Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning Through School-Based Support: Champions or Naysayers
This paper focuses on the evaluation of the partnership's efforts to promote
instructional change using the school as the unit of change. Schools must apply to enter
the TEAM-Math partnership. Acceptance is competitive, based on teacher commitment to
involvement, administrative support, and a plan for a designated teacher leader to
coordinate activities. Teachers at schools accepted into the project attend a two-week
summer institute, followed by a one-week follow-up institute, and half-day quarterly
meetings on Saturday mornings throughout the school year. Other professional development
events are also offered. The project provides briefings and workshops for administrators
during the summer institutes and on 1-2 occasions throughout the year. Teacher leaders in
the project carry out four primary roles (Miller, 2003): change agent for individual
teachers; change agent for groups of teachers, including professional learning communities
(Wenger, 2000); vanguard for reform; and leadership intermediary. To support their growth,
the project provides quarterly half-day workshops to help them better understand their
roles. Finally, teachers and teacher leaders are provided training on enhancing parental
involvement during the summer institute and other events throughout the year.
The
goal of the project is to produce an articulated school effort to enhance student
motivation and achievement by improving teachers' attitudes toward and use of reform
practices-i.e., those consistent with the recommendations of Principles and Standards
for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000). The practices are student-centered, and contain
the following characteristics: 1) Instructional scaffolding is provided for students that
allows them to move from what they know to what they do not know (Ladson-Billings, 1995;
Carpenter, Fennema, Franke, Levi, & Empson, 1999; Carpenter, Franke, & Levi,
2003); and 2) Teachers use a variety of ways for students to explore curriculum content, a
wide selection of sense-making activities or processes through which students can come to
understand and "own" information and ideas, and many options through which
students can demonstrate or exhibit what they have learned (Tomlinson, 1995; Haberman,
1992; Senk & Thompson, 2003).
The purpose of this research is to
explore the success of this school-based model in promoting changes in attitudes and
practices in mathematics teaching and learning by all stakeholders. We also seek to
identify significant factors that support or inhibit the success of the model, as well as
the long-term sustainability of the project.
