4875 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 (EDC), Horizon Research, Inc.
  1. Miriam Gates
  2. http://ltd.edc.org/people/miriam-gates
  3. Researcher
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Education Development Center (EDC)
  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. Pippa Hoover
  2. Research Associate
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Horizon Research, Inc.

Mathematics Immersion for Secondary Teachers at Scale (MISTAS)

NSF Awards: 1719555

2019 (see original presentation & discussion)

Adult learners

Mathematical Immersion for Secondary Teachers (MIST) is a professional development course designed to give mathematics teachers an opportunity to explore mathematics as learners.  Over the course of nine 2.5-hour sessions, teachers at a site 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 one 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 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase (18 posts)
  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 13, 2019 | 10:04 a.m.

    Hello and welcome!

    We are very excited to share our work and hear your thoughts about it. As you will learn (or have learned) from the video, MIST is about engaging teachers in doing mathematics for the sake of doing mathematics. It's pretty commonly understood that reading teachers read for fun, but math teachers don't often get to do mathematics beyond their curriculum, so we are offering that opportunity.

    We look forward to hearing your comments and your questions. Maybe for starters, please tell us about any experiences you have had in professional development or otherwise to engage in mathematics that you found particularly fun and why you think that experience comes to mind.

  • Icon for: Kathe Kanim

    Kathe Kanim

    Program Manager
    May 13, 2019 | 05:07 p.m.

    I had the great good fortune of being introduced to doing mathematics together as an adult learner in my very first year of teaching. It was a program developing projects for a calculus class.  That was followed soon there after with my own trip to Park City Mathematics Institute where I vividly recall deriving the formula for the area of a triangle on a sphere.  I was introduced to the Mathematical Practices (although not named as such) back in the early 1990s.  I was empowered to explore and create in mathematics rather than just recall and practice. I actively recreated this experience in my teaching practice and now in professional learning opportunities. 

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 14, 2019 | 09:21 a.m.

    How awesome... Back in the 90s, we called them Mathematical Habits of Mind and were thrilled to see them come out as the Mathematical Practices that so many know today.

    Thanks for your comments!

  • Icon for: Mac Cannady

    Mac Cannady

    Facilitator
    Research Group Director
    May 13, 2019 | 11:44 p.m.

    Hi,

    What a cool and collaborative project! Thanks for sharing this video so I could learn more about it. 

    Can you share more information about the math the teachers are doing and how those tasks are designed? I would also love to hear more about what you are learning about the teachers as they participate in this program. What sorts of outcomes are you seeing from their participation?

    Thanks!

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 14, 2019 | 09:19 a.m.

    Hi. Thanks for the comments. The mathematics that we present to teachers is intended to be a stretch for them, a topic they have probably not explored for themselves, or done in a way that is new. One of the courses for example, explores probability through games and develops a method to decide whether a data set of coin flips is authentic or made up.  As for teacher outcomes, what we have seen in prior, albeit smaller, projects is a shift in their beliefs about what mathematics is and shat it means for students to "do mathematics" in their classrooms. We also see a shift in disposition toward approaching new content - away from "I've never seen this before, I don't know how to do it" to "We could try to approach it with..."

    This is the largest scale of our work to date, so we are still in the midst of collecting and analyzing the data, but we are hopeful to see similar outcomes.

  • Icon for: Susan McKenney

    Susan McKenney

    Facilitator
    Professor
    May 14, 2019 | 09:13 a.m.

    Thanks for sharing this interesting work! I am curious about the implementation. Namely, I infer from the video that there is some face-to-face launch and then remote meetings, supported by technology. I'd like to know more about what aspects are in which modality, why and how people are experiencing things.

    Thanks!
    Susan

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 14, 2019 | 12:23 p.m.

    Hi. Sorry for any confusion... all of it is via remote connection. Our goal is to work it so that no one has to travel, except perhaps to a nearby school to be with the rest of their small group. There are, of course, benefits and drawbacks to this model, but it's generally working well and participants are enjoying it (most important) and also learning something.

    Thanks for your question!

