Math Musings 2

What is effective professional development? Why this topic of inquiry? I, like other classmates, had some difficulty settling on a topic. I made a list of the issues in mathematics teaching that were critical to me. As I looked at the list trying to prioritize and choose what was most important I realized that what I was really trying to get at was how can we help teachers change, to engage, to use new methods and approaches?

To teach mathematics for understanding is not an easy undertaking if one wants to be truly effective. There are many hurdles to clear when you are changing your teaching approach. Teachers who continue to rely on direct instruction may feel they are teaching the curriculum outcomes but they are not focusing on how students will make sense of what they are trying to teach.

Some of the barriers that come between a teacher and their willingness to change include ( but are not limited too: time, understanding, beliefs, knowledge, dispositions and work load.
-teachers already spend countless unpaid overtime hours, planning, correcting, assessing, committee work etc.
-Teachers themselves are struggling with understanding the concepts they are to teach.
- the changes to assessment standards are huge
In fact, they are being bombarded with so many new issues that have identified as necessary components of teaching mathematics for understanding they become overwhelmed and shut down.

Experience and research has led me to believe that mathematics must be taught using inquiry-based methods. I have learned that teachers who are interested in making the change from traditional teaching approaches to the reform are required to obtain new pedagogical, mathematical, and professional knowledge.

At its root change is based in belief, a teacher's beliefs about math are what will influence her/his instructional decisions. To change beliefs requires a lot of work and most teachers are working hard as it is. For me its as author Maya Angelou said "When you know better you do better". For teachers to know better they must be engaged as learners. They must be helped and supported and if the support for change is not given, we will continue to see a stubborn resistance to real change in the mathematics instruction currently used in many Newfoundland and Labrador classrooms.

This is where professional development is needed. However, the usual professional development leaves something to be desired in terms of affecting change. According to Ball and Cohen, (1999) "research indicates that professional development sessions are often "intellectually superficial, disconnected from deep issues of curriculum and learning, fragmented and non-cumulative". Ball and Cohen also say that PD sessions provide little opportunity for teachers to develop deep, flexible, conceptual understanding of mathematics. So I am off on my journey to find out what makes effective professional development and the surrounding issues that make this so difficult to receive.