Social contexts and practices for promoting teacher learning: Insights from professional development

1
Social contexts and practices for promoting
teacher learningInsights from professional
development research projects in mathematics and
science in South Africa, Portugal and Israel

• Jill Adler Ana Morais Ruhama Even
• South Africa Portugal Israel
• Perspectives on the field through examples from
  elsewhere - - Common concerns
  knowledge-practice reform
• - Common gaze inside PD /- sociological
• - Different contexts, methodologies, driving
  forces
• Reflections on the conference theme(s)

2
Researching inside mathematics teacher education
Jill Adler University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg www.wits.ac.za/jadler (presentations
) American Educational Research Association,
Annual Conference San Diego, April 2004
School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.1
3

• What is going on mathematically inside teacher
  education (in-service)?
• Why are we (QUANTUM) project asking or focusing
  on this question?
• How are we investigating it?
• What are we seeing?
• With what implications?

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
4
School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
5
Underlying epistemology

• There is a specificity to the mathematics
  teachers need to know and know how to do (attuned
  to practices of teaching others mathematics)
• A new discourse - mathematics for teaching -
• fledgling
• Ball and Bass, 2000
• Unpacking or decompression - critical element of
  knowing and doing mathematics in and for teaching
  

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
6
Building knowledge

• MTE Research focused on effects I.e. on teacher
  learning, or take-up, student/pupil learning,
  and inferences made
• Teachers practices object of this research
• - produces findings about the teacher
• - subject knowledge for teaching is recurrent
• Yet, what goes on inside TE?
• black box, remains at level of intentions

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
7
Mathematics in-service in SA

• Recent proliferation of upgrading programs for
  mathematics teachers (secondary)
• A function of reform, but also redress and repair
• Mathematics teacher education, even at secondary
  level, has challenge of producing mathematical
  know how

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
8
QUANTUM PROJECT

• What kind(s) of mathematical knowledge are
  privileged in and across in--service teacher
  education programs?
• Are teachers provided opportunities to learn
  unpacked mathematics and if so what does this
  look like?

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.2
9
Emerging methodology

• Basil Bernsteins sociology of pedagogy
• Research colleagues - Zain Davis, UCT
• Any pedagogy transmits rules of evaluation -
  criteria for judging displays of knowledge
• Implications for equity
• Examining evaluative events - render these
  visible
• expected math and teaching competencies?
• mathematical knowledge privileged?
• is unpacking valued and if so in what ways?

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
10

• Principled generation of data
• M - task that requires reproduction/display of a
  mathematical object
•  
• Mt - task as in M above teaching context is
  summoned, but its purpose is either irrelevant or
  obscure.
• MU - task that requires a display of unpacked
  mathematics  
• MUT - unpacked mathematics as above, but the
  task requires the unpacking to be explicitly
  related to tasks of teaching
• mt - both or either mathematics and teaching
  contexts are summoned, but the object of
  evaluation is not clear, and so the production of
  the legitimate text not clear.
• mT mTU
• Provisional and partial language

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
11
Across sites and types

• Most institutions - 50-80 of courses in
  Mathematics
• Notable absence of unpacked mathematics required
  as displays of knowledge
• Instances visible, and interesting
• In a few institutions, all courses integrated -
  math/practice
• Compressed Mathematics when M in focus
• Sometimes, m as object not clear (what
  mathematical response is required or
  legitimate)
• Pulling either to Mt or to mT

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
12
Why is this so? What is suggested?

• The empirical projectProduct of formal
  evaluation? Pedagogy in process?
• Evaluative events more broadly and
  comprehensively?
• A function of formalised INSET - and against the
  grain?
• Levering up most benefits
• The political projectThe politics of knowledge -
  communication between mathematics and
  mathematics education

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.2
13

• The theoretical field
• Different knowledge domains and problems in
  merging into a new discourse
• The project itself
• Is mathematics for teaching as unpacking specific
  to particular pedagogy?
• What does it look like across contexts of
  practice?
• Particularly in multilingual sites
• Equity? - inside MTE
• Robust? - wrt local and global

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
14

• Example of project that has looked inside
• What evaluation (events) as focus enables you to
  see
• SA context and questions this opens - what
  matters in and field

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
15

• ICMI study - ICMI website
• ICME10 Survey - www.icme-10.dk
• International studies

School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16
16
(No Transcript)
17
School of Education University of the
Witwatersrand
Jill Adler, Presentation AERA, April04 s.16