Studying Classroom Teaching as a Medium for Professional Development Proceedings of a U.S.-Japan Workshop (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Professional Development Through the Use of Records of Practice
Professional Development Through the Use of Records of Practice
Pages 77-98
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From page 77... ...
Deborah Ball and Hyman Bass discussed the use of classroom video and addressed the questions · How do observations of what teachers do in the act of teaching enable teachers to learn mathematics? · How do such observations enable teachers to learn how to teach the mathematics they need to teach?
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From page 79... ...
Recor(ls of practice provide a common opportunity to study teaching anti learning. A second advantage is that records of practice provide a way for professional development to be grounded in practice so that the problems and issues that teachers work on are directly connected to the work of teaching.
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From page 80... ...
They might see, for example, children discussing mathematics in a way that their own students do not yet know how to do. So it allows teacher educators to expose teachers to issues beyond teachers' own individual classrooms.
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From page 81... ...
There is the challenge, like the challenge of working with children, of bringing sessions to closure so that teachers go away with knowledge and ideas that make them feel the work has been useful and they have something to take with them to their own classrooms. DEVELOPING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHERS' LEARNING USING RECORDS OF PRACTICE Interestingly, the work using records of practice has much the same structure as the structure for lesson study: preparation, enactment, and analysis.
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From page 82... ...
The problem on which we are going to work is that of (resigning anti enacting mathematical work at the beginning of a school year, actually the fourth day of class. In many schools in the United States, teachers get entirely new groups of students at the beginning of every school year.
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From page 83... ...
Are they used to responding to a question, or are they simply looking for something the teacher says to say back? CONSIDERATIONS OF THE MATHEMATICAL TASK AND ITS USE Bass: Let us move now to another aspect and consider the mathematical work itself.
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From page 84... ...
Actually, approach this at the beginning of the course in methods of teaching elementary school mathematics. ~ use a problem that ~ have airea(ly tried out, perhaps many times, and have (levelope(1 a (letaile(1 lesson plan.
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From page 85... ...
The second purpose is to communicate to the students what (loin" mathematics wall mean this year in this class. For example, students will learn that mathematical work will inclu(le producing explanations for one's work to the teacher anti to other students; they will learn to listen, to critique, anti to use other students' ideas; and they wall learn to be accountable for their own mathematical ideas.
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From page 86... ...
Having had an opportunity to examine one example of a teacher's work in this problem (lomain of (resigning anti enacting mathematical work at the beginning of the year, what comments woul(1 you like to make?
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From page 87... ...
There needs to be time for students to think about the problem. Japanese Participant If students understand the structure of the two-coin problem, then they can utilize it in problem one (see the Homework handout in Appendix G)
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From page 88... ...
One kind of work that this kind of record permits is the opportunity to look across days to see what happened at the beginning of the next class, or what sort of structure third graders ended up developing? And how did the children differ within the third-grade class?
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From page 89... ...
~ think that could be the next step Japanese Participant: The important thing is to urge the children to think about all of those possibilities and set up the steps. Usually the Japanese teachers try to think about how they can best set up several stages of thinking for students.
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From page 90... ...
Mom QUASAR, a national project aimed at improving mathematics inshruction for students attending micicIle schools in economically clisacivantagec! communities.
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From page 91... ...
The hexagon pattern task, featured in this opening activity, can be solved in several different ways. Consider, for example, the responses produced by five practicing middle school teachers who participated in a workshop during the summer of 1999.
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From page 92... ...
So the perimeter of the first train is 6, the perimeter of the second train is 10, the perimeter of the third train is 1 A, and the perimeter of the fourth train is 18. FIGURE 3 Barbara's solution to the hexagon pattern task.
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From page 93... ...
One possibility would be to make a list of all the symbolic representations generated by the teachers, and ask them if the PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH WRITTEN CASES representations are equivalent and to explain the rationale for their (recision. Alternatively, you may want to explore the mathematical content and processes embedded in the hexagon pattern task.
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From page 94... ...
Willingness to change · Same task · Positive attitudes · Encouraged student involvement Commitment to new program Same school and same Oracle level Both teachers were part of a community · Catherine focused on doing proceclures; Davicl focused on understanding relationships (between number of blocks and perimeter)
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From page 95... ...
Moves that support student learning include teachers pressing for explanation and meaning, modeling high-level performance, allowing students sufficient time to explore and think, drawing conceptual connections, and building on prior knowIedge. Pedagogical moves that inhibit student learning include shifting the focus to following rehearsed procedures; removing problematic aspects of the class, and allowing insufficient time for students to explore and think.
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From page 96... ...
It's time for another topic." Whereas, David felt more comfortable continuing his lesson into another day when the content was not covered to his satisfaction. · Catherine used a square to measure perimeter versus David who used a segment to mark off and measure perimeter.
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From page 97... ...
· It seems as though Catherine was validating the students' answers, which would introduce something that the students would then seek, versus David who was encouraging open discussions and not necessarily commenting on correctness. The relationship between questions and evidence of student learning or understanding possibly came from the relationship between the questions Catherine was asking and what it was she thought she was getting (lines 205 and 2451.
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From page 98... ...
What can be gained by using materials like this? My colleagues and ~ contend: In order to grab hold of classroom events, to learn from examples, and to transfer what has been learned in one event to learning in similar events, teachers must learn to recognize events as instances of something larger and more generalizable.
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