Teaching to the Big Ideas of Geometry, Measurement, and Data Analysis will design, produce, pilot, and field test three modules to add to a K-6 professional-development curriculum called Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI). It is a continuation of the work of a predecessor project which has already produced two modules on fundamental themes of arithmetic, published by Dale Seymour Publications. The development of the new modules will round out a powerful package devoted to the major content areas of the elementary curriculum.

TBI Staff and Participants TBI Publications

As mathematics leaders in communities around the country plan long-term staff development efforts, they face a scarcity of resources and tools equal to their ambitions. One option for supporting teacher change in resource-efficient ways is the design of materials providing structure and content for in-service programs-materials that can be used by a wide range of teacher educators. In embracing this option, staff and participants of the predecessor project invented a model for a case-based professional-development curriculum, and created and field tested the two arithmetic modules. DMI users included district personnel, teacher-leaders, and university faculty. In a summary of findings from the 1996-97 field tests, the external evaluator reported that, in school systems that have adopted innovative mathematics curricula (e.g., Investigations in Number, Data, and Space or Everyday Mathematics), DMI can be a powerful support for effective implementation.

The evaluators also found that many DMI groups, having finished their work on the arithmetic modules, were eager for similar materials addressing other mathematical content areas. Indeed, although the new curricula emphasize increased attention to non-arithmetic content areas-as NCTM and other reform documents urge- there is a dirth of the kinds of support teachers need to be able to use them effectively. The proposed project will develop modules devoted to geometry, measurement, and data analysis, and, like the arithmetic modules, these will be designed to help teachers both learn the mathematics content for themselves and explore how children approach it.

The production of each module entails: writing and revising classroom cases (by teacher contributors), creating a conceptual structure for the module, selecting cases that illuminate the themes and issues to be emphasized, developing videotapes and mathematics activities for the module, identifying relevant activities from innovative curricula, writing an essay about related research, designing a seminar, piloting the seminar (by project staff), creating support materials for seminar facilitators, field testing the modules nationwide, and revising the materials. A collaboration of EDC, TERC, and SummerMath for Teachers at Mount Holyoke College, the project will take three and a half years to complete (1988-2001), will directly engage 640 teachers, and will result in materials with the potential to provide professional development for many thousands more.

Goldsmith, L., and Schifter, D. (1997). Understanding teachers in transition: Characteristics of a model for the development of mathematics teaching. In E. Fennema and B.S. Nelson (Eds.) Mathematics Teachers in Transition. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Morse, A. & Wagner, P. (in press). Learning from parents. In D. Peressini (Ed.) Parents and Educational Reform: Power, Participation and Content.

Morse, A. & Wagner, P. (in press) Learning to listen: Lessons from a mathematics seminar for parents. Teaching Children Mathematics.

Russell, S.J. (in preparation). A case of classroom teachers becoming teacher educators: The challenge of teaching peers.

Russell, S.J. (1997) The role of curriculum in teacher development. In S. Friel & G. Bright (Eds.) Reflecting on Our Work: NSF Teacher Enhancement in Mathematics K-6, pp. 247-254. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.

Russell, S.J., Schifter, D., Bastable, V., Yaffee, L., Lester, J., & Cohen, S. (December, 1995). Learning mathematics while teaching. In B. Nelson, (Ed.) Inquiry and the Development of Teaching: Issues in the Transformation of Mathematics Teaching, 9-16. Newton, MA: Center for the Development of Teaching Paper Series, Education Development Center.

Schifter, D. (in press). Learning mathematics for teaching: From the teachers' seminar to the classroom. Journal for Mathematics Teacher Education. Also appears as (1997). Learning mathematics for teaching: Lessons in/from the domain of fractions. Center for the Development of Teaching Paper Series, Newton, MA: Education Development Center.

Schifter, D. (March, 1997). Operation sense as a foundation for algebra. Presented at the meeting of the American Education Research Association, Chicago.

Schifter, D. (1996). A constructivist perspective on teaching and learning mathematics. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(7), pp. 492-499. Also in C.T. Fosnot (Ed.) Constructivism: Foundations, perspectives, and practice, 73-91. New York: Teachers College Press.

Schifter, D. (December, 1995). Teachers' changing conceptions of the nature of mathematics: Enactment in the classroom. In B. Nelson, (Ed.) Inquiry and the Development of Teaching: Issues in the Transformation of Mathematics Teaching, 17-26. Newton, MA: Center for the Development of Teaching Paper Series, Education Development Center.

Schifter, D., Bastable, V., & Russell, S.J. (1997). Attention to mathematical thinking: Teaching to the Big Ideas. In S. Friel & G. Bright (Eds.) Reflecting on Our Work: NSF Teacher Enhancement in Mathematics K-6, pp. 255-262. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.

Schifter, D., Russell, S.J., & Bastable, V. (in press). Teaching to the Big Ideas. In M. Solomon (Ed.). The Diagnostic Teacher: Revitalizing Professional Development. New York: Teachers College Press.

Schifter, D., and O'Brien, D. (in press). Interpreting the Standards: Translating principles into practice. Teaching Children Mathematics.

Teaching to the Big Ideas (1997). Developing mathematical ideas, Module 1: Building a system of tens. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc.

Teaching to the Big Ideas (1997). Developing mathematical ideas, Module 2: Making meaning for operations. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc.

All of these sites are in the state of Massachusetts.

For more information, please contact:

Deborah Schifter
Center for the Development of Teaching
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02160
PHONE: 617-969-7100 ext 2564
FAX: 617-965-6325
dschifter@edc.org

Support for Teaching to the Big Ideas 2 has been provided by
The National Science Foundation

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