The proposed study is an effort to bring the Problem-Solving Cycle model of mathematