The nation needs more outstanding mathematics teachers, a need that is critical to its competitiveness in an increasingly global economy and important if it is to give all students the opportunity to succeed in quantitative disciplines. This project is developing the infrastructure at Boston College to allow this institution to increase its capacity and contributions in this area. As a joint effort of faculty in Boston College's Department of Mathematics (College of Arts and Sciences) and Department of Teacher Education (the Lynch School of Education), the project is redesigning Boston College's Master's of Science in Teaching degree so that mathematically able students can complete it in 12 months, with a curriculum that seamlessly interweaves content, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogy. The existing Boston College induction program for new graduates is being expanded and linked to the professional development efforts of Math for America Boston (MfA Boston), a non-profit organization, which seeks to provide new teachers with immersion experiences in mathematics and on-going Pedagogical Content Knowledge development. In addition to developing a strong relationship with MfA Boston, the project is laying the groundwork for a credentialed Master Teachers' track at Boston College in order to develop the next generation of teacher-leaders in mathematics. This project builds on the connections between Boston College and high-need school districts with the goal of ultimately providing a steady stream of top mathematics teachers who are committed to urban teaching and well prepared to succeed in these settings.

Project Report

was awarded to Boston College. The purpose of the project was to develop a framework for a Teaching Fellows Program at Boston College. The proposed program added a mathematics focus with the plan to increase output of the current mathematics teacher preparation program at Boston College, linking it to the high quality professional development program at MfA Boston. We have been able to restructure the M.S.T. initial licensure program into one that students may complete in two academic semesters and two summer terms instead of a two-year period. This project provided time for us to build on successful upper division mathematics courses presently offered, including "Mathematical Problem Solving for Secondary Teachers," "Euclid’s Elements," and "History of Mathematics." Thus the capacity grant has allowed us time to adapt these to the M.S.T. level, by organizing supplementary materials for future teachers on these topics. These courses help bridge the gap between mathematical practice and reasoning that pervades the upper division mathematics curriculum. We have developed a new course named Advanced Mathematics for Secondary Education https://www2.bc.edu/~cheungc/mt474.html, which is based on a one-year-sequence course at Berkeley with similar title. In this course, the future teachers studied traditional high school mathematical topics from a broader conceptual and historical perspective. An overview of specific activities and outcomes follows. September 2011-to-March 2012: Collaborated with the non-profit Math for America Boston (MfA) and with colleagues at Boston University to develop a grant proposal for the TF/MTF Track of NSF Teaching Fellowship and Master Teaching Fellowship. The project, Mathematics Teachers for High Needs Schools (MTHNS), would offer two highly select groups of pre-service high school teachers a 5-year integrated program of study for an Master of Science Teaching (one year) and systematic professional development (4 years) during their formative years as new teachers, with a curriculum that seamlessly interweaves content, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogy. Our ultimate goal is to identify best practices and to design a program that is both locally sustainable and nationally replicable, so that this project may have high long-term national impact. We completed the grant proposal and submitted it to NSF in March 2012. October 2011: Participated in the CBMS Forum at Forum on Teaching Teachers in the Era of the Common Core October 2-4, 2011 (Hyatt Regency Hotel, Reston VA). In the forum, we discussed various issues of training pre-service teachers and how to provide professional development to in-service teachers that can support the mathematical practices and the mathematical content of the Common Core State Standards. Also, we participated in the Noyce Northeast Conference (October 13-15, 2011, Philadelphia, PA). This conference provided useful information about other Noyce programs in the Northeast. We were able to gather innovative information, which assisted with the development of our grant proposal. Summer 2012: Reworked the content of our one-credit course: Pedagogical Lab for Analysis, https://www2.bc.edu/~cheungc/mt499.html to adapt it to the Masters Degree level, with more emphasis on how the abstract theories of real numbers, limit, differentiation and integration are related to the K-12 math curriculum. Spring 2012: Created a new pilot course Secondary Math from an Advanced View Point for our M.Ed. students in the Spring semester of 2012. In this course, we covered the relevant mathematics in high school Algebra I and II, Pre-calculus and Calculus with emphasis on mathematical Integrity. We covered those topics more rigorously and thoroughly than those in the usual school curriculum. These can provide the future teachers a necessary background for the teaching of the material while also giving them a well-rounded view behind the structure of the subjects. Summer 2012: Continued to participate in the seminar series of the PROMYS for teachers program, which is organized by Boston University, and Math for America-Boston. (PROMYS is an intensive summer workshop for teachers and hopefully will become part of a future multi-university Noyce Teaching Fellowship project in the Boston area.)

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1136321
Program Officer
Joan T Prival
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2011-09-01
Budget End
2012-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$88,117
Indirect Cost
Name
Boston College
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Chestnut Hill
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02467