Developing a Professional Learning Community Model for Secondary Precalculus Teachers: A Model for Teacher Professional Growth

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This five-year project, entitled "Developing a Professional Learning Community Model for Secondary Precalculus Teachers: A Model for Teacher Professional Growth," will produce a model for a Professional Learning Community (PLC) for pre-calculus teachers in secondary schools. It will generate research knowledge from cycles of (1) defining, (2) studying and (3) refining the model and its components. The project leadership team will then be able to describe the support structure, group processes and tools needed to assist secondary pre-calculus teachers in providing high quality instruction for their students. PLC tools will be developed and refined to facilitate Teachers' "reflection-on-students'" thinking and reasoning relative to the major concepts of pre-calculus mathematics. The activities of the PLCs will also support teachers' continued conceptual and mathematical development, while promoting reflections on the effectiveness of their classroom practices. The leadership team expects that the teachers' rich reservoir of new knowledge and understandings will be observable in the ways in which they orchestrate learning experiences for their students. They anticipate qualitative improvements in their classroom practices (perceivable in their questions and questioning patterns, the design and substance of their tasks, the conceptual focus of their exams), resulting in improved learning in their students. Implementation of this model will produce a set of research-developed tools to assist individual schools in devising and implementing a plan to support secondary teacher professional growth.