Sigma Bulletin: September 25-30, 2006
Contents:
A. Calendar
B. Looking Ahead
C. Dean's Updates
D. Announcements
A. CALENDAR
- September 27: James W. Stigler talk, Improving Mathematics Teaching: A Journey Beyond TIMSS Video. 12:00-1:00 p.m., Whitney Room (1309 SEB). Information below.
- September 27: Sandy Kortesoja's dissertation defense: "Do Credential Programs Matter to Nontraditional Age Students? Factors Influencing Adult Participation in Postsecondary Education." 3:00pm, Deans' Conference Room
- Wednesday, September 27: Life Sciences & Society first of three community forums,
"The Human Genome Project and Faith Perspectives," 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Ann Arbor District Library (downtown) This forum will be held in conjunction with LSS' Seminar Course, "When Faith Meets Science" [UC 475]. Information below.
-September 28: The Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), a SOE affiliate, will broadcast a webcast on "Integrating Higher Education Planning and Assessment,” from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.: http://www.scup.org/profdev/notravel/2006/integrating.html for more information and to register
-- September 29-October 1: Poverty, Literacy and Achievement conference
- September 29: Robert Moses panel, “We the People: A Conversation on Social Justice in Education,” 8:00-9:15 PM, Great Lakes Central-North Room, Palmer Commons, 4th Floor. Conversation partners: Bob Megginson; Edward St. John,
Professor of Education; Imani Masters Goffney, Doctoral Student in Mathematics and Teacher Education
Followed by: Booksigning, “Radical Equations” 9:15-9:45 PM Great Lakes Central- North Room, Palmer Commons, 4th Floor. Information below.
B. LOOKING AHEAD
- October 2: Nominations for Educational Studies Rackham International Student Fellowships due
- October 2: Proposals due for projects in the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates (GIEU) Program. Information: http://www.gieu.umich.edu.-
- October 11-12: Beginning sessions in a five-part seminar sereis on teacher education, the first featuring Professors Gary Fenstermacher and David Cohen discussing past efforts at teacher education reform. Information in the Dean's Updates.
- October 14: Graduate Information Day: program information, exhibits, lunch.
-October 20: Deadline for the Rackham International Students Fellowship <http://www.rackham.umich.edu/2330>
- October 24, 2006 Depression in the Workplace symposium, 10am -11:30am,
University of Michigan Rackham Amphitheater
- November 8-12 National Association for Multicultural Education conference in Phoenix, Arizona on the theme: Honoring Multicultural Communities, Stories and Struggles in a Contested Land. Information and online registration: http://www.nameorg.org
- November 11: Kappa Delta Pi Fall conference
C. DEAN'S UPDATES
1. Fall All-SOE meeting: The fall all-School meeting will take place on Thursday, October 19, from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, followed by a light lunch. All faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and staff are included in this meeting at which I will discuss the “state of the School of Education,” our goals and priorities for the coming year, and our principal strategies for achieving them, and learn who is coordinating what aspects of our work so that you can find out more, offer suggestions, and get involved. Please mark your calendar for this meeting. I hope to see you there.
2. Lower division initiative coordination: I am pleased to announce that Elizabeth Moje has agreed to serve as coordinator of our efforts to become more active with first and second year students. I am calling this our “lower division initiative.” Elizabeth will help to provide vision, coherence, and strategy to our efforts on this front. She will also work with Associate Dean Ed Silver to coordinate these efforts with our overall planning in academic programs (e.g., issues of tuition flow and policies).
Many of you have ideas about courses or activities we could develop at the lower division level; some, like Anne Gere and Percy Bates, are already actively engaged in this -- Anne with the new ED 118 Schooling and Multicultural Society course and Percy with LUCY. Please let Elizabeth know if you have ideas or suggestions for our work. This effort is promising for us, and it will be very important to be strategic in our planning to use our resources well and to coordinate effectively with other schools and colleges. I appreciate that Elizabeth is willing to assume leadership for our lower division work, and look forward to our next steps with these ideas.
3. Course approval news: ED 118, Schooling and Multicultural Society, currently being developed and taught by Anne Gere, has been approved as meeting LS&A students' race and ethnicity requirement, effective this semester. This should guarantee continuing enrollment for the course and provide us with another avenue for recruitment. Thanks, Anne, for working to achieve this!
4. A new seminar series on teacher education: In addition to the yearlong series on higher education in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, announced on September 9, we will hold a special seminar series this year focused on teacher education. As we launch our own initiative to redesign teacher education at the University of Michigan, we have much to learn from earlier efforts to improve teacher education and solve its endemic problems. I want to thank Gary Fenstermacher for his leadership in organizing this series, and Francesca Forzani for her help with it.