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Susan McKenney
  • Icon for: Miriam Gates

    Miriam Gates

    Co-Presenter
    Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 12:54 p.m.

    As Matt noted, the model is designed to allow participation with little travel for participants. In the synchronous sessions (where small groups meet in a central location) and are connected via video conference to other groups. In these settings, participants have the opportunity to communicate group to group via videoconference. They are also doing mathematics in with those who are in the same room. The synchronous sessions function a bit like small group work would if everyone were in the same room, but sitting at separate tables. During these sessions, participants are primarily working on mathematics problem sets, although issues of classroom practice also emerge (as was in the video).

    Participants also communicate with each via discussion boards as individuals, across and within groups. In the asynchronous mode, the hope is that participants will have the opportunities to get to know others who are not at their “table.” The focus of the conversation prompts is on the work of teaching in K-12 classrooms, using some of the principles that are embodied in the synchronous mathematics sessions.

    The course is designed this way so participants can learn with local and/or same-school based colleagues in doing mathematics, but also benefit from the expertise of colleagues who they might not otherwise have an opportunity to meet. 

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Susan McKenney
  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 14, 2019 | 09:26 a.m.

    Happy Sum Day everyone... 5/14/19. Today is the day you get to do the things the you said you would get to Sum Day.

    On that note, here's a little something to get your brain going.

    1. Find all pairs of unit fractions (fractions with a 1 in the numerator) that have a sum of 1/2.

    2. Find the dimensions of all rectangles whose area has the same numerical value as its perimeter.

    3. What's the connection between these two questions?

  • Icon for: Peter Tierney-Fife

    Peter Tierney-Fife

    Curriculum/Instructional Design Associate
    May 14, 2019 | 05:46 p.m.

    Although I am not going to answer your Sum Day question right now, I want to write that I appreciate your video's emphasis on educators collaborating by doing and discussing challenging mathematics together within a framework (e.g. the norms) that includes, for example, that it's Ok to not finish problems--actually, if they do finish the problems, it means you (Matt et al.) didn't write them "correctly"! You also wrote above how you're wondering if you will find evidence of shifts in teacher's beliefs about what it means for students to "do mathematics" as a result of their participation in MISTAS. Are you looking for or possibly finding any indications of transfer of some specific parts of your framework or norms (or other aspects of how teachers engage with mathematics together) with teachers into their classrooms? If yes, does anything seem to stand out as a practice that either resonates strongly with participating teachers, seems important for students, and/or has particular promise to broaden participation within their mathematics classrooms? Thanks

  • Icon for: Miriam Gates

    Miriam Gates

    Co-Presenter
    Researcher
    May 15, 2019 | 05:56 p.m.

    Hi there,

     

    Thanks for the question.  We have not collected evidence of how the norms might be translated to the secondary classroom to this point. It does seem like a really important question, and based on conversations with participants, the norms are essential to their experiences. And as you noted in your comments, the norms can underscore some of the assumptions that show up when participants or students come together to do mathematics.

    Anecdotally, what I have found is powerful for those participating in this kind of mathematical work is de-emphasizing “the answer” as the point of doing a problem and de-emphasizing “speed” as an indicator of mathematical excellence. In the course, as you pointed to, speed is addressed by the norm “Don’t worry about completing all the questions.” And thinking about the answer is addressed by the norm “Don’t worry about getting to a certain problem number. Some participants have been known to spend the entire session working on one problem (and perhaps a few of its extensions or consequences). Getting the correct answer to a question is not a be-all and end-all in this course.” Further, some of the questions are unsolved problems, so the correct answer is not even known!

    It’s interesting to think about how these would translate to 6-12 (or even K-12) classrooms. I don’t imagine that one could take these norms and use them as they exist, although perhaps so, what ideas do others have about that?

  • Icon for: Kathe Kanim

    Kathe Kanim

    Program Manager
    May 14, 2019 | 06:35 p.m.

    Well there goes the rest of my evening!  I will resurface once I have my answers.

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 16, 2019 | 10:05 a.m.

    Hi. It's been a couple of days... you doing okay? :-)

  • Icon for: K. Renae Pullen

    K. Renae Pullen

    Facilitator
    Elementary Science Specialist
    May 15, 2019 | 07:46 a.m.

    Thank you so much for sharing your work. In the past, I've often felt that math (in my formal and professional learning) was something that was done to me rather than something I was a part of. I deeply appreciate setting norms before participants begin exploring mathematics. Great opportunity for teachers.

    I'm intrigued with how teachers are using videoconferencing to explore and collaborate. In my own work, we have online tools like Google Classroom. Teachers and leaders sometimes struggle with how to best use online resources to improve collaboration and learning experiences. How are participants taking the online aspects back to their classrooms? What model or framework are you using as it concerns videoconferencing?

  • Icon for: Miriam Gates

    Miriam Gates

    Co-Presenter
    Researcher
    May 15, 2019 | 07:20 p.m.

    Thank you for your question! In this program, we have focused on the video conferencing and other technology as a delivery mechanism for the professional learning, rather than as a mode for sharing ideas in the K-12 classroom. We did find that we needed to adjust the norms specifically to meet the needs of videoconferencing; the initial norms were developed from the face-to-face work done in previous projects (e.g., PCMI Teacher Institute) and did not fully meet our needs. 

    First, the groups have to check-in with the instructor every 15 minutes during synchronous meetings. They do this either using a shared spreadsheet or via Slack, depending on instructor preference.

    Second, groups are expected to keep an eye on the video of the instructor in case the instructor is trying to get the attention of a group. Sometimes with multiple groups speaking, it can be hard to get the attention of any group without a visual cue.

    Finally, we found that it was necessary to volume control the groups over the course of the mathematical work. Both during group work when folks are working together and during videoconferencing share time, we found the instructor needed to be able to control who was louder and who was quieter. In addition, some groups turn their volume down while working on mathematics. In those cases, the group might choose to turn down the volume, but would be looking for the visual cues in the previous norms.

    It would be interesting to think further how these norms might support cross-K-12 classroom interactions. Are there other frameworks or guidance that you have found particularly useful?

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    K. Renae Pullen
  • Icon for: K. Renae Pullen

    K. Renae Pullen

    Facilitator
    Elementary Science Specialist
    May 16, 2019 | 09:43 a.m.

    Honestly, we are just venturing out with videoconferencing using Zoom. When it comes to presenter norms, we've learned through trail and error. We concluded many of the things you have. Our shared spread sheet is Google Sheets, we use a shared Google Folder during the session, controlling mics & video appropriately, and strategic interactions with the online tools. It's far from perfect. My next focus will be on participant norms via Zoom/videoconferencing. Right now we focus on participant norms that would typically exists if we were face-to-face, but I know I need to refine that for videoconferencing.

     

     

     

  • Icon for: Matt McLeod

    Matt McLeod

    Lead Presenter
    Project Director
    May 16, 2019 | 10:23 a.m.

    Hi everyone. What great posts. We love hearing about others' work and we love learning and collaboration. As Miriam mentioned the norms we establish are a crucial part of the collaborative work and it would be great to hear whether any of you use similar norms in your classroom.  How have you used these to help your students understand what it means to be a strong mathematician?

    And on another note, to the comment that if you finish all the problems, we haven't written them correctly - the problem sets we use are very carefully crafted with that in mind. We have a few driving principles such as a connected story line or thread that runs through the problems and from one set to the others; low threshold-high ceiling is also important to provide access and engagement for as many as possible; and of course, mathematics is at the core.

    What do you look for in problems or programs that you use in the classroom? What are your guiding principles when you develop materials for your students?

     

  • Icon for: KRISTEN BIEDA

    KRISTEN BIEDA

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 20, 2019 | 12:45 p.m.

    Nice work - I love the careful attention to supporting collaborative mathematical inquiry at scale. I'm wondering - does the project have plans to explore how the norms that teachers develop around math investigations within their project groups translate to their work with colleagues locally? I'm curious if one takeaway is that participants develop a set of "tools" to promote productive mathematics conversations with colleagues who may not be a part of the project.

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.