|
Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC)
The Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum was funded by the National Science Foundation for a five year period January 2004 –2009. The Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum will expand the base of expertise and leadership for K-12 mathematics curriculum design, analysis, implementation, and evaluation.
Major areas of Center work include understanding the influence and potential of mathematics curriculum materials; enabling teacher learning through curriculum material investigation and implementation; and building capacity for developing, implementing, and studying the impact of mathematics curriculum materials. Over a five-year period, the Center will support 30 Doctoral Fellows in mathematics education, 30 Curriculum Interns, 100 K-12 school, district and/or state curriculum leaders, and 200 K-12 teachers in at least 6 partner school districts. It will also engage in systemic research efforts designed to illuminate the essential characteristics of curriculum materials and related teacher support that contribute to increased student learning.
Four goals will guide the work of the Center, namely: support leadership development related to K-12 mathematics curriculum design, analysis, implementation, and evaluation; enhance teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge through curriculum investigation and implementation; investigate the role and impact of curriculum materials on school mathematics; stimulate communication and productive collaboration and disseminate information related to curriculum design, analysis, implementation, and evaluation.
Three institutions of higher education ( Michigan State University , University of Missouri , and Western Michigan University ), the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) group, Horizon Research, Inc., and a set of school partners associated with each institution will form the core partnership team for the Center. The three institutions of higher education each offer a doctorate with an emphasis in mathematics education. In addition, each institution has an active group of mathematics educators and mathematicians with experience in curriculum design, implementation, and/or research. The partner school districts will serve as curriculum implementation laboratories as well as sites for professional development focused on curriculum, for pre-service teacher learning, for leadership development, and for research. CSMC is directed by Barbara Reys, University of Missouri. Glenda Lappan, Elizabeth Phillips and Sandra Wilcox are the principal investigators of CSMC at Michigan State University .
Connected Mathematics Project (CMP I and II)
CMP is a middle-grades mathematics curriculum, developed at Michigan State University over six years (1991-1997) with funds from the National Science Foundation that reflects recommendations of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards . It achieved the highest rating for middle-school curricula from both the US Department of Education and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Connected Mathematics is a problem-centered curriculum that builds student understanding of major ideas in number, geometry, measurement, data analysis, probability, proportional reasoning, and algebra in a coherent integrated program. In a problem-centered classroom, teachers take on new roles—moving from always being the source of knowledge to one of guiding and facilitating the learner in making sense of the mathematics. To teach a problem-centered curriculum requires a deep knowledge of mathematics; a broad and coherent view of the subject matter; and an understanding of effective ways to conduct a class based on inquiry. The teacher support materials provide extensive help in developing teachers' mathematical and pedagogical understandings as well as a rich set of strategies for implementing the curriculum. The overarching goal of Connected Mathematics is to help students and teachers develop mathematical knowledge, understanding, and skill along with an awareness of and appreciation for the rich connections among mathematical strands and between mathematics and other disciplines.
In 2000 the National Science Foundation funded Michigan State University another four-year grant to revise the CMP materials—CMP II—with sub-contracts to the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina.
Glenda Lappan and Elizabeth Phillips co-direct the MSU portion of the Connected Mathematics Project.
Core-Plus Mathematics Project
The Core-Plus Mathematics Project is a comprehensive four year secondary curriculum supported in part with funds from the National Science Foundation and is centered at Western Michigan University. Sabrina Keller is a senior curriculum developer for the project and has worked on the materials for the transition to college mathematics. Her responsibilities include supporting the integration of technology, mostly Java-based software into the investigations. The curriculum is currently published under the title "Contemporary Mathematics in Context" and will continue through 2007.
Development of Mathematical Discourse Research Program
Studies conducted as a part of this program are guided by communicational approach to cognition according to which thinking can be regarded as a form of communication. Within this framework, learning is conceptualized as an initiation to a particular form of communication known as mathematical. The communicational approach brings to the fore several aspects of learning that have not been considered in the traditional cognitive research. This is a comprehensive framework that enables reformulating old questions about learning and teaching mathematics, as well posing new ones. It also provides methods with which these questions can be investigated. Currently, studies are being conducted on the development of discourses on numbers, infinity, and geometry, on teacher's discourses in high-school mathematics classrooms, and on mathematical discourses of students diagnosed with learning disability in mathematics. Program directed by Anna Sfard.
IEA Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M)
The first IEA Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) is sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). It is a collaborative effort of worldwide institutions and experts in mathematics, mathematics education, teacher education and comparative research design. Michigan State University and the Australian Council for Educational Research have been selected as the international study centers for this project.
Jack Schwille and Maria Teresa Tatto are the international study directors for the project at MSU. Joan Ferrini-Mundy is responsible for development mutually beneficial ties between TEDS-M and other mathematics' education projects at MSU. Bill Schmidt, Lynn Paine, David Plank and Lee Cogan are also playing key roles in TEDS-M. TEDS-M will use large-scale national surveys of future and beginning teachers to build on the results of TIMSS, P-TEDS and many other studies. More specifically, it will investigate how teachers acquire their capability to teach mathematics in primary and lower secondary school. It will also analyze the content and implementation of Teacher Education programs or approaches. And finally, it will examine the impact of teacher preparation programs' learning opportunities on teachers' knowledge of mathematics for teaching.
