Mathematics Education Around the World: Bridging Policy and Practice Park City Mathematics Institute International Conference. July 14-18, Jean Michel Hanna French Center of Culture and Cooperation in Cairo EGYPT

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna IN-SERVICE TRAINING IN EGYPT Training Program For Teachers and Inspectors of Mathematics In Primary Schools

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Outline Introduction. Principal features of the training program. Short description of the three phases of the program. Results. Some difficulties. General remarks.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Introduction Adding information or reorganizing pre- existing knowledge for a teacher is not a hard task.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Introduction But what is challenging is to change teachers’ practice in classrooms according to certain philosophy.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Trainer PupilTeacher training ? teaching training

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna The present experience can be considered an attempt to give a practical solution for the problem of changing teachers’ practice.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Principal features of the program The group of trainees consists of teachers and inspectors working together. The total period of the program is three school years, divided in three phases. In the first phase, I used “non-traditional” methods of studying mathematics. In the second phase, the trainees observed, analyzed and criticized the classroom practice of some other teachers. In the third phase, the trainees observed, analyzed and criticized their own classroom practice.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Short description of the three phases

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna First phase

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna The main purpose of this phase is to allow the trainees to modify their “model of teaching”.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna To achieve this goal, I tried to create a new relationship between trainees and mathematics, through studying mathematics “differently” for enough time.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna I assume that the trainees way of teaching is initially influenced by the way they have been taught. Therefore, I gave special attention to the choice of the content, and used “non-classical” methods of treating this content.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Examples of the type of content - Open problems. - Games. - Activities. - Creating new problems and sub-problems.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Examples of the methods used - Working in small groups. - Self-learning. - Participating in analyzing and evaluating the work done.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna At the end of this phase (140 hours), trainees are supposed to have “other” conceptions of learning and teaching mathematics. This is a necessary condition for the required modification, but not a sufficient one.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Second Phase

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna In this phase, the work was focused on teachers’ practice.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna In each training session ( 4 hours ) The trainees are asked to : - Watch a previously taped classroom lesson. - Analyze this lesson according to some given questions. - Write down (individually) their comments.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Second phase Afterwards, individual presentations took place, followed by a general discussion.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna In this way every one finds the occasion to: - Express his/her ideas and conceptions explicitly. - Confront his/her analysis with those of others.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - Hear and discuss the point of view of the specialists in mathematics education according to the results of research in this domain.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna At the end of this phase (100 hours) trainees are supposed to have acquired new criteria to judge the quality of mathematics teaching.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Third phase

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna This phase was mainly focused on teachers and based on the “self-image” of their practice in classrooms, while inspectors participated only in the common discussion, on the previously agreed criteria.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Each teacher was asked to : - Prepare a classroom lesson. - Discuss his/her preparation in front of the group. - Do any necessary modifications. - Teach this lesson in classroom in my presence.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna By means of a video - camera we filmed each of these lessons. After each lesson I stayed with the trainees individually to watch the film, and to discuss his/her comments and self- evaluation, specially the determination of differences between the previously prepared plan and what has happened with him in a real classroom.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Results Results - Radical changes in the way of teaching of almost 70% of the trainees were obvious.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna These changes consisted mainly of : - Changing the nature of their questions to the pupils, and the way of responding to the answers. - Using different methods based on pupils’ activities.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - Having more freedom to choose some additional problems, which demand some sort of stretch of the imagination. - Giving more attention to observing and interpreting pupils’ errors and behavior.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Some difficulties Some difficulties There were some obstacles that hindered the required changes of teachers’ practice in classrooms (the remaining 30%).

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Examples of these limitations - Influence of teachers’ colleagues working in the same school, specially the senior teachers.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - Rigid programs and centralized system of education in Egypt do not allow enough freedom for the teacher.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - Parents’ expectations from teachers. (only to help their children to obtain higher grades in exams)

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - The individual meetings with teachers in the third phase took longer time than expected (about 150 hours for 24 trainees).

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna General remarks General remarks - The participation of some inspectors with the teachers made situations more realistic, and helped each side to understand the other’s point of view.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - Differences between trainees’ backgrounds had been observed during different phases of the program (specially the second one). These differences have had positive influence, and made discussion much richer.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - No special type of teaching had been recommended. Each trained teacher started with what he/she thought promising.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna - It will be beneficial to organize a follow up program for these trainees.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Last and not least There is a need to evaluate the whole program in terms of possibility of its generalization and its effect in introducing qualitative change of “traditional” teaching.

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna Every time a mind is stretched, it can never go back where it started.