Driving Instructions to the Colloquia
and Seminars
| August 30, 2001 (Thursday)
Teachers' Mathematics as a Field of Study
Zalman Usiskin
University of Chicago
3:30–5:00 p.m
Room 2087 SEL
|
Teachers' Mathematics includes:
alternate mathematical characterizations of ideas and definitions
and their consequences; why concepts arose and how they have changed
over time; the wide range of applications of the subject; alternate
ways of approaching problems (with and without calculator and computer
technology); how problems and proofs can be extended and generalized;
how ideas studied in school relate to ideas students may encounter
in later study of mathematics or other courses; responses to questions
that learners have about what they are learning. This material
- so sorely needed by teachers - is usually picked up by them only
haphazardly, greatly dependent on the hobbies of professors.
With a grant from the Stuart Foundation to the mathematics department
at the University of California at Berkeley and to the University
of Chicago School Mathematics Project, mathematics materials are being
developed for high school teachers in an attempt to conceptualize
this field of study. |
| September 6, 2001 (Thursday)
Teaching and Learning with Complex Data
Josh Radinsky
University of Illinois at Chicago
3:30–5:00 p.m.
2087 SEL
|
Current reforms in math and science education
stress the importance of students learning to engage complex data
sets in problem-solving. How do students get better at figuring
out big data sets—the kinds that are more and more easily accessible
with computers? How can we help teachers build the skills, habits,
and dispositions for making sense of complexity, for themselves and
their students? This talk will explore issues of curriculum
design, professional development for teachers, and software integration
around the theme of reflective engagement of data. Beginning
with an overview of a socio-cultural study of student learning in
middle-school science classrooms using complex data, the presentation
will describe how instructional approaches developed in that study
are being adapted in the Big City project with pre-service and in-service
teachers at UIC. |
| September 20, 2001 (Thursday)
Research into the Use of Visualization and Proof in Calculus
and Mathematical Analysis
David Tall
Mathematics Education Research Centre
University of Warwick, England
3:30-5:00 pm
2087 SEL
|
David Tall is the lead author on a new review
of “Technology and Calculus.” He will discuss research into
the effectiveness of new ways of teaching the calculus and their relationship
with the more formal aspects of analysis. This will include
a range of related ideas, from the brain activity that underlies visual
and formal thinking to its manifestation in a variety of visual and
formal approaches to the subject. |
| October 4, 2001 (Thursday)
Supporting Teacher Change: The Chicago Secondary Mathematics
Improvement Project and the Development of Teacher Leadership
Margaret Small
Young Women's Leadership Charter School
3:30 -5:00pm
2087 SEL
|
After almost a decade of availability of mathematics
reform curricula created with support of the National Science Foundation
and based on the NCTM Standards, high school mathematics teachers
in Chicago continue to face an uphill struggle in making their mathematics
classes an environment for a challenging, engaging and successful
experience for the majority of students. The Chicago Mathematics Improvement
Project (CSMIP) has worked for the past 5 years providing workshops
and ongoing support for teachers using the Interactive Mathematics
Program. We will look at teachers' comments on how this experience
has affected their teaching and how they envision the challenges they
currently face. Margaret Small was co-Principal Investigator of CSMIP. |
October 18, 2001
(Thursday)
Stacy Brown
University of Illinois at Chicago
3:30-5:00 pm
2087 SEL
|
Is Proof by Induction directly accessible
to students? Many "Introduction to Proof" textbooks have—at
least implicitly—assumed this is the case. More specifically,
they have assumed that the Principle of Mathematical Induction is
intuitively acceptable to students, and consequently that proofs by
induction are, at the very least, intuitively accessible. However,
as many researchers have shown, students have difficulty with Proof
by Mathematical Induction. An eight-week teaching experiment
designed to investigate the evolution of students’ understanding of
proof by mathematical induction was conducted at a large urban state
university. Implicit in the design of the experiment were two assumptions,
that proof by mathematical induction would arise (a) as the means
for solving a class of problems and (b) as a result of the students’
mathematization of the "and so on" argument. An analysis of
the data will be presented which both supports and puts into question
these assumptions. |
| November 1, 2001 (Thursday)
Improving Chicago Schools: Promoting High Quality Instruction
Mark Smylie
University of Illinois at Chicago
Stacy Wenzel
Consortium on Chicago School Research
3:30 -5:00pm
2087 SEL
|
The Consortium on Chicago School Research
has worked for five years with the support of the Chicago Annenberg
Challenge to learn more about the conditions of education in Chicago
public schools and the kinds of efforts needed to advance meaningful
improvements. This presentation offers an overview of what we have
learned about what constitutes high quality instruction, and how to
support effective instructional practices and policies. Findings on
mathematics instruction will be highlighted. |
| November 15, 2001 (Thursday)
Project ICAN: A Teacher Enhancement Project to Promote Teachers'
and Students' Knowledge of Scientific Inquiry and Nature of Science
Norman Lederman
Illinois Institute of Technology
3:30 -5:00pm
2087 SEL
|
Effective instruction related to nature of
science and scientific inquiry requires teachers to develop a knowledge
base as well as purposeful intentions to address nature of science
and scientific inquiry within classroom instruction. Project ICAN:
Inquiry, Context, and Nature of Science, an NSF-funded teacher
enhancement project, aims to enhance teachers' abilities to improve
students' understandings of nature of science and students' understandings
of, and ability to perform scientific inquiry, within a context of
standards-based instruction. Project teachers worked in scientific
laboratories and received supportive instruction
relative to nature of science, scientific inquiry, and the translation
of scientific practice into classroom activities during a summer institute.
