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Help is on the way for middle school math teachers.
The National Science Foundation recently awarded two grants totaling $3.1
million to researchers from the School of Education to study mathematics
instruction.
The school's Center for Mathematics and Science Education received $2 million
for a four-year statewide program that started this fall to upgrade the skills
and professional standing of middle school math teachers. The other $1.1
million was awarded to three Carolina education professors to analyze middle
school students' math development from 2002 through 2004.
The center will use its grant money to create the North Carolina Middle
Mathematics Project. The project will develop three new graduate level courses
for middle school math teachers who wish to pursue graduate study or receive
certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The
money will also pay the instructors and provide stipends to teachers to take
the courses.
"We believe improved skills of middle school math teachers, professional
recognition and financial reward will encourage these teachers to remain in
teaching," said Russell Rowlett, director of the Center for Mathematics and
Science Education and a co-investigator in the project.
The courses for teachers will cover statistics and data analysis, geometry and
measurement and numbers and algebra.
This project will allow 135 middle school math teachers to take classes that
will count toward a master's degree at nine participating universities. Besides
Carolina, participating campuses are East Carolina University, Appalachian
State University, Fayetteville State University, N.C. A&T State University,
N.C. State University, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmington and Western Carolina
University.
The state will be divided into three regions -- western, central and eastern --
with classes being offered in each.
Besides Rowlett, co-principal investigators include Sidney Rachlin, a
mathematics professor at ECU, Henry Johnson, associate superintendent of the
N.C. Department of Public Instruction, and Gerry Madrazo, executive director of
the University's Mathematics and Science Network.
The $1.1 million dollar grant will examine the classroom experiences of middle
school math students over three years. It will compare the dynamics of
classrooms that are teacher-driven to reform-oriented classrooms that encourage
more collaboration among students.
"In the new reform classrooms, teachers are asking students to be active rather
than inactive as they learn mathematics. The teacher is not just telling
students how to solve problems," said Carol Malloy, one of the three education
professors leading that study. "Students are actively learning by doing
investigations, conjecturing and verifying arguments and solving problems that
give them a conceptual basis for mathematics."
The study will look at the way math teachers ask questions, approach
instruction, use the curriculum and bring students together to collaborate on
problems. An important goal is to see if students have opportunities for
higher-order thinking, decision-making and application of math concepts to real
problems.
"We are interested in how teaching practices focused on developing a conceptual
understanding of mathematics transforms students from `doers' to `knowers' of
mathematics," said Judith Meece, a co-investigator of the study.
Added co-investigator Jill Hamm, "We are interested in how students develop
interest in mathematics, confidence in their ability to do mathematics and
perceptions about the value of mathematics for their futures in relation to the
curricula and instruction they experience."
In the first year, the study will follow sixth-graders in 30 classrooms in
six middle schools. In the second year, it will follow those students as seventh-graders
and add a new group of sixth-graders. In the third year, it will continue to
follow the same students and add another group of sixth-graders.
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