Math TLC Program Impact
• University Faculty Impact
– Teaching online
• Communication challenges such as limited board
space, reduced eye contact with students, and
group work at a distance
• Representation challenges such as mathematical
symbolism over the air, visual representations at a
distance, and 3D models at different sites
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact
– Professional Learning Communities
• Develop program wide PLC as well as site level
PLC
• Work collaboratively on learning mathematics
• Sharing of pedagogical strategies and classroom
experience
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact
– Classroom Observations of the teachers were
conducted to explore impact of the program on their
teaching
– Classroom Observation Instrument
– Classroom Observation Methodology
• Observed in classroom to assess the impact of underlying
course characteristics on their teaching
• Multiple day observations to examine practice
• Interviewed after the observations as member checking on
the observations
• Observations and interview data will be analyzed by the Math
TLC Research Team
Math TLC Program Impact
• Multiple Measures
– Application and Selection Process Survey
– Application and Selection Process Interviews
– Math TLC Seminar Survey (focus on Culturally Relevant
Teaching and Understanding by Design)
– Course Design Survey (focus on incorporation of researchbased characteristics that guide course design)
– Teacher Participant Course Surveys (focus on quality of
course in engaging participants in investigations, PCK, projects, and
extending mathematical understanding)
– Master’s Program Quality Survey (focus on course
expectations, adaptability of courses to teacher input, and technology
support)
– Research Team’s Technology Survey
– Technology Team’s Technology Survey
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact
– Culturally Relevant Teaching
– Implementation of culturally relevant teaching and teaching for
understanding has been challenging
– Need more consensus about what it means to teach from a
culturally relevant perspective, then develop a deeper
understanding of what this means within teacher-participants
– Teachers more aware of what culturally relevant teaching
means, but initial evidence of impact in classrooms has not yet
been analyzed
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact
– Teaching for Understanding
– Five components of Understanding by Design were better
understood by faculty and implemented in the courses
– Depth at which teaching for understanding was implemented in
the courses is currently being analyzed
– Will analyze teacher-participant’s practice of teaching for
understanding and cultural relevance through
• Future classroom observations
• Action Research Projects conducted in their classrooms:
these projects are integrated throughout the program and
serve as the culminating task for the program
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact teacher cognitive overload
concerns and time issues
– Due to varying teacher-participant mathematics backgrounds, ensuring
advanced content in mathematics courses connected to mathematics
taught on the secondary level is difficult
– teachers found courses challenging
– number of summer courses overwhelming for middle school teachers
– teachers indicated math course content was appropriate (85% of
participants)
– 92% were likely or very likely to recommend the courses to other
teachers
– teachers liked being challenged to think in a supportive environment,
class discussions that challenged ideas, the opportunity to think and
analyze various points of view, explorations, time to ask questions,
working collaboratively, and connections to real-life problems
– Appreciated instructors being flexible, understanding content from more
than one perspective, having a sense of humor, showing passion for
mathematics, and being patient
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact technology issues
– Technology Surveys indicated that the majority of the teachers
felt the technology reduced interaction with course instructors
and with teachers at remote sites
– addressed early in the summer semester, with the addition of
online video conferencing to support the video broadcasts
– technology concerns had greatly reduced, though it was not
eliminated (17% of teacher-participants still expressed concerns
about the technology aspects of the program at the end of the
summer session)
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact technology issues
– Teachers were provided webcams, writing tablets, and
microphones for participation in online video conferencing
– Only 4% were not satisfied with the hardware they were provided
– Summer program only used online video conferencing as a back
channel to the video broadcast
– Fall 2009 course synchronous sessions were conducted using
only the online video conferencing package Elluminate
– Preliminary indications are that the teachers were satisfied with
the hardware and software packages used in this course
Math TLC Program Impact
• Teacher-Participant Impact technology issues
– Technology Surveys indicated a need for increased technology
professional development for both the university faculty teaching
the courses and the teacher participants
– Provide a common format for posting course materials in the
Course Management Systems (Blackboard and Ecompanion) so
that teacher participants can easily locate assignments
NSF Mathematics Teaching
Leadership Center
Dr. Robert Mayes
University of Wyoming
rmayes2@uwyo.edu
Dr. Jodie Novak
University of Northern Colorado
Jodie.Novak@unc.edu
This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Science
Foundation: Mathematics Teacher Leadership Center(DUE-0832026).