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Laser focus on content strengthens teacher teams

By David Slavit
October 2010
As Gene Henderson loaded his sixth binder onto the top of his growing stack, his face could no longer be seen. He shouted, “And now I’m in prison!” In a powerful presentation to his school, Henderson was referring to numerous professional development events that had left him with nothing but a binder. He was also joking about his current involvement in PRiSSM, the Partnership for Reform in Secondary Science and Mathematics, a three-year project that targeted mathematics and science teachers in middle and high schools from six districts in southwest Washington. Like many other teachers, Henderson noted that PRiSSM was “the most powerful professional learning experience I have ever had.” Consistent with NSDC (2009) recommendations for professional development, PRiSSM involved collaborative teacher teams in reflecting on and discussing content goals and student learning data to improve practice (Horn & Little, 2010; Kazemi &

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Authors

David Slavit, Tamara Holmlund Nelson, and Anne Kennedy

David Slavit (dslavit@wsu.edu) is professor of mathematics education atWashington State University Vancouver. Tamara Holmlund Nelson (tnelson1@vancouver.wsu.edu) is associate professor of science education atWashington State University Vancouver. Anne Kennedy (anne.kennedy@esd112.org) is STEM director at Educational Service District 112 andWashington State University Vancouver.

Teacher-determined learning goals

Teacher groups were encouraged to:

• Focus on problems of practice directly tied to their instructional goals;

• Collect student work samples relative to a common teaching action; and

• Analyze these in a way that uncovered patterns in student understanding, not just levels of performance.

Examples of inquiry questions included:

• How can we encourage high-quality questioning by students?

• How we can help students reflect on their work in order to improve it?

• How can we improve students’ written communication skills in mathematics and science?

• How do we use classroom based learning in science and math to teach students to evaluate and apply their knowledge to different situations?

• Will a standard format for writing a science lab report conclusion improve the quality of students’ reports?

• How can the use of rich mathematics tasks, worked in cooperative groups, increase student engagement and problem solving ability?

• Will the deliberate and systematic use of learning objectives to design and implement formative assessments improve student achievement?

• How can we anticipate students’ problems and support them as we (students and teachers) learn a new mathematics curriculum?

• How can we support students’ understanding and use of scientific process vocabulary?

References

Horn, I.S. & Little, J.W. (2010, March). Attending to problems of practice: Routines and resources for professional learning in teachers’ workplace interactions. American Educational Research Journal, 47(1), 181-217.

Kazemi, E. & Franke, M.L. (2004, September). Teacher learning in mathematics: Using student work to promote collective inquiry. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 7(3), 203-235.

National Staff Development Council. (2009). Building a case for collaborative professional learning. Midvale, UT: School Improvement Network.

Nelson, T.H., Slavit, D., Perkins, M., & Hathorn, T. (2008). A culture of collaborative inquiry: Learning to develop and support professional learning communities. Teachers College Record, 110(6), 1269-1303.

Slavit, D. & Nelson, T.H. (2010, June). Collaborative teacher inquiry as a tool for building theory on the development and use of rich mathematical tasks. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 13(3), 201-221.

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