1. Our Current Best Thinking About… Professional Learning
<Welcome participants.>
Cathy Bruce
Shelley Yearley 1

2. Let’s look again… 6 green:4 yellow 6 green:10 shapes
How can you name this?
Part-Part (set)
6 green:10 shapes
Part-Whole (set)
One fifth of the total area is green
SHELLEY In North America, we tend to only consider part-whole relationships and ignore part-part relationships
Part-Whole (area)

3. Powerful Professional Learning
Think about… a professional learning experience that has been particularly important in supporting improved practice for you.
Make a quick note about what it was and why it was so powerful.
Keep this in mind through the session
SHELLEY

4. The Compelling Why
Most reforms stop short at the classroom door; all available evidence suggests that classroom practice has changed little in the past 100 years.
Lewis, Perry & Hurd, 2004
A Deeper Look at Lesson Study
Educational Leadership
CATHY

5. The Compelling Why
Webster-Wright’s 2009 review of over 200 studies on PD and PL found that “professionals learn from experience and that learning is ongoing through active engagement in practice” (p. 723).
However, the vast majority of educational PD programs have separated the learning opportunities from natural contexts and from practice.
CATHY

6. Assumptions
1. Teachers need fixing up 2. Learning out of context will be translated to classroom with ease 3. Others know best what teachers need
CATHY

7. Five Characteristics of Effective Professional Learning
The following five characteristics should be considered by anyone charged with, or seeking to provide professional learning experiences for Ontario’s teachers
i) Coherence
ii) Attention to Adult Learning Styles
iii) Goal-orientation
iv) Sustainable
v) Evidence-informed
SHELLEY
Recommendations to the Partnership Table on Teacher Professional Learning (2007)

8. Characteristics of Effective Professional Learning
Across multiple studies, there is clear evidence that sustained, iterative, teacher-directed and collaborative models of professional learning support significant gains in teacher efficacy.
Cathy Bruce…Across multiple studies, there is clear evidence that sustained, iterative, teacher-directed and collaborative models of professional learning support significant gains in teacher efficacy.
Dr. Cathy Bruce,
Science & Technology Education Group (2012)
Bruce, Esmonde, Ross, Gookey, Beatty (2010)

9. EXPLORATORY ACTIVITIES
Explanatory Diagram: The W Effect
GOAL SETTING
GOAL SETTING
REFINING
TEACHER LEARNING
debriefing
debriefing
planning
planning
C L A S S R O O M
STUDENT LEARNING
CATHY
W versus the M
A visual model of the difference between what we are calling PD and PL
EXPLORATORY ACTIVITIES
PRECISION

10. So Let’s Analyse Math CAMPPP
Consider the key characteristics of professional learning:
Where is Camppp stronger?
Where is Camppp weaker?
Collaborative
Teacher-directed
Research/evidence-
supported
- Sustained
- Classroom embedded
- Goal alignment
- Content rich
SHELLEY
Against key characteristics of PL
Certainly not classroom embedded
And how to overcome some of the challenges
Is this really collaborative?

11. So Let’s Analyse Math CAMPPP
Collaborative
Teacher-directed
Research-supported
Sustained
Classroom embedded
Goal alignment
Content rich
Rate on a scale of 1 to 5
(1 not really
5 absolutely)
What has Math CAMPPP done to try to overcome some of the challenges of a week-long PD experience in summer months?
SHELLEY Against key characteristics of PL
Certainly not classroom embedded
And how to overcome some of the challenges
Is this really collaborative?

