Mathematics Studio Fellowship Program - A Model for Mentoring New and Master Teachers

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The Mathematics Studio Fellowship Program involves a close collaboration between Oregon State University (OSU) and Teachers Development Group (TDG), a non-profit organization for K-12 professional development in mathematics. It builds on a pilot program for the studio classroom begun through the Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute (OMLI) Partnership. The OSU and TDG partners are providing a 5-year professional development cycle for 8 Master Teaching Fellows (MTF), and a 5-year master's degree and professional development program for 4 Teaching Fellows (TF). Participating high needs school districts use the mathematics studio classroom model, allowing for tight connections between the MTF and TF components of the program. During the M.S. degree year, the pre-service TFs attend studio classroom cycles, and later work as teachers in districts that have adopted the studio classroom model. In a mathematics studio classroom, which embodies many of the evidence-based principles for effective professional development, school teachers and administrators sit on the periphery of the classroom, observing while a peer (the studio teacher) conducts a lesson with actual students. At the teacher's side is a coach who can suggest teaching strategies "in the moment." Immediately following the lesson the resident teachers and administrators, the studio teacher, and the coach engage in facilitated discussion about the mathematics of the lesson, the mathematical thinking of the students as evidenced by the classroom discourse, and the influence of the teaching decisions and moves made during the class. In this project, the MTFs serve as studio teachers, help to plan the studio cycles, and begin to assume the role of coach. In addition they assist with the design and co-teaching of a seminar in best practices in teaching mathematics that is offered to the TFs. TFs participate as resident teachers in the studio classrooms during their earliest field experiences. This model is thus serving as a greenhouse for encouraging and nurturing deep and substantive professional discourse about mathematics and student learning in the real context of classroom teaching. The studio classroom structure is especially helpful in supporting and nurturing new teachers by inducting them into a highly functioning professional learning community.