In contrast to P-TEDS (a cross-national study of mathematics middle school teacher preparation), developmental work with a group of (at least 15 and probably 20-30 countries) will participate in TEDS. National probability samples in each participating country will be designed for four closely related target populations: institutions of teacher education, students in these institutions, instructors in these institutions and beginning teachers of mathematics in grades 1-8 with five or less years of teaching experience. TEDS-M will develop policy and program level recommendations regarding factors that help provide aspiring teachers with the knowledge to teach a challenging mathematics curriculum according to worldwide standards.
Knowing Mathematics for Teaching Algebra
This project is building directly on the work that has been undertaken in an earlier ROLE-funded project , A Study of Algebra Knowledge for Teaching at the Secondary Level, which produced a theoretically and empirically based framework that describes the construct of algebra knowledge for teaching. The current project has three main objectives:
1. Instrument Design: To develop items and design reliable and valid instruments to measure mathematical knowledge for teaching algebra among preservice and in-service secondary school mathematics teachers in large-scale settings.
2. Framework Validation: To produce an empirically validated and comprehensive framework for knowledge for teaching algebra.
3. Status Study of Teacher Knowledge: To study the status and variation of knowledge for teaching algebra among preservice and in-service teachers drawn from across the nation.
An interdisciplinary MSU-based research team with collective expertise in mathematics, mathematics education, research design, psychometric analysis, and secondary school mathematics teaching and curriculum leads the project. Joan Ferrini-Mundy is the PI for the project and Sharon Senk, Raven McCrory, and Robert Floden are co-PIs.
The STEM Project: Strengthening Tomorrow's Education in Measurement
With funding from the National Science Foundation's REESE Program, this project is assessing
the capacity of elementary and middle school curricula to support robust student learning of
length, area, and volume measurement. Substantial empirical evidence has shown that U.S.
students perform poorly on measurement tasks, weakly understand the process of measurement,
and compare poorly to students from other nations. But no serious explanation has been
advanced for why national learning and performance is so weak. The STEM project is a first step
toward providing such an explanation. We begin with written curricula, but with the full
acknowledgement that many factors may contribute to the problem. Jack Smith is the PI for the
project.
MARS-Mathematics Assessment Resource Service
The Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, a national center for design and consultancy in performance assessment and professional development, was established at MSU in 1996 with additional research and development teams at UC Berkeley and the University of Nottingham (UK). MARS is the implementation phase of Balanced Assessment for the Mathematics Curriculum (BA) and is partially funded by grants from the National Science Foundation. MARS brings together some of the best knowledge, skill and experience available, nationally and internationally, in the design of mathematics assessment systems. MARS provides workshops and well-developed and tested materials for leaders who support the professional development of mathematics teachers.
MARS has designed a web-based Toolkit for Change Agents. The Toolkit is designed to help those who are active in the systematic improvement of mathematics education. It outlines some of the main challenges faced by improvement efforts, sets out strategies based on others' successful experience with similar challenges, and describes tools from many sources that will help make the strategies effective. The Toolkit can be found at www.toolkitforchange.org
MARS is directed by Sandra K. Wilcox (MSU), Alan Schoenfeld (UC Berkeley), Hugh Burkhardt (Nottingham, UK ), and Jim Ridgway ( Durham, UK ).
Middle Grades Mathematics and Science Teacher Induction in Selected Countries
Michigan State University and the National Center for Improving Science Education are engaged in a 3-year study involving China , France , New Zealand and Switzerland , examining teacher induction policies and practices that support novice teachers' growth towards effective instruction in mathematics and science in the middle grades. Using these case studies of how systems help novice teachers as they move from university preparation to classroom teaching, the project aims to inform U.S. policies and practices on induction. The study, led at MSU by Lynn Paine and Daniel Chazan, provides opportunities to think about how issues are conceptualized differently in other contexts, for example: What kind of content knowledge are teachers expected to have or to develop? How do they develop such knowledge? What is the trajectory of teachers as they develop professional experience? What sorts of opportunities are presented to novices? What is the nature of teachers' professional lives?
Navigating Mathematical Transitions
This project, funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Jack Smith, focuses on understanding the mathematical transitions that are by-products of current reforms in mathematics curriculum and pedagogy. Students can face new expectations for knowing and learning mathematics when they move between curricula and teaching that are oriented by fundamentally different perspectives. Such changes in expectation are now more likely given the uneven implementation of the NCTM Standards. The project examines how students make sense of and adjust to fundamental changes in curriculum and teaching at two points, entry to high school and entry to college, and as they move either into or out of curricula oriented by the NCTM Standards. The project addresses 3 main questions: (1) What are the characteristics of successful (and unsuccessful) mathematical transitions?; (2) How do students navigate them?; and (3) What kinds of resources support more successful transitions? The project will develop a working conceptualization of mathematical transitions (i.e., major factors and how they interact) and analyze students' passage through them in both individual and collective terms. Data is collected on students' career and educational goals, mathematics achievement, learning of specific concepts, beliefs about mathematics and learning, daily experience in mathematics, and strategies for adjusting to different expectations.
Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education
Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education ( PROM/SE) is a National Science Foundation Cooperative Partnership focused on research and development effort to improve the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in grades K-16 through the use of data and evidence, with commitment to high standards and expectations for all students.
PROM/SE is a five-year project to improve mathematics and science teaching and learning in nearly 70 school districts in Michigan and Ohio , and at Michigan State University . The partners include: Michigan State University;
SMART Consortium (greater Cleveland, OH);
High AIMS Consortium (greater Cincinnati, OH);
Ingham County, MI Intermediate School District (greater Lansing, MI); Calhoun County, MI Intermediate School District;
St. Clair County, MI Intermediate School District.
Goals of PROM/SE include:
Establishing the ability to collect, interpret, and disseminate district-specific assessment data that is useful in identifying and understanding the structural “gaps” in student performance relative to international, state, and local benchmarks for mathematics and science achievement.
Helping school districts and teachers to analyze and “unpack” the Michigan and Ohio grade-level content expectations (standards) and apply them through classroom instruction to address these “gaps” in student performance.
Creating professional development resource systems for teachers that build capacity to analyze data, implement high expectations, eliminate gaps, and raise assessment performance for all students. Develop “virtual” technologies that will play a significant role in accomplishing this goal.
Improving pre-service teacher education and preparation in four-year colleges and universities such as Michigan State University.
Research on Mathematics and Science Partnership Teacher Induction
This five-year NSF-funded project is studying the effects of induction programs for new teachers of mathematics and science. There has been considerable activity across the nation in recent years to develop programs to support new teachers in the transition for teacher certification programs to becoming accomplished professionals, with an emphasis on increasing retention of new teachers and supporting them in becoming better teachers. We are studying induction programs designed for secondary mathematics and science teachers, focusing in particular on the support they need and receive around content-specific aspects of teaching. Several of the induction programs we are studying are parts of the Mathematics Science Partnerships funded by NSF and one focus on online mentoring, connecting new and experienced teachers through electronic communication tools. The research is being done in partnership with researchers at WestEd. (2003-2008) Ralph Putnam, Principle Investigator.
Third International Mathematics and Science Study
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) represents the most extensive investigation of mathematics and science education ever conducted. The study is sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and funded in the U.S. by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Approximately 50 countries have participated in this comparative survey of education focusing on nine- and 13-year-old students, and students in their last year of secondary schools. The College of Education houses the National Research Center for the United States ' participation in TIMSS. One of the major TIMSS findings is that American fourth-graders are high achievers in mathematics and science, but there is a precipitous decline by the time they reach their middle school years. By the end of high school, American students rank near the bottom compared to other countries in the TIMSS study. TIMSS researchers have written numerous articles and books, including Facing the Consequences: Using TIMSS for a Closer Look at United States Mathematics and Science Education (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999).
Understanding and improving professional development for college mathematics instructors
The goals of this NSF-funded project are to understand how mathematics graduate student teaching assistants' (TAs') knowledge and beliefs about student understanding shape their teaching practices, their learning from professional development activities, and how changes in teaching practices shape their students' learning. In particular, the aim is to utilize aspects of Cognitively Guided Instruction in the context of college instruction, focusing on key concepts from calculus (limit, derivative) as well as concepts (function) and other issues (use of representations) that shape students' learning of calculus. TAs will participate in professional development designed to enrich their knowledge of student understanding of particular concepts. Research examines the kinds of knowledge of student strategies and difficulties TAs possess, beliefs TAs hold about what counts as evidence of student understanding, as well as how TAs conceive of the relationship between students' correct answers to tasks and student understanding of concepts. Project PIs are Natasha Speer and Jon Star.
ME.ET: The Mathematical Education of Elementary Teachers
The ME.ET project is investigating the mathematics courses taken by prospective elementary teachers during their undergraduate education. The focus is on MATHEMATICS courses, not on mathematics methods courses. The project is addressing 3 major questions:
1. What is the nature of the mathematics courses prospective elementary teachers are required to take in their undergraduate education? What courses are required, who teaches them, who designs them, what is the content?
2. What mathematics do prospective elementary teachers have an aopportunity to learn in their required undergraduate mathematics classes? How do their opportunities to learn relate to national and state standards for the matematical education of K-8 students, to high-stakes exams for teachers and students, and to current research on the mathematical knowledge elementary teachers need?
3. What are prospective elementary teachers learning in their undergraduate mathematics classes? How does their learning relate to national and state standards, high stakes exams, and research on mathematical knowledge for teaching?
To investigate these questions, the project will survey mathematics departments in three states to identify mathematics classes for elementary teachers, followed by a survey of instructors of these classes and assessments of students from a sample of these classes. The project will extend over five years, with surveys and assessments primarily in years 2 and 3. (2005-2010)
For more information, please go to the ME.ET web site: http://www.educ.msu.edu/Meet/
|
