Mathematics Teachers’ Curriculum Use at Different Stages of Implementation

1. Mathematics Teachers’ Curriculum Use at Different Stages of Implementation Stephanie Behm, Gwendolyn LloydVirginia Tech George PhilippouUniversity of Cyprus Edward Silver, Hala Ghousseini, Charalambos CharalambousUniversity of Michigan Valerie MillsOakland School District Thomas CooneyUniversity of Georgia

2. Introduction • Increased attention to students’ and teachers’ learning and experiences with the mathematics curriculum materials [CMs] developed in response to the NCTM (1989) Standards • Some aspects of curriculum use may be constant across the professional continuum; other aspects of curriculum use may be related to experience • Papers in this symposium will appear in a research volume dedicated to teachers’ curriculum use (Remillard, Lloyd, Herbel-Eisenmann, in preparation)

3. Factors Influencing Three Elementary Student Teachers’ Interactions with Mathematics Curriculum Materials Stephanie L. Behm Gwendolyn M. Lloyd Virginia Tech

4. Rationale • Shortage of information about preservice teachers’ use of Standards-based mathematics CMs • One responsibility of teacher educators • Research may help to inform professional development

5. Background • Perspectives on teachers’ curriculum use • Fidelity • Curriculum Interpretation • Participation with the Text(Remillard, 2005) • Categorizations of teachers’ curriculum use • “Thorough Piloting”(Remillard & Bryans, 2004) / “Offloading”(Brown & Edelson, 2003) • “Adopting”/“Adaptation” • “Intermittent or Narrow Use”/“Improvisation” • Curriculum use arenas: • Design • Construction • Mapping

6. The Study • Research Question: What are the experiences of student teachers as they use Standards-basedmathematics curriculum materials? • 3 student teachers • Heather: 1st grade, Clayton Elementary, Everyday Mathematics • Anne: Kindergarten, Clayton Elementary, Everyday Mathematics • Bridget: Kindergarten, Walnut Street Elementary, Silver Burdett Ginn

7. Heather’s Curriculum Use • “Thorough Piloting” or “Offloading” • Planned lessons to coincide with the EM text • During instruction, utilized EM teacher’s guide • Made adaptations to pace lessons • Successive lessons dependent upon next EM lesson • Viewed curriculum as a script “I feel like the teachers’ guide is a script, so I always have it with me because I never have it memorized. I just feel like if I miss a paragraph in the book then that will throw the whole lesson off. A lot of times it’s just too much information.”

8. Anne’s Curriculum Use • “Adaptation” • Made notes on the pages of the teachers’ guide • Made adaptations prior to instruction to challenge students and extend activity length • During instruction made further adaptations in response to concerns about student behavior • Taught each lesson 4 times -- room for further adaptation • Successive lessons dependent upon teachers’ choice “It’s brief what they [the authors of the curriculum materials] tell you to do, so it’s a lot of make up your own approach. Sometimes I write myself notes, but otherwise I just get it in my head and can go from there.”

9. Bridget’s Curriculum Use • Mixed use (piloted and adapted) • Piloted the required SBG workbook pages; however the State curriculum framework was the main resource used for determining the focus of lessons • Adapted lessons from EM and activities from her university courses • Lesson enactment centered on the assessment of students’ knowledge and classroom management • Successive lesson dependent upon students’ prior work “I had to use the workbook that you saw the students using. I needed to use that for every new thing that I did… The truth is, I have to use what they’re giving me, but I add to it where I think it’s lacking.”

10. Factors Influencing Curriculum UseThe Nature of the Materials in Use

11. Factors Influencing Curriculum UsePast Experiences in Preservice Coursework

12. Factors Influencing Curriculum UseContent Knowledge and Confidence in Teaching Mathematics

13. Factors Influencing Curriculum UseIndividual Student Teaching Contexts

14. Discussion and Implications • Exposure to curriculum materials during preservice coursework may have an impact on teachers’ curriculum use • We need to consider the impact of exposing preservice teachers to conceptually and practically different curricular resources

15. Discussion and Implications • Teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and confidence in teaching mathematics may have an impact on their curriculum use • Emphasizing strong content knowledge at the elementary level may be critical to flexible curriculum use

16. Discussion and Implications • Individual student teaching contexts impact teachers’ first experiences teaching with curriculum • As teacher educators, we need to be aware of the placement characteristics we can manipulate

17. Discussion and Implications • Help student teachers grapple with the complicated nature of curriculum enactment • Provide opportunities to explore and critique the specific curriculum to be used throughout student teaching • Encourage a critical stance towards curriculum materials and curriculum use • Work with teachers during their first planning and enactment experiences

18. Future Research • Continue to investigate factors that affect teachers’ curriculum use • Studies focused on student teachers’ beliefs about curriculum and curriculum use following student teaching • Longitudinal studies that follow student teachers into their first few years of inservice teaching • Consider the importance of language

19. Beginning Teachers’ Concerns Regarding the Adoption of New Mathematics Textbooks Constantinos Christou Maria Elioshotou Menon George Philippou (edphilip@ucy.ac.cy) University of Cyprus

20. Summary The authors investigate the degree to which Cypriot teachers in general, and novice teachers in particular, had accepted and felt confident in their ability to use the new curriculum a few years after the introduction of a national reform. The authors examine the influence the types of concerns teachers had regarding the innovation, on teachers' appraisals of the potential effectiveness of the new materials and on possible differences between novice and experienced teachers. George Philippou -- edphilip@ucy.ac.cy

21. Considering the Confounding Nature of Teachers’ Curriculum Use Thomas J. Cooney University of Georgia

22. Overview • Focus is on the nature of teachers’ interactions with curriculum materials • The common element across the three chapters is that of emphasizing process over the accumulation of information and the extent to which teachers’ use of curriculum materials achieve this end • Society has its own expectations of what mathematics teaching should be about • I would like to focus on two issues that emerged from the three chapters

23. Managing a Reform Oriented Classroom • Classroom management is an important concern for many teachers • In what ways does this concern interact with teachers’ use of curriculum materials? • The notion of Critical Moments • The notion of Didactical Contracts • The tension between atomization and attending to critical moments • How many critical moments can a teacher be expected to handle in a typical lesson? • The pros and cons of scripting lessons

24. The Issue of Multiplicity • Multiplicity is at the heart of reform • To what extent is multiplicity valued? • Need to “depolarize” multiplicity and covering content • Importance of Doubt and Debate when implementing curriculum materials • What factors impede or facilitate a teacher buying into the importance of multiplicity?

25. Conclusions • Reform and Context via Use of Curriculum Materials • Friedman’s “The World is Flat” and mathematics education • Avoiding indoctrination in favor of matters intellectual • Taylor: “Epistemological reform of the traditional mathematics classroom is synonymous with cultural reconstruction” • Chapters provide existence proofs about teachers’ positive use of curriculum materials • The three chapters put the spotlight on an important and rather new arena for research on reform in mathematics education. It has been a long time in coming.

26. Questions?Comments? Thank you!