Annual Report OverviewsAnnual Overview and Findings Sections from the Annual Report
Implementing Investigations in Mathematics (InMath) LSCAnnual Overview and Findings Sections from the Annual ReportAnnual Overview Implementing Investigations in Mathematics (InMath) is a partnership between Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) and 6 school districts in west Michigan - Battle Creek Public Schools, Holland Christian Schools, Lakeshore Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, Traverse City Public Schools, and Vicksburg Community Schools. The twenty-six participating schools across these districts have approximately 400 teachers and 10,000 K-5 students. These school districts are committed to district-wide reform of their elementary mathematics program through their adoption of the NSF-funded elementary mathematics curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space. Investigations is a K-5 mathematics program aligned with national and state standards in mathematics teaching and learning. Organized around four major strands--number, geometry and measurement, data, and change--there are six to eleven modules for each grade level. The focus of the program is on reasoning and problem solving where students are required to explain their thinking orally and in writing. Successful implementation of Investigations requires that teachers understand the mathematical content, use questioning to probe students' reasoning, and promote discussion and sharing of ideas to encourage construction of knowledge by students rather than dispensing of knowledge by the teacher. The InMath collaborative is designed to help participating schools implement Investigations. Specific project objectives are: improving teachers' mathematical content knowledge, including knowledge of the technology employed by the curriculum; extending elementary school teachers' understanding of the pedagogical underpinnings of the Investigations program; facilitating elementary school teachers' abilities to critically analyze the process of teaching and student learning; fostering the development of teacher leaders and communities of learners within and across schools; and supporting schools' efforts to communicate positively with the community about issues pertaining to reforming mathematics teaching and learning. To accomplish these goals we have held: week-long summer workshops, Reflecting on Teaching sessions, one-day conferences, Coordinating Council meetings, and district-specific workshops. Week-long summer workshops (discussed below) are held each summer of the project and focus on a particular content strand. Reflecting on Teaching sessions (discussed below) have served as the major school-year follow-up to summer workshops and have provided teachers with opportunities to deal with issues and concerns at their particular grade level and share ideas and experiences with colleagues from different districts. The Coordinating Council (made up of representation from each district) met bi-monthly in year 1 to assess project activities, plan professional development, and discuss plans for school/district meetings. An all-day annual conference (discussed below) was held in March of year 1 to provide teachers with opportunities to interact with colleagues and discuss issues around implementing a reform curricula in the classroom (e.g., student thinking , teacher questioning) and outside the classroom (e.g. State-wide testing, dealing with parents). Finally, a cadre of teacher leaders was recruited in the Spring of 2000. This group was established to increase our abilities to meet the professional development needs of the InMath participants, as well as providing a vehicle for sustainability of our efforts after the grant ends. One of our main accomplishments this year has been the continued growth of our cadre of teacher leaders and their ability to take on more responsibility for the professional development offerings in their districts and provide for each district's unique needs. Leaders from several districts met with the project directors to plan professional development for their districts based on district needs. For example, leaders from the Portland district perceived a need to focus on the number strand, to consider what research has to say about student learning in this area, and to consider reasonable goals for number at each grade level. The Portland leaders implemented the first in a series of workshops around these goals in August 2001, and shared the results with the rest of the teacher leader group during our planning meeting in September 2001. This set the stage for the leaders to think about how to support their districts in continuing to think hard about teaching and learning mathematics. Another major accomplishment continues to be our ability to provide a range of professional development opportunities to meet the needs of our participants, and push their thinking about teaching and learning mathematics. As mentioned above, many of the leaders have begun to consider ways to support their district after the grant ends. In addition to these district level professional development activities, InMath cross-district offerings focused mainly on the grade-level specific Reflecting on Teaching workshops and the additional summer conference on Numerical and Algebraic Thinking. The "Reflecting on Teaching" workshops continued to be a success in encouraging teachers to think more deeply about the main components of a lesson: launching or introducing the lesson, supporting students as they work on mathematics task(s), and closing the lesson. The teachers continued to grapple with some major issues about teaching and learning so that they could weigh the advantages and disadvantages of certain approaches and the effects these approaches have on student learning. A total of 186 teachers and administrators attended these sessions. Another indication of the success of this professional development format is the fact that some of the districts chose to offer additional Reflecting on Teaching sessions for the teachers in their district during the 2001-2002 school year. Although we had not planned to have a fourth summer workshop, one was added based on the interest expressed on the evaluation forms from the previous summer. This final two-day summer workshop was viewed as a kind of "capstone" where we revisited ideas involved in numerical reasoning while extending it to algebraic reasoning as well. Although this workshop was not part of the original plan, there was enough demand to offer the workshop twice during the third week of June. The workshop was attended by 145 teachers and administrators. As can be seen in the evaluation report, the workshops were considered a success by the participants. Participants spent the first day working on what distinguishes algebraic reasoning from numerical reasoning; how these ideas are developed K-5; and how algebraic reasoning can be developed during whole number computation work. On the second day the participants analyzed the embedded assessments in the computation units in order to determine the big mathematical ideas for the whole number computation strand and expectations for student performance on these assessments. Discussions began in grade-level groups, and then expanded to cross-grade discussion in order to consider the development of big ideas and expectations across grade levels. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion in which the teacher leaders who had allowed their videotapes to be the focus of the Reflecting on Teaching workshops shared how their experiences had influenced their practice. This final session was a fitting end to the whole collaborative professional development in that it left the participants with powerful incentive to open up their classroom to others as a way to continue to think hard about their own teaching. One measure of the success of this message is the fact that at the end of the conference 54 participants completed a form volunteering to be observed teaching mathematics during the upcoming year. The strong attendance at our professional development sessions is one indicator of our success. Three hundred and fifty eight teachers and teacher-leaders are currently participating in the InMath project, and an additional 152 teachers have, at some point, been participating members of the InMath project. This additional group includes teachers who currently do not teach mathematics (including special education teachers) and teachers who have left participating schools. Thus far the 358 targeted teachers have received a total of 31,227 hours of professional development, an average of 87 hours. The implementation of well designed professional development at the individual districts is another indicator of the influence we have had on individual teachers, and districts as a whole. In addition to the professional development offerings designed for all the InMath participants, the Project Directors designed and implemented professional development for the cadre of teacher leaders that had been recruited during the Spring of 2000. These leaders attended the third, and final, Leadership Institute in April 2002, in which we worked on problems to enhance their algebraic reasoning abilities, discussed ties to numerical reasoning, and discussed issues around facilitating professional development that supports teacher thinking. In addition they attended follow-up meetings during the year designed to provide them with support as they planned and implemented professional development offerings. Implementing Investigations in Mathematics (InMath) LSC
September 1, 2001 - August 31, 2002 |