The first symposium, to be held on Wednesday, October 11 and featuring Gary Fenstermacher and David Cohen, will address the history of teacher education reform and specific attempts to redesign university-based teacher education. We will consider the ideas that have typically under-girded change attempts, and will examine the efforts of the Holmes Group and the University of California-Los Angeles to implement reform in the professional preparation of teachers. In the second symposium, later this fall, we will address the nature of teaching and the implications of this complex practice for teacher education. What is this work for which we are preparing people? What is it about teaching practice that makes it so difficult to develop effective professional education for teachers? We will follow this with a third symposium, this time asking in particular what has happened when institutions have tried to develop programs that prepare teachers to work effectively in under-resourced schools and with traditionally under-served student populations. In our fourth symposium, we will survey research on teaching and teacher education, and take stock of the progress of research in these fields and the many questions still unanswered. Finally, we will conclude our series with a fifth symposium in which the presenters from our first symposium will synthesize the issues raised across the series and a panel of our own faculty members will offer concluding comments.
Each symposium will feature one or two people, most from outside UM, who have worked on and thought deeply about the focal issue or problem. They will present one day, with opportunities for discussion. The next day, in a smaller venue, there will be further opportunity for discussion of the issues raised by the presenter(s). These discussion sessions will have space for up to 25 faculty and graduate students, based on sign-up, and will be held facilitated by one of our faculty.
The first symposium will be held on Wednesday, October 11 and the complementary first discussion on Thursday, October 12. Watch for further details coming soon. As soon as the other presenters are confirmed, there will be further details and a poster about the seminars in the series. If you have questions, please send them to Francesca Forzani (fforzani), project manager for the Teacher Education Initiative.
D. ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. The Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics, the Educational Studies Program, and the Combined Program in Education & Psychology invite you to join us for:
Improving Mathematics Teaching:
A Journey Beyond TIMSS Video
James W. Stigler
UCLA and LessonLab Research Institute
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Whitney Room (1309 SEB)
University of Michigan, School of Education
Beverages and light snacks provided.
You are welcome to bring a lunch.
Abstract:
Videos of classroom teaching collected as part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study reveal that teaching is a cultural activity,varying more across cultures than within. It is learned implicitly; it is largely based on hidden cultural scripts; it is embedded in wider cultural beliefs and practices; and it is difficult to change. Given these facts, how can teaching be improved? In this presentation I will briefly describe most recent findings from the TIMSS Video Studies of mathematics and science teaching in seven countries, and discuss the implications of these
findings for (a) current debates about mathematics teaching and learning in schools, and (b) efforts to improve teaching through professional development.
Supported in part with funds provided by the Rackham Graduate School in support of the Educational Studies curriculum reform initiative, a project under the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate.
2. Bob Moses, the civil rights activist and founder of the Algebra Project, a grass-roots
effort to address inequities in mathematics education k-12, is visiting campus on
September 29. This visit is sponsored by the Provost's Office (Evans Young), LSA, SSW,and School of Education (Henry Meares). He'll be giving a talk on Friday evening at Palmer Commons. On Saturday, September 30, at Washtenaw County Community College, there will be a Forum on Education in Washtenaw County--which will involve Bob Moses; our dean, Deborah Ball; EMU's education dean, Vernon Polite; the Washtenaw ISD superintendent, Bill Miller; and the state superintendent, Mike Flanagan. This forum is sponsored by the National Involvement Day for African American Parents and the University of Michigan.
3. The Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics invites you to join us for
The Mathematical Knowledge of Middle School Teachers:
Implications for the No Child Left Behind Policy Initiative
Heather C. Hill , University of Michigan
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Brownlee Room
University of Michigan, School of Education
Beverages and light snacks provided.
You are welcome to bring a lunch.
Abstract:
The last several years have seen ambitious policy-making in the area of teacher quality and qualifications -- i.e., the highly qualified teacher provisions in NCLB, the Institute for Educational Sciences' (IES) focus on building broad understanding of effective teacher preparation and knowledge enhancement programs, and the federal government's Math-Science Partnerships. These policy initiatives stem from perceptions that the preparation of U.S. teachers, and mathematics teachers in particular, is inadequate. Yet to a large degree, our understanding of the mathematical knowledge of mathematics teachers is unsystematic, relying on either proxy indicators such as subject matter major and certification (as NCLB itself does) or on nonrandom, often small, samples of teachers. Given the policy emphasis on improving teachers' knowledge of mathematics, and the use of proxy indicators by policy-makers and district personnel alike, there is a pressing need for rigorous study of the following questions:
o What is/are the problem(s) with mathematics teachers' subject matter knowledge for teaching?
o What is the relationship between teachers' academic credentials, experience and their actual knowledge of the mathematics they teach?
Further, given evidence regarding the inequitable distribution of teachers' credentials by student poverty status, an additional question arises:
o To what degree is teacher knowledge -a key resource for student learning- distributed equitably across students of differing levels of affluence?
This talk presents evidence on these three questions. It focuses specifically on middle school, in part because there is much less known about middle school teachers and students, and in part because many view middle school- and middle school mathematics in particular - as a critical gateway to high school course-taking and college enrollment (Riley, 1997; Silva & Moses, 1990). Middle school teachers are also a unique population, in that while many train specifically for these grades, many more are either former elementary or high school teachers. Knowing more about the relative mathematical knowledge of these groups will be helpful in understanding how middle school teachers should be recruited and trained.
