Math Ed Forum Meeting Minutes
Saturday, November 28, 1998
Present
Bill Langford, Ed Barbeau, David Zimmer, Doug McDougall, Bill Higginson,
L. Colgan, Bill Allen, John Kezys, Lynda Graham, Shirley Dalrymple,
Maggie Cheverie, Don Curran, Cheryl Turner, Reid McAlpine, Bill Allan,
Walter Whiteley, Judy Crompton, Myrna Ingalls, Eric Muller
1. The agenda was approved unanimously.
2. The minutes of the October 31, 1998 meeting were approved unanimously.
3. Bill Langford informed the group that Brenda Law has moved to MITACS.
Her strong work in support of the Forum will be missed.
4. Bill Langford introduced the new Steering Committee. The elected
members are: Lynda Graham, Myrna Ingalls, Mary Lou Kestell, Geoff Roulet
and David Zimmer.
5. Motion: that the elections for members of the Steering Committee
be held in May of the year preceding their term of office.
Passed unanimously.
6. Bill Langford briefly described a Fields initiative celebrating World
Mathematical Year 2000 declared by IMU and UNESCO. Copies of the proposed
symposium on the work on John Charles Fields were distributed. Bill
indicated that the symposium is now a reality.
7. Judy Crompton provided an update on the Ontario curriculum project.
$ The November 7 feedback panel supplied a wide variety of feedback
regarding the 11/12 courses.
$ Final deliverable is due December 18.
$ Final feedback is anticipated January 10 followed by 4 days of rewriting.
8. Judy Crompton led a discussion of the validation process for the
11/12 curriculum.
$ Colleges and universities will have February to April to assess the
curriculum's match to their needs.
$ The process for colleges will be determined by the colleges; the process
for universities will be determined by the universities.
$ Subject associations will be brought in at some time late in the process
to give feedback on the validation recommendations. Final decisions
regarding changes will be made by MET.
A suggestion was put forward that a colloquium be held that would bring
together people from colleges and universities to discuss the curriculum.
OISE was discussed as a possible host and organizer.
9. Judy Crompton led a discussion on the role of textbooks for grade
9.
$ The OMCA has indicated to MET that they have a significant concern
with textbooks that will be available for a Spring 1999 call for grade
9 mathematics resources. They will be forwarding a set of evaluation
criteria to MET, but there is no guarantee that these criteria will
be used by the Ontario Curriculum Clearinghouse in the approval process.
$ Some publisher representatives indicated that they felt the process
was too rushed in an attempt to get materials ready for the spring.
They also indicated that their research has shown a large gap between
the perceptions and needs of classroom teachers and the expectations
of the curriculum. Focus groups carried out by the publishers indicate
that teachers across the province have not even seen the new curriculum.
They have had no opportunity to focus on the implications of the proposals.
$ Staging implementation of the new courses in grade 9 so that they
could release materials incrementally would be a desirable way to proceed.
Publishers have not received any criteria descriptions for the approval
process. They also have no idea of the potential impact of course profiles
on the validation of textbook resources.
10. Judy Crompton led a discussion on course profiles.
No clear information is available about course profiles at this point,
but it appears that they should be available for grade 9, probably in
May 1999. Course profiles may or may not be available for following
years. Judy asked whether the Fields Forum might play a role in the
development of resources in the future.
$ The curriculum writing team has drafted a set of criteria for course
profiles in mathematics and forwarded these to MET.
11. Judy Crompton presented a draft version of the achievement level
descriptors for grade 9 math.
$ A lively discussion took place around the wording and interpretation
of the proposed rubric with feedback to be carried by Judy back to the
writing team.
