Transcript Improving Mathematics Teachers’ Technology, Mathematics

The Effects of collaborative
professional environment for
mathematics teaching
Zhaoyun Wang Douglas McDougall
University of Toronto
Introduction
 Teacher
efficacy is highly correlated to
student achievement.
 Mathematics teachers’ knowledge
includes subject matter knowledge,
pedagogical content knowledge and
knowledge of students.
 Collaborative Inquiry is a effective
strategy for professional development.
Background
 Cross-national
studies show that many
elementary school mathematics teachers need to
upgrade their knowledge.
 TIMSS (2011) and PISA(2009) studies identified
student misconceptions of Canadian students.
 Many middle school teachers encounter
challenges in teaching mathematics.
 Technology can assist in collaboration of
teaching and learning.
Research Questions
1. How
did middle school teachers
improve mathematics knowledge in a
collaborative professional
environment?
2. What pedagogical content knowledge
was changed in collaborative
environment?
3. How to best assist elementary school
teachers to collaboration by use of
technology?
Theoretical Framework
 Educational
“field has acknowledged a need for
more empirically valid methods of studying
professional development” (Desimone, 2009, p.
181).
 Teaching is a complex activity and life long
career.
 Professional development should emphasize
collaborative professional learning (Wei, et al.
2009).
 Collective collaboration is an effective way to
improve teachers’ professional knowledge.
Program Design
 Ten
Dimensions of Mathematics Education
(McDougall, 2004) conceptual framework.
 Participants: 31 eighth grade mathematics
teachers and 8 principals. They were from 8
elementary school in an urban school
district.
 Each participant school selected a couple of
dimensions as a focus for school
improvement, and the goals of teachers
aligned with the school goals.
Research Method
 Mixed
quantitative and qualitative research.
 Data collection: interviews with teachers and
administrators and survey
 Data coding: Excel and SPSS, Nvivo 10
 Data Analysis:
1. quantitative---Descriptive statistics and
paired t-test, Excel and SPSS
2. qualitative --- rubric, classified
qualitative data into categories and
subcategories
Findings—Quantitative Results
 Six
out of 20 items had significant
changes, which were closed related to
selected dimensions.
 Six out of 20 items had moderate
improvement.
 Some items did not have significant
changes because they were not focused on.
Findings--Qualitative results
 Participants
expressed that they had
improvements in their pedagogical content
knowledge and their use of technology.
 Teachers adopted technology for
communication with each other (emails,
blogs), and for the exchange of
information through a Wiki.
 Teachers upgraded mathematics
knowledge.
Discussion and Implication
 Quantitative
results and qualitative findings
were consistent with each other.
 Collaborative environment can enhance
teachers' passion to improve math and PCK.
 Teachers and schools selected the foci to
match their learning needs.
 Resources, strategies, monitoring and
assessment.
Conclusion
Factors for success
 Continued challenges
 Future Research

Thank You!
Questions?
Emails: [email protected]
[email protected]