During the academic year, teachers integrated previously learned aspects
of nature of science and scientific inquiry into their curriculum,
while attending monthly workshops designed to support teachers' activities.
Teacher and student data indicated that most teachers improved their
knowledge of nature of science and scientific inquiry significantly,
and most of these teachers were able to promote similar gains in their
students. This project represents a first attempt to connect
teachers' knowledge, teachers' pedagogy, and student outcomes relative
to nature of science and scientific inquiry. |
| February 18, 2002**(Thursday)
Understanding the nature of mathematics needed by high school
mathematics teachers in reform-oriented curricula
Kathy Heid
Penn State University
3:00 - 4:00pm
636 SEO
** Co-sponsored with the UIC Department of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science
|
The release of the Conference Board of Mathematics
Sciences report on the Mathematical Education of Teachers along with
recent research and surveys have pointed out the need to know more
about
what mathematics high school teachers will need to function effectively
with reform-oriented curricula. The Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics
Teaching and Learning, a collaboration among the mathematics and mathematics
education faculty at Penn State, University of Maryland, and University
of Delaware, is the first Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning
funded by the National Science Foundation. One of Penn State's role
in the Center is to investigate and develop ways to deepen the understandings
that prospective and practicing high school mathematics teachers have
of the mathematics featured in emerging high school mathematics curricula.
Throughout the past year, research mathematicians and mathematics
education researchers have collaborated in the construction on several
courses aimed at deepening the school-related mathematical understandings
of high school mathematics teachers. This talk will share some of
our thinking about understanding mathematical understanding in light
of our experiences with the work of the Mid-Atlantic Center. |
February 21, 2002*
(Thursday)
What Does it Take to Support Learning with Understanding:
Lessons from Efforts at School-Based Reform
Susan Goldman
University of Illinois at Chicago
Jim Pellegrino
University of Illinois at Chicago
3:30 -5:00pm
2087 SEL
* Co-sponsored with the UIC Center for the Study of
Learning, Instruction, and Teacher Development
|
Our research is concerned with bridging the
gap between theories and empirical findings in the learning sciences
concerning how people learn and the practices that hold sway in the
majority of K-16 classrooms. Over the past decade and a half we have
been engaged in a variety of projects aimed at improving student learning
and achievement. Over time and as a result of lessons learned, these
projects have focused increasingly on multiple levels of the educational
system (students, teachers, organizational contexts), multiple sources
of theory and empirical issues, multiple methods, and multiple levels
of analysis. Our presentation will focus on two specific areas
of work that illustrate how teachers' learning and instruction and
students' learning are governed by their conceptions - of the subject
matter, of learning, of what they are accountable for - and opportunities
and constraints determined by the larger system within which they
function. Susan Goldman will present findings from efforts to reconceptualize
mathematics and literacy in primary and middle school classrooms,
with a focus on teacher learning process as accessed through studies
of the discourse among teachers and students and among teachers and
facilitators. Jim Pellegrino will discuss how this plays out in the
design of assessments and assessment systems that make visible learning
goals and that provide multiple ways for students to show what they
know. |
February 28, 2002*
(Thursday)
Distribution: A Resource for Understanding Error and Natural
Variation
Richard Lehrer
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Leona Schauble
University of Wisconsin – Madis |