This study uses a national probability sample of 1,027 mathematics and science teachers to provide the first large-scale empirical comparison of effects of different characteristics of professional development on teachers’ learning. Results, based on ordinary least squares regression, indicate three core features of professional development activities that have significant, positive effects on teachers’ self-reported increases in knowledge and skills and changes in classroom practice: (a) focus on content knowledge; (b) opportunities for active learning; and (c) coherence with other learning activities. It is primarily through these core features that the following structural features significantly affect teacher learning: (a) the form of the activity (e.g., workshop vs. study group); (b) collective participation of teachers from the same school, grade, or subject; and (c) the duration of the activity.

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What Makes Professional Development Effective? Results From a National Sample of Teachers

Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

This article is a sequel to the conversation on learning initiated by the editors of Educational Researcher in volume 25, number 4. The author’s first aim is to elicit the metaphors for learning that guide our work as learners, teachers, and researchers. Two such metaphors are identified: the acquisition metaphor and the participation metaphor. Subsequently, their entailments are discussed and evaluated. Although some of the implications are deemed desirable and others are regarded as harmful, the article neither speaks against a particular metaphor nor tries to make a case for the other. Rather, these interpretations and applications of the metaphors undergo critical evaluation. In the end, the question of theoretical unification of the research on learning is addressed, wherein the purpose is to show how too great a devotion to one particular metaphor can lead to theoretical distortions and to undesirable practices.

https://www.it.uu.se/edu/course/homepage/cosulearning/st11/reading/Sfard_ER1998.pdf

On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One

Este libro describe un importante conjunto de habilidades clave que aumentan el aprendizaje mas profundo, la preparacion para la universidad y la carrera, el aprendizaje centrado en el estudiante y el pensamiento de orden superior. Estas etiquetas incluyen habilidades cognitivas y no cognitivas, como pensamiento critico, resolucion de problemas, colaboracion, comunicacion efectiva, motivacion, persistencia y aprender a aprender. Las habilidades del siglo XXI tambien incluyen creatividad, innovacion y etica que son importantes para el exito posterior y pueden desarrollarse en entornos de aprendizaje formales o informales. Este informe tambien describe como estas habilidades se relacionan entre si y con las habilidades y contenidos academicos mas tradicionales en las disciplinas clave de lectura, matematicas y ciencias. Educacion para la vida y el trabajo: Desarrollar conocimientos y habilidades transferibles en el siglo XXI resume los hallazgos de la investigacion que investiga la importancia de tales habilidades para el exito en la educacion, el trabajo y otras areas de responsabilidad adulta y que demuestra la importancia de desarrollar estas habilidades. en la educacion K-16. En este informe, se identifican caracteristicas relacionadas con el aprendizaje de estas habilidades, que incluyen desarrollo profesional docente, curriculo, evaluacion, programas extraescolares y extraescolares y centros de aprendizaje informal como exhibiciones y museos.

Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century

Inquiry experiences can provide valuable opportunities for students to improve their understanding of both science content and scientific practices. However, the implementation of inquiry learning in classrooms presents a number of significant challenges. We have been exploring these challenges through a program of research on the use of scientific visualization technologies to support inquiry-based learning in the geosciences. In this article, we describe 5 significant challenges to implementing inquiry-based learning and present strategies for addressing them through the design of technology and curriculum. We present a design history covering 4 generations of software and curriculum to show how these challenges arise in classrooms and how the design strategies respond to them.

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Addressing the Challenges of Inquiry-Based Learning Through Technology and Curriculum Design

We argue that reform in curriculum and instruction should be based on allowing students to problematize the subject. Rather than mastering skills and applying them, students should be engaged in resolving problems. In mathematics, this principle fits under the umbrella of problem solving, but our interpretation is different from many problem-solving approaches. We first note that the history of problem solving in the curriculum has been infused with a distinction between acquiring knowledge and applying it. We then propose our alternative principle by building on John Dewey’s idea of “reflective inquiry,” argue that such an approach would facilitate students’ understanding, and compare our proposal with other views on the role of problem solving in the curriculum. We close by considering several common dichotomies that take on a different meaning from this perspective

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Problem Solving as a Basis for Reform in Curriculum and Instruction: The Case of Mathematics

Researchers from 4 projects with a problem-solving approach to teaching and learning multidigit number concepts and operations describe (a) a common framework of conceptual structures children construct for multidigit numbers and (b) categories of methods children devise for multidigit addition and subtraction. For each of the quantitative conceptual structures for 2-digit numbers, a somewhat different triad of relations is established between the number words, written 2digit marks, and quantities. The conceptions are unitary, decade and ones, sequence-tens and ones, separate-tens and ones, and integrated sequence-separate conceptions. Conceptual supports used within each of the 4 projects are described and linked to multidigit addition and subtraction methods used by project children. Typical errors that may arise with each method are identified. We identify as crucial across all projects sustained opportunities for children to (a) construct triad conceptual structures that relate ten-structured quantities to number words and written 2-digit numerals and (b) use these triads in solving multidigit addition and subtraction situations.

Children's Conceptual Structures for Multidigit Numbers and Methods of Multidigit Addition and Subtraction.

Introduction By 1988, our group had completed several studies on young students’ understanding of particular concepts before, during and after instruction. These experiences led us to conduct two small scale and several informal teaching experiments based on the idea that the teacher should pose problems to students for which they do not yet have a routine solution method available, and that learning would take place while the students were grappling with the problems. The outcomes of these experiments helped us to develop the following tentative model for learning and teaching mathematics:

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Learning through Problem Solving.

Hiebert, J., Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., Fuson, K., Human, P., Murray, H., Olivier, A., & Wearne, D. (1996). Problem solving as a basis for reform in curriculum and instruction: The case of mathematics. Educational Researcher, 25(4), 12-21. Smith, J. P. & Thompson, P. W. (in press). Additive quantitative reasoning and the development of algebraic reasoning. In J. Kaput (Ed.), Employing children's natural powers to build algebraic reasoning in the context of elementary mathematics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Thompson, P. W. (1993). Quantitative reasoning, complexity, and additive structures. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 25,165-208.

Hanlie Murray

Papers

Problem Solving as a Basis for Reform in Curriculum and Instruction: The Case of Mathematics

Children's Conceptual Structures for Multidigit Numbers and Methods of Multidigit Addition and Subtraction.

Learning through Problem Solving.

Making Mathematics Problematic: A Rejoinder to Prawat and Smith

Rejoinder: Making Mathematics Problematic: A Rejoinder to Prawat and Smith