6738 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Matt McLeod
  2. http://ltd.edc.org/people/matt-mcleod
  3. Project Director
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Education Development Center, Horizon Research Inc
  1. Eden Badertscher
  2. http://ltd.edc.org/people/eden-badertscher
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Education Development Center
  1. Al Cuoco
  2. Distinguished Scholar
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Education Development Center
  1. Miriam Gates
  2. Researcher
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Education Development Center
  1. Daniel Heck
  2. http://www.horizon-research.com/about-hri/staff/daniel-j-heck
  3. Vice President
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Horizon Research Inc
  1. Bowen Kerins
  2. Senior Research Scientist
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Education Development Center

Mathematics Immersion for Secondary Teachers At Scale (MISTAS)

NSF Awards: 1719555

2018 (see original presentation & discussion)

Adult learners

Mathematical Immersion for Secondary Teachers at Scale (MISTAS) is a professional development course designed to give participants an opportunity to explore mathematics as learners.  Over the course of nine 2.5-hour sessions, teachers at a site will work collaboratively on problems that build or deepen their own mathematical content knowledge.  They also engage in reflection and discussion of this experience and make connections to their teaching practices.  Through videoconferencing, each group of 4-7 teachers at a site connect with other sites across the country, building a community of learners and a network of colleagues.  

Built on the work of Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) and piloted online through eCMI, the mathematics in the course is structured in a unique way that builds understanding and formalization of ideas through exploration and collaboration and fun.  Enjoy!

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Discussion from the 2018 STEM for All Video Showcase (11 posts)
  • Icon for: Nadine Bonda

    Nadine Bonda

    Facilitator
    Assistant Professor
    May 14, 2018 | 11:17 p.m.

    This seems to be an exciting opportunity for teachers.  What kind of feedback have you had from teachers who have gone through this professional development?  How do you measure the success of this program?

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 14, 2018 | 11:30 p.m.

    We like to think it's exciting and fun, so I'm glad it comes across that way.  We get quite a bit of "let's do this again" type of feedback and this is one measure of success.  We also get, "that was tough, but I learned so much".  In this particular project, there is a research component so we also have more official means of measuring the effects.  We are looking at the change in teachers' own use of Mathematical Habits of Mind (aka Mathematical Practices) when they approach problems and we are hoping to see a change in their teaching practice that offers more opportunity for students to learn and engage in these same habits.  for more information, please visit mistas.edc.org and share this opportunity with anyone you think might be interested. :-)

  • Icon for: Miriam Gates

    Miriam Gates

    Co-Presenter
    Researcher
    May 15, 2018 | 10:18 a.m.

    This is also a scale up of a previous project called eCMI. In that project, we reported on a statistically significant change in teachers' use of mathematical habits of mind, using the survey Matt is referencing. If you want to read more about that, see our article in the Mathematics Teacher.

    One key piece of feedback has been that participating in this form of professional learning is that the online component is significantly enhanced by having access to a live facilitator and in-person partners at the site. These supports make persevering at the challenge of an immersive mathematics experience easier.

    I think one other piece of feedback from participants is that they appreciate having opportunities to speak to teachers from across the country. Given that they have this common experience, participants can also talk about common and distinct struggles and successes in their own classrooms. We are working to provide spaces to make that easier.

  • Icon for: Karen Economopoulos

    Karen Economopoulos

    Facilitator
    Co-Director, Investigations Center for Curriculum and Professional Development
    May 15, 2018 | 07:23 p.m.

    Engaging teachers in “doing mathematics” should be mandatory in every PD experience! I am interested in the impact of engaging in both face-to-face professional development with a school- based team, combined with being part of an online community. Seems like a great way for teachers to see that they are part of a wider professional community.

    Will you be collecting data about how this PD experience impacts what teachers are doing in their classrooms and in what ways they are changing their approach to teaching and learning mathematics with students?

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 16, 2018 | 10:38 p.m.

    Hi Karen.  I agree totally with your comment that "doing mathematics" should be part of every PD experience.  

    If you read Miriam's reply to Nadine Bonda's comment, she shares a few of the pieces of feedback we have gotten about the combination of working both face-to-face and online.  We recognize there are advantages and disadvantages to both types of presentation and we think we have a pretty good model to bridge the two, but we are always working to improve it.

  • Icon for: Daniel Heck

    Daniel Heck

    Co-Presenter
    Vice President
    May 16, 2018 | 11:44 a.m.

    Hi, Karen. Thanks for your interest! Yes, we are collecting a range of data from participating teachers. Regarding teachers' instruction, the data collection includes:

    • a questionnaire tapping into beliefs and frequency of utilizing specific practices,
    • an "artifact package" that documents the planning for, enactment of, and reflection on one lesson
    • an observation, for a sample of teachers, of two consecutive days of instruction and videorecording of these lessons 

    We use a comparative, quasi-experimental design with treatment/delayed treatment/double treatment groups. The data will be collected at three time points--baseline, follow-up, and final--to enable a variety of comparisons within and across these groups to understand impacts on teachers' instructional practice and students' experiences.

  • Icon for: Nancy McGowan

    Nancy McGowan

    Facilitator
    Math Instructional Coach
    May 16, 2018 | 10:04 p.m.

     

    Your project is a fabulous resource for teachers of all experience levels! What is the time frame of the professional development for it to be considered immersion?

     

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 16, 2018 | 10:33 p.m.

    Hi. We don't really have a time frame per se.  Our idea of immersion is that mathematics teachers are being immersed in mathematics because they are engaged in doing mathematics, for the sake of exploring and discovering "new" (to them) mathematics and building or developing practices that allow them to approach a problem or topic they have not previously encountered.  The unique structure of the problem sets and the style of facilitation combine to make this such a powerful experience and these are both discussed in a meta-cognitive way so that (we hope and hypothesize) it has a positive effect on the participants' classroom teaching practices.

  • Icon for: Miriam Gates

    Miriam Gates

    Co-Presenter
    Researcher
    May 17, 2018 | 09:15 a.m.

    I think it's also worth noting that our group has been involved with this kind of mathematics experience for teachers for years (some folks for decades) and many of these models have been intensive, take several in person weeks, and are expensive to attend. These models are a wonderful way to do this work, but can be limiting for teachers who cannot travel to the physical location or do not have access to the necessary funds. One of the strengths of this online model is that it can expand these opportunities to participants across the country in their home locations at a low cost. We believe that each of these models provides its own value, but hope that this can broaden access to this kind of professional learning.

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 16, 2018 | 10:50 p.m.

    Hi everyone. As the video says, we are recruiting for participation for the upcoming school years.  Please visit our website (mistas.edc.org) for more information and to download a shareable flyer to pass on to your colleagues.

  • Icon for: Al Cuoco

    Al Cuoco

    Co-Presenter
    Distinguished Scholar
    May 18, 2018 | 05:45 p.m.

    Hi everyone,

    It's great fun to watch the work as it goes on at the tables. About an hour into the session, ideas and conjectures start to percolate, and they are often refined or made more precise over the second hour.  There's very little facilitator intervention in the session itself.  But there's so much spadework that goes on ahead of the session in the design of the problem sets.  Everything, from the sequencing to the language used to the choice of the actual numbers to the corny jokes in the sidenotes, is carefully crafted to ``seed the field.''  Many teachers know that this kind of facilitation is hard work.  Picking at germs of good ideas is so much harder than filling filling in details for participants.  Bowen Kerins, the facilitator in the video, makes this style of work sing.   So does Jeff Zeigler in Pittsburgh.  See him in action with kids:

     https://go.edc.org/jeffZ

     

     

    Al

     

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