12. Math Knowledge for Teaching
Mark Hoover Thames and Deborah Lowenberg Ball
PCK – knowing the most useful ways of representing and formulating the subject in order to make it comprehensible to others
CCK – knowing if an answer is correct, knowledge of definitions and procedures
Horizon Knowledge – ‘mathematical peripheral vision’
SHELLEY
This is all the mathematical knowledge important for teaching – the knowledge that teachers need to carry out their work as teachers of mathematics (Ball, Thames & Phelps, p.4)
Common Content Knowledge is the knowledge that is used in settings beyond the classrooms and includes evaluating the correctness of an answer, being able to provide definitions of concepts, and modeling procedural steps. It is the math that parents know!
PCK is the blend of knowing the content contained within the curriculum (what to teach) and the knowledge of how students learn in general and of their thinking (this is evidenced in anticipating common student misconceptions) and the knowledge of the content and the impact on teaching (such as sequencing, time, which examples to use).
SCK is part of what distinguishes the skills and knowledge of teachers of mathematics from others who utilize mathematics in their professional and/or personal lives. This extends beyond the knowledge we expect students to possess at the respective grade level and includes knowledge of how the mathematical concepts connect (such as the different interpretations of each of the operations – subtraction as ‘take away’ and as ‘comparison’). Teachers must not only be able to do mathematics but they also need to unpack elements of the mathematics to make it apparent to students. They need to be able to explain why in a variety of ways and to use correct and appropriate language to do so. This would include selecting a number line as a representation for students to use when learning about the meaning of fractions.
Finally, Thames and Ball discuss the knowledge at the mathematical horizon. This is the knowledge of the mathematics being taught within the context of what learning has preceded it and what will come in the future. It is a deep understanding of the connections between the conceptual understanding and the procedural algorithms, the connections of operations across number systems, the general mathematical properties which will hold true in other contexts. It allows teachers to build and extend student thinking as a strong foundation for subsequent learning, perhaps without making these connections explicit to the students.
SCK – knowing more math than CCK but distinct from PCK

13. Look back at your PL notes
What aspects of Math Knowledge for Teaching were strong in your professional learning experience?
SHELLEY – TAKE IT UP

14. Video Story from Digital Paper
Think about aspects of Math Knowledge for Teaching in this example of Collaborative Action Research
CATHY

15. Characteristics of Teacher Inquiry
Relevant
Collaborative
Reflective
Iterative
Reasoned
Adaptive
Reciprocal
(Capacity building series, 2010)
Should we consider adding:
Teacher directed (teacher as agent and decision maker)
Activist oriented
(practice implications)
Any other key characteristics? (to think about)
CATHY

16. Inquiry? Research? Or Both?
The Broad Context of Education
Inquiry
(origins as old as humankind)
Action
Research
(origins in social activism
1930’s)
Teacher and classroom
Inquiry
Educational Research
(since University of Chicago Laboratory School, around 1900)
Collaborative
Action
Research
(past 20 yrs)
CATHY
Kurt Lewen AR
Capobianco, and others CAR
Co-planning &
co-teaching
Book study/
Video study
Giant bird’s nest on drugs

17. Examples of high quality mathematics teacher inquiry
Collaborative inquiry (CILM, MYCI, GAINS)
Often involves co-planning, co-teaching, debriefing, with sustained focus on ‘difficult’ mathematics with the intention of enhancing practice and understandings
Examples of high quality teacher inquiry that are also research
Collaborative action research (CAR-TLT, KNAER)
Lesson Study (M4YC)
CLIPS (design research)
CATHY
Individual teacher inquiry perpetuates isolation norms

18. Myths Of Professional Learning
No budget for release time = no pd
No planning needed just show up
Drop in-between meeting/session activity
PLC, CIL-M, Inquiry, SIPSA are all different
Growing quickly is a good idea
Any one with facilitation skills can support math professional learning
A coach is a coach (no special training, and don’t need support themselves)
SHELLEY

19. Collaborative Action Research
SHELLEY It occurs over time (5 months for us with fractions) and is modified to align with the teachers’ needs and findings.
Text from TMERC Collaborative Action Research Digital Paper (

20. Why High Quality Math PL Is Important?
Agency (empowerment, ownership and constructive urgency)
Content learning (close attention to student work, listening and noticing)
Sustainability (will and capacity to continue)
Teacher efficacy (high efficacy leads to student increases in efficacy and achievement)
CATHY

21. CATHY

22. What opportunities might you have for…
slowing it down?
sustaining focus on a precise content piece?
building purposeful professional learning networks with researchers?
supporting collaborative teacher learning?
SHELLEY