About the presenter:
Heather C. Hill is an assistant professor and associate research scientist at the University of Michigan. Her primary work focuses on developing measures of mathematical knowledge for teaching, and using these measures to evaluate public policies and programs intended to improve teachers' understanding of this mathematics. Her other interests include the measurement of instruction more broadly, instructional improvement efforts in mathematics, and the role that language plays in the implementation of public policy. She received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan in 2000 for work analyzing the implementation of public policies in law enforcement and education. She has served as section chair for AERA division L (politics and policy), and on the editorial board of Journal of Research in Mathematics Education. She is the co-author, with David K. Cohen, of Learning policy: When state education reform works (Yale Press, 2001).
4. The seventh annual Tamara Williams Memorial Lecture will take place on Wednesday, October 4 at 7:00 PM in East Hall Auditorium, room 1324. The keynote speaker, Leslie Starsoneck, has been a leader in the Battered Women's Movement since 1989. She will speak on "Children and Domestic Violence".
She is currently serving as a consultant to both the Center for Child and Family Health, and the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation of North Carolina. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Social Work, School of Law, and School of Public Health. She has authored multiple pieces on Domestic Violence awareness. Formally, she has served as Director of the Council for Women & Domestic Violence, Director, of the Domestic Violence Commission, and Director, of the Governor's Task Force on Domestic Violence in North Carolina. Co-sponsors of the lecture are University Housing, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, the School of Social work and the Interdisciplinary Center Research Program of Violence Across the Life Span.
5. The University of Michigan Work/Life Resource Center is hosting a half-day conference for U-M faculty, staff, and graduate students on achieving and sustaining work/life balance. We benefit individually and collectively from achieving community wellness and balance, and this conference is a resource for promoting both.
This half-day conference entitled "Connecting the Dots: Navigating Obligations, Expectations, and Goals in Work and Personal Life" will include a keynote presentation by Teresa A. Sullivan, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, breakout sessions offering practical tools and strategies for work/life balance, and a closing session of comic relief focused on the competing demands of life and work.
The conference will be held October 17 from 12:30-4:30 p.m. at the Michigan Union.
The registration fee of $25 includes light refreshments and educational materials. Staff and employee-graduate students should receive approval from their supervisor before registering.
Please note that space for this event is limited and registrations will be accommodated on a first-come, first-serve basis. The deadline for registration is October 2.
For additional details and online registration, please visit the conference web page at: <http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/worklife/dots.shtml>.
Questions? Please contact the Work/Life Resource Center at worklife@umich.edu.
6. The deadline for the Lurcy Scholarship is October 20. This $20,000 award is for graduate students wishing to do study or research in France for
2007/08. For complete information and application please go to: http://www.rackham.umich.edu/2330
7. What: Depression in the Workplace
When: Tuesday, October 24, 2006, 10am -11:30am
Where: University of Michigan Rackham Amphitheater
4th Floor of the Rackham Building
915 E. Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
Learn about the physiology of this illness, the continuing stigma
associated with depression, the experiences of those with depression at
work, and strategies for success in providing a respectful and
supportive environment for those in the workplace with depression. The
seminar will include presentations by John F. Greden, MD, Executive
Director, University of Michigan Depression Center, and Eric Hipple,
former NFL player, who is an outspoken advocate for the early diagnosis
and treatment of depression. A panel presentation with questions from
the audience will follow.
If you are a person with a disability who will need an accommodation to
attend or participate in this program, please call (v) 734-763-0235 or
(TTY) 734-647-1388 no later than October 17, 2006 to make arrangements
for accommodations.
8. You are invited to join Life Sciences & Society in our first of three community forums,
entitled: "The Human Genome Project and Faith Perspectives."
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Ann Arbor District Library (downtown)
This forum will be held in conjunction with LSS' Seminar Course, "When Faith Meets Science" [UC 475]. The panel will include:
Rolf Bouma, Director, Center for Faith & Scholarship at Campus Chapel; UM Faculty, Program in the Environment
Rob Dobrusin, Beth Israel Congregation
Sharon Kardia, Associate Professor, UM School of Public Health; Director, Public Health Genetics Program; Co-Director, Life Sciences and Society Program
Susan King, D.Min will facilitate. The LSS Community Forum series is a part of the UM project on Difficult Dialogues funded by the Ford Foundation. Co-sponsored by the Interfaith Round Table of Washtenaw County. Community Forums are free and open to the general public.
SAVE THE DATES OF UPCOMING FORUMS:
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Location TBD
Topic: Policy, economic, community, and religious perspectives: How the life sciences may influence my behavior or the behavior of others
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Location TBD
Topic: Human dignity, human capacity, and social justice: Examining genetics and health disparities
This message goes to the Life Sciences & Society Faculty List. Subscription information appears at the bottom of this message. If you are not a subscriber but wish to join, send an email to:
lss-faculty-request@umich.edu with "subscribe" in the subject line.
Visit the Life Sciences at Michigan online announcements and events calendar at http://lifesciences.umich.edu/events.