MathEd Forum

MEETING MINUTES/AGENDA October 24,2009

Fields Math Ed Forum Meeting
October 24, 2009 , 11:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Smith Conference Room (Room 107.2), Bata Library
Trent University, Peterborough

Directions to Trent University

Theme: Supporting Classroom Teachers

Agenda

11:30–12:30	Lunch and registration
12:30	Welcoming remarks [Steven Franklin, President and Vice-Chancellor, Trent]
12:35	Reports: OAME, OMCA, CMS, CMESG, etc.
12:40	The Stability & Resilience of Math Teacher Efficacy [John Ross (OISE/U of T)]
1:05	Count Me In! and Count Me In, Too! [Brenda Smith-Chant, Trent]
2:05	Teacher Learning: A school-based approach to investigating effective mathematics instruction [John Ford, Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB]
2:30	Coffee break & campus tour
3:00	Exploring the professional learning of novice teachers [Paul Betts, U Winnipeg]
3:25	Discussant [John Ross]
3:40	Open discussion
4:00	Adjournment

Abstracts

John Ross (OISE, University of Toronto)
Title: The Stability & Resilience of Math Teacher Efficacy

Teacher Efficacy, the extent to which a teacher believes that he or she is able to bring about student learning in a particular subject like mathematics, has been the focus of extensive investigation. Researchers have consistently found that teachers with high confidence in their ability to teach mathematics set higher goals for themselves and their students and persist through obstacles, generating higher achievement than teachers with lower confidence in their teaching ability. Teacher efficacy develops early in a teaching career and tends to be highly stable. Such stability is usually expressed in the gloomy tones of impervious to intervention. Few studies have investigated resilience--the positive side of stability. I will illustrate resilience by recounting a case study of how curriculum disruption affected highly capable math teachers, the impact on their beliefs about their professional competence, and the resurgence of teacher efficacy as teachers developed new instructional strategies to cope with the new curriculum.
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Brenda Smith-Chant (Psychology, Trent University)
Title: Count Me In! and Count Me In, Too!

What a child knows about mathematics early in learning predicts later mathematics attainment. I review data collected in the Count Me In! and Count Me In, Too! studies on Canadian children and the early learning factors associated with later success.
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John Ford (Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB)
Title: Teacher Learning: A school-based approach to investigating effective mathematics instruction

In a two-year lesson study initiative, teachers, administrators and researchers worked together to focus teachers on investigating effective and innovative uses of interactive whiteboards combined with manipulatives use to teach challenging concepts. The secondary teachers expanded their team to include intermediate teachers in year two of the study to further increase teacher collaboration and understanding of key concepts and related learning sequences.
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Paul Betts (University of Winnipeg)
Title: Exploring the professional learning of novice teachers

Lesson Study, and other collaborative approaches to teacher professional development are gaining popularity in America, as evidence accumulates of quality professional learning occasioned by such approaches. In this presentation, I will consider the issue of the enculturation of novice teachers within the normative practices of their first school. Some evidence suggests that novice teachers take up the practices of their school. By considering the issue from the perspective of teacher identity, I will provide evidence that such normalization processes are far from simple. A case from a lesson study project suggests that the professional learning trajectory of a novice teacher is complex and dynamic, and not always complicit with the norms of the school.
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