A Working Knowledge: Teachers Pool Expertise to Help Students Understand Math

Article from the Opelika-Auburn News
Friday June 10, 2005

This week, in a role reversal, teachers and administrators from 12 east Alabama school districts are attending a summer school of their own. They are participating in the Transforming East Alabama Mathematics (TEAM-Math) Summer Institute 2005, a professional development program designed to improve students' understanding of mathematics through improved instruction in the classroom.

"Kids can do routines, but everything seems to fall apart with problem solving," said Gary Martin, director of TEAM-Math and a professor in the Curriculum and Teaching department of the College of Education at Auburn University. "The real goal is for a student to develop an understanding of what they're doing."

"Students have a good grasp of arithmetic," said Dr. Ray Winegar of Opelika City Schools. "What they need to grasp is the application of mathematics."

Auburn High School played host this year to the summer institute, which is designed to help teachers help students develop a working knowledge.

"In life, your employer doesn't say 'here's a worksheet' - it's always a situation where you have to think mathematically," Martin said.

To help teacher help students, the summer institute focuses on learning approaches that engage all students, thinking about mathematics in new ways and an "intensive professional development experience" tied to the Alabama Course of Study and TEAM-Math curriculum, according to Martin.

Winegar said some new approaches in the classroom include problem solving in small groups, recording problem solving steps, working through the problems with hand-on activities and students explaining how they got their answers.

"They're not just computing problems, they're articulating what they're thinking," Winegar said of students.

The professional development experience includes discussion of teaching strategies, grade-level content, research on teaching mathematics and implementation of instructional materials, according to Martin.

Martin said the professional development is a group effort where university professors, education researchers and teachers provide their expertise.

The institute is a two-week program with about 550 teachers registered to attend both weeks and about 200 registered to attend the second week, he said.

Auburn City Schools has 133 teachers participating in the institute, according to superintendent Dr. Terry Jenkins.

Winegar estimates Opelika has about 75-80 teachers scheduled to attend the institute this summer.

"It was really impressive," Martin said. "It was really very moving from a professional standpoint to see teachers so dedicated."

Martin said teachers participating only in the second week attended last year. Last year about 350 teachers attended the first summer institute, according to the TEAM-Math Project Overview.

This summer's group represents about 47 schools he added. Representatives from 12 school districts planning to come next year also attended, he said.

"The one thing that's been really satisfying is we've had a large participation this year," he said.

The institute will have sessions for administrators and guidance counselors June 16 and 17. Martin said approximately 75 administrators are registered to attend.

"We got a nice positive response last year that helped build the momentum for this year," he said.

Martin said of the 47 schools represented this year, 25 were returnees from last year.

The summer institute is part of a yearlong professional development program also including quarterly follow-up meetings, school-based activities and other courses, according to the project overview.

TEAM-Math began in 2003 after poor test scores in east Alabama and achievement gaps between students from different backgrounds prompted educators to look at mathematics education in the region.

The program is funded through a $9 million grant from the National Science Foundation Math-Science Partnership program and an initial $100,000 from Auburn University's college of Sciences and Mathematics and College of Education.

"TEAM-Math is funded by a five-year grant," Winegar said. "When that goes away it would be nice if we institutionalized it at Auburn University with state money."

State money could come to AU soon. While TEAM-Math is improving mathematics education in the area, it's improving Auburn University's chances of becoming one of the three new sites for the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) according to Jenkins.

AMSTI currently has three sites in the state, serving 72 schools and 1,800 teachers, according to the AMSTI website.

The initiative, which provides professional development, equipment and on-site support, would make math and science at area schools more hands on, Jenkins said. TEAM-Math has geared itself toward the AMSTI requirements, Jenkins said.

"It just put us ahead of the ball game," Jenkins said.

Martin said the requirements of TEAM-Math and AMSTI are similar and that the university is preparing to compete to be an AMSTI site. Schools must send all their math and science teachers to two, two-week summer sessions to become official AMSTI schools, according to the AMSTI site.

"We're hopeful," he said. "We think we can put forth a strong case."

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