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New Center Fosters Collaboration Among Mathematicians, Mathematics Educators, and Practitioners
niversity of Michigan mathematics educators and
mathematicians are working to improve the mathematics learning of K-12 students
in the United States.
High-quality instruction is essential to reaching this goal. Leading mathematics
educators Deborah
Ball and Edward
Silver, along with fellow UM mathematician
Hyman
Bass, and colleagues from the University of Georgia, have established
the Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics, to focus squarely on how
to improve the system of professional education for teachers of mathematics.
The center, funded by the National Science Foundation, is no mere think tank—but
instead, an ambitious, multi-faceted research
collaboration that involves practicing
teachers, teacher educators from community colleges and various higher education
institutions, professional developers, graduate students, and representatives
from professional organizations.
The need for capacity-building in mathematics teacher education is substantial: more than a quarter of all students of mathematics in grades 7-12 have teachers who have neither a major nor a minor in their teaching field. At the same time, at Ph. D. granting institutions, more than half of the mathematics education faculty will be eligible for retirement in two years. Nearly 80% will be eligible in 10 years, according to NSF.
Ball explains: “We could have tried to develop new curricular materials
or to recruit new populations into the teaching of mathematics. Those strategies
are legitimate, but our strategy is to focus on the variety of people who are
engaged in mathematics-related teacher education.” This focus has led
all involved to consciously build “communities of practice” and
networks of educators across Michigan and the nation.
Silver, who also chairs the Education Studies Program at the School of Education, says, “The center is an integrative force. Through the center, there are multiple forms of coordinated activity involving the education of mathematics teachers.”
Traditionally, mathematics educators and mathematicians have not collaborated much. On many campuses, institutional structures and differing departmental cultures have kept them apart. However, at University of Michigan, something unique and powerful is going on. According to Bass, the Roger Lyndon Professor of Mathematics, who also holds a joint appointment in the School of Education, UM has “groups of unusual talent, in both mathematics and mathematics education, collaboratively engaged with a fundamental national problem.”
The Center agenda is also interactive with other work at the School of Education, such as the Study of Instructional Improvement, and Heather Hill and Deborah Ball ‘s efforts to develop new measures of teacher knowledge of mathematics for teaching. Other resources at SOE include the fundamental studies of Magdalene Lampert on teaching and learning, and the research of Patricio Herbst on geometry, mathematical reasoning and the instructional uses of technology.
“People don’t just need more math courses,” says Ball.
“We’re asking, what kind of mathematics helps teachers teach mathematics
well? How could you help people learn this kind of mathematics?” With
UM Dearborn’s Judy Flowers, Western Michigan University’s Kate
Kline, and Henry Ford Community College’s Deborah Zopf, Ball helps plan
and facilitate a monthly study group attended by regional mathematics leaders.
Zopf, also a first year SOE doctoral student, explains that forty percent of
elementary teachers take their only coursework in mathematics at community
colleges. “I’m learning at the same time as the University of Michigan
research group is learning, and then I can take it back to Henry Ford Community
College, where we revise the curriculum to respond to new understandings.“
Similarly, Ed Silver, in collaboration with Oakland Intermediate School District consultant Valerie Mills, works with middle school teachers in four districts. Silver says, “These teachers have several years of experience with the curriculum materials, and now they are beginning to reflect on, and inspect, their practice in order to improve it. They are also considering how they can engage in this kind of reflection with their colleagues, whether through co-teaching, or co-planning, or lesson study. “
Both the study group and the professional development workshops use case study materials, video records of children’s mathematical learning, and samples of student work in order to keep analyses closely connected to practice. In either setting, observers might see people thinking deeply and talking reflectively about learning, about teaching, or about the teaching of teachers.
Graduate students are involved in all aspects of the work, from planning professional development sessions to designing and conducting research on the impact of certain activities or curricula. “For example, some students are using discourse analysis techniques to examine changes in language within and across professional development sessions, while others have helped design a survey that will be administered several times over the life of the study,” says Silver. The Center attracts and supports new leadership in mathematics education by providing core funding for full-time doctoral students.
-Published Winter 2004
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