The Levinsky College will adapt the “Five Practices” methodology and use it to promote student-centered teaching and effective learning
Three years ago, Levinsky College pioneered the ‘Delta’ Teacher Residency Program as a one-year teacher training and alumni support program for career-changers who wish to re-train as junior-high school mathematics and science teachers. It caters to 30 student teachers per year, 20 in mathematics and 10 in the sciences, and so far it has trained 54 teachers, of which 41 are employed. As the grant from the foundation has concluded, and since Levinsky College perceives the program as successful, it has decided to continue next year relying on its own budget.Nevertheless, in discussion with the foundation team, when analyzing the quality and effectiveness of the program and the feedback from the participants, several challenges surfaced:
To address these challenges, Levinsky College approached the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) at Pittsburgh University in the US. Established in 1963, the LRDC has developed a methodology of orchestrating classroom-based discussions of mathematics that are rooted in student thinking. The methodology is titled “The Five Practices” and it aims to structure teaching routines in which important mathematical ideas are brought to the surface, contradictions are exposed, and understandings are developed or consolidated. By giving teachers a road map of things that they can do in advance and during whole-class discussions, these practices have proved over the years to promote thoughtful student-centered teaching and effective learning.
Having learned the methodology in-depth, Levinsky College is proposing to adapt it in order to train twelve teacher-instructors from three training schools, to use it in their classrooms and in their mentoring of Delta’s teaching residents. Three instructional coaches of the college will train the teacher-instructors and 30 Delta residents over one year on how to use the methodology. They will develop a video repository of cases, showing use of the five practices in class, which will be available for future use by program participants and the professional community. The adapted methodology will then be pilot-tested and following feedback and improvement, it will be incorporated as in integral component of the Delta program.