Maths300 Professional Development Services
Introduction ... Current and Previous Services ... Source Projects
Introduction
For many years Mathematics Professional Services of Curriculum Corporation has consulted with teachers, schools, districts and systems to support curriculum and pedagogical change identified by the client group. Maths300 is a continuation and expansion of those services.
Through Charles Lovitt, Doug Williams and others it has been able to assist in establishing change across the world from Sweden to Tasmania, and Victoria to New Hampshire.
We had our first study group on Monday. The session will be repeated again on Thursday. I had 15 teachers attend. We looked at the task Farmyard Friends (Task 129 from the Mathematics Task Centre Project). We extended it out like the questions from the companion Maths300 lesson suggested, and talked for quite a while about the concept of a factorial. This is exactly the type of dialog that I feel is essential for our elementary teachers to support the development of their math background. So anytime we can use the tasks to extend the teacher's math knowledge we are ahead of the game.
District Math Coordinator, Denver, Colorado
Documentation on the Maths300 site provides considerable assistance for any group wishing to define their own new directions. However, experience suggests that such energy can be even more fruitful in consultation with an outside team.
Schools wishing to explore the possibilities of our support services are invited to contact Doug Williams:
Current & Previous Services
Services are available K - 12.
- Our Maths on the Move link provides up to date details of our programs and workshops. These programs are suitable for systems, districts, clusters, or individual schools.
Examples of our past services are:
- building a Working Mathematically curriculum
- linking technology and mathematics
- hands-on problem solving
- teaching mixed ability classes
- improving outcomes in a specific topic or area
- developing mathematical conversation
- supporting indigenous learners
- train the trainer programs
Our consultants frequently run Discussion Lessons in classrooms. These are observed and analysed by teachers who have been focussed by a briefing session, and who reflect and share during debriefing. |
Research suggests that professional development most likely to succeed:
- is requested by the teachers
- takes place as close to the teacher's own working environment as possible
- takes place over an extended period of time
- provides opportunities for reflection and feedback
- enables participants to feel a substantial degree of ownership
- involves conscious commitment by the teacher
- involves groups of teachers rather than individuals from a school
- increases the participant's mathematical knowledge in some way
- uses the services of a consultant and/or critical friend
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Source Projects
Our professional development programs are frequently sourced from the classroom success stories collected in our three major projects.
- A brief summary of each project is given below.
- Each project has its own web site which offers extensive additional information.
- Each project has developed around the concept of students learning to work like a mathematician.
Maths300
Web site: http://www.curriculum.edu.au/maths300
Member schools pay a joining fee and an annual subscription for continued access. A username and password entitles all staff to access from school or home. In this way lessons can be prepared with forethought and presented effectively.
Maths300 plans to find the 300 most interesting mathematics lessons (K - 12) and to deliver these to teachers and schools via the Internet.
The express purpose of mounting the 300 lessons is to promote professional discussion about the features underpinning quality mathematics lessons.
A password entitles all staff to access from school or home. In this way lessons can be prepared with forethought and presented effectively.
- The number of lessons is steadily growing towards 300.
- All lessons have been developed and improved in the classroom.
- There are two model lessons available in the Free Sample Tour section of the site.
- About one third of the lessons are supported and extended by specially written software.
- About one half of the lessons are developed from hands-on problem solving tasks of the Mathematics Task Centre Project.
All lessons are presented in a style which encourages teachers to step forward from their current comfort zone. The lesson plans provide step-by-step support and include 'classroom talk' and additional comments from trial teachers. Investigation sheets and game boards are provided where appropriate.
Mathematics Task Centre Project
Web site: http://www.blackdouglas.com.au/taskcentre
The concept began in Australia in the late 1970s as a collection of hands-on problem solving tasks housed in a special room, which came to be called a Task Centre. Since that time hundreds of Australian teachers, and, more recently, teachers from other countries, have adapted and modified the concept to work in their schools.
The wisdom which has developed supports the growth of curriculum that:
- is constructed around a flexible blend of small group work, whole class lessons and deeper investigations
- integrates hands-on problem solving
- encourages talking, recording and publishing in mathematics
- balances the learning of mathematics content with opportunity to understand, and independently apply, the process of Working Mathematically
Key principles of the project are:
- Working Mathematically: Content is learnt within a process framework as students work like mathematicians.
- Tip of an Iceberg: A mathematician always asks what can be learnt from the solution of a problem. The problem on the card can usually be solved with 10 to 20 minutes of effort. The iceberg of investigation which lies beneath may take many lessons (even a lifetime!).
- Three Lives of a Task: This phrase, coined by a teacher, captures the full potential and flexibility of the tasks. Teachers use them in three distinct ways:
- as a short term (10 - 20 minute) challenge for two students, as packed
- as a whole class lesson involving all students, by modifying equipment
- as an extended investigation or project, usually guided by a worksheet
Calculating Changes
Web site: http://www.blackdouglas.com.au/calchange
Member schools pay a joining fee and an annual subscription for continued access. A username and password entitles all staff to access from school or home. In this way lessons can be prepared with forethought and presented effectively.
Calculating Changes collects and builds on the work of projects such as Calculator Aware Number (UK) and the constructivist view of learning. It provides an expanding bank of deeper, richer activities which encourage teachers to reconsider their teaching practice. Activities and cameos of classroom experience are delivered over the Internet and backed by a range of services from a 'taste & see' materials sample pack to extended on-site consultancy.
This professional development program has been designed to support teachers in identifying the features of activities and classroom environment likely to make 'aha' learning moments more frequent.
The project encourages teachers to build an environment that:
- presumes a manipulative is constantly available
- presumes children have open access to it and to other materials
- presumes a calculator is on the table
- presumes children have open access to it
- provides time for children to construct their own learning
- builds on learners' efforts to do so
- features learning in community
- encourages mathematical conversation
- celebrates 'aha' moments
- applauds mental strategies
- asks Can I check this another way?
- challenges current conceptions
- supports risk-taking
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