Framework document on teaching practices

The foundation’s portfolio includes an arsenal of development, training and implementation programs that teach mathematics in real-world contexts. This content is very different from the traditional learning material, which favors technical skills and abstract thinking. Teaching the new content however, requires a very different approach by teachers. Traditionally, they use constructivist methodologies that build knowledge and skill incrementally. In contrast, with advanced mathematical modeling and reasoning and with solving complex problems, students need to choose their own learning path and explain their choices.

Teachers in new excellence classes train in how to use the new content in their classes. They go through designated courses and then join a professional learning community. In the community, they share practices with their peers to improve their instruction. In this process, their own knowhow is transformed and upgraded, based on their experience, as well as the experience accumulated by working with their colleagues. This experience is however still idiosyncratic, the methods and tools are sporadic and there are as yet no shared standards that drive teaching forward.

In order to raise the bar and create joint teaching standards for the new content, we approached the Levinsky College of Education. Levinsky College is a veteran partner of the foundation that previously received a grant to develop a database of teaching practices based on the collective wisdom of mathematics teachers at the five-unit level in high school. Now, the need is to observe and analyze the teaching of middle school teachers in excellence classes, who are using the new material, and to reverse engineer their methodology and technique.

Levinsky is proposing to convene a workgroup that will seek to address the following questions: How do middle school teachers of excellence classes encourage their students to effectively engage in high-order thinking and applications? What are the prerequisites and necessary conditions for such teaching to take place? And, what specific teaching techniques are most helpful? The workgroup will consist of 15 developers and teachers who will meet for 10 sessions, including a two-day retreat. The meetings will include discussions based on 25 classroom observations with teachers who implement the content in their classrooms and interviews they will conduct with policy makers and teachers, as well as lectures by guest speakers from Israel and abroad.

The product of the workgroup will be a framework document presenting key practices of teaching high-order applied mathematics in middle school. The framework will then be presented at a special seminar and be used to guide further development by the foundation and its partners. The framework document will be fully available to the professional community in an online version, free of charge.

* The text  above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 438