Research

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Learning on the Front Lines

In-school support for teachers

How do teachers update their skills? It’s a question easily overlooked in discussions of inquiry-based mathematics reform. Yet today’s math teachers are tasked with not only closing the achievement gap in increasingly diverse classrooms, but, in many districts, making radical shifts in their teaching methods as they do so.

It’s a tough assignment for math teachers long trained in traditional methods, with little or no exposure to math reform thinking. It’s even tougher for those with minimal math training. In Washington State in 2000, 55 percent of math teachers had not majored in their field, up from 49 percent in 1994.

A typical band-aid solution is to send math teachers to a one or two-day professional development workshop on inquiry methods. What results is often a superficial understanding of how to apply these methods strategically. “Most workshops are completely insufficient for training and communicating these practices,” says Ilana Horn, assistant professor of mathematics education at the UW, who works with practicing teachers as well as teachers-in-training.
“Inquiry methods are just tools, and they can be used well or used poorly. If they’re used poorly, parents may rail, ‘Why are you making the kids talk to each other in class? Why aren’t they working math problems?’ But when these methods are used well, they can be incredibly powerful.”

To help teachers learn to dig for deeper mathematical understanding in the classroom, the UW College of Education combines intensive on-campus workshops, collaborative work with teachers, and on-site coaching in high-school classrooms. Much of this work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The collaboration between UW faculty and classroom teachers started in one urban high school where teachers were frustrated when 75-80 percent of their students received D’s and F’s in introductory math. Teachers decided it was time to update their teaching skills and find a curriculum that would engage struggling students. Partnering with a team led by Horn and UW math professor Jim King, the high school teachers revamped the math program, adopted a new interactive curriculum focused on problem-solving, and changed their methods of teaching. The UW team offers training and support to help implement the curriculum effectively, including graduate students in math education as in-school coaches.
One of those coaches is Nicole Davis, who teaches two ninth-grade mathematics classes in another project school, freeing up time for math teachers to meet, plan curriculum, discuss student needs and write group-worthy tasks that involve students in engaging but complex mathematical problems.

Davis and the other teachers also observe in one another’s classrooms, team-teach, and fill in for one another during student conferences. It’s a model of shared thinking and collaboration, she says. “We model in our learning the ways we want our students to learn: no one of us alone is as smart as all of us together.”

Like their teachers, the high school students work together, debating central mathematical issues embedded in interesting questions: How can you predict the length of a shadow? How much would it cost — and how much time would it take — to trek 2,400 miles on the Overland Trail? Eventually even the most reluctant students weigh in. “Everyone has different mathematical abilities,” says Horn. “If you have a place for that, if you allow kids to be smart, the kids start to value each other.”

An important part of the teachers’ collaboration is reviewing student work. Traditionally, teachers review and assess student work in terms of an outcome: the grade. But careful review of student work can be a powerful professional development tool, says Horn.

The UW team visits classrooms, often with video cameras trained on students. Later, they screen clips for teachers in a “Video Club,” posing questions: Were the students engaged? What was their understanding of the problem? “It’s like video playback when you’re training athletes,” explains Horn. “You analyze the plays, then debrief.”

By end of the first year of this collaboration, changes in the first partner school were dramatic. Students were engaged, and they were engaged in higher-level mathematical thinking. Passing rates in first-year math classes rose from 20 percent to 60 percent. By the second year of the project, the school almost doubled their WASL math pass rates for African American and low-income students. The success has been replicated in the second school, which saw its pass rates rise from 50 percent to 80 percent. The learning was also substantial for the math teachers, who describe the initial year of the collaboration as both the hardest and the best year they have spent in a classroom. “This is by far the most growth I’ve ever made as a professional,” says one classroom veteran.
“The way we’re doing this requires a big financial commitment, because teachers need time built into their schedules to meet and review student work,” says Horn. “The question is, are districts — and the legislature who funds them — willing to invest in teachers this way?”

The cost may be large, she says, but the need is urgent, and the rewards are high. Just ask the students who now pass introductory math –– and actually like it.
For more information on this collaboration, please visit:

education.washington.edu/research/rtm_06/do_the_math.html
education.washington.edu/areas/ci/profiles/horn.html