University of Haifa will expand development of the diagnostic environments and will train coaches to help teachers utilize the system
Clinical teaching is based on the ability of the teacher to diagnose the knowledge and abilities of each and every student in the classroom, recognize their difficulties, and adapt the teaching to his or her needs. One year ago, the University of Haifa began a pilot experiment to develop a computerized diagnostic learning environment to enable mathematics teachers to make real-time decisions based on the way in which students solve mathematical exercises.
They sought to develop a system, which allows the student to solve open, complex geometry questions, while allowing the teacher to use a simple interface to assess the student’s answer. The system provides automatic feedback for the teacher, based on the analysis of typical mistakes and identifying various kinds of solutions, both at a class-wide and individual student level.
The system was built in close consultation with a team of four teachers, who developed and classroom-tested over 50 geometry assignments with specific adaptations for 10th-12th grade five-unit mathematics. These pilot tests have demonstrated that the system is able to diagnose which students solved the assignments correctly, which mathematics strategies were used, who encountered difficulties, and which types of mistakes were made. The system is able to identify who knew the answer and who guessed; it reveals different methods used by the students to solve the problems and thus enables the teacher to help the class develop different thinking patterns leading to different solutions.
As a next step, the program proposes to expand the development to a greater number of mathematics subjects. They reason that teaching using diagnostic assignments requires a drastic pedagogical change, and therefore it is easier to introduce across the board, rather than in one subject alone. However, the fact that the content available at present only relates to a small portion of the curriculum makes it difficult to generate demand among teachers and to distribute and implement at scale.
Therefore, they plan over the next three years to expand the diagnostic environment to encompass the entire Israeli curriculum for 9th-12th grades including geometry, calculus and algebra at the five-unit level to include approximately 1,000 assignments. To do so and in order to facilitate increased usage of the system by teachers, they plan to train coaches to implement the diagnostic environment in collaboration with teams of teachers.
In the first stage, ten teachers will be recruited to join the development team and will be trained to be implementation coaches. Each coach will work with a small team of teacher- instructors to develop diagnostic assignments in response to their practical needs, and test them in the classroom. Over the first two years, 40 teacher-instructors will be recruited via partnerships with municipalities, school networks and professional development frameworks.
The instructor will then go on to work with about 200 teachers who will participate in the program as active users of its tools and contents. The working environment will enable these teachers to provide feedback, ratings and suggestions to the development team for improving the tools and assignments.
This project will be headed by world renowned researcher, Vice President and Dean of Research at University of Haifa, Prof. Michal Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi and her team are accompanying the program with research which is funded by research grants, totaling 2,975,000 NIS from NSF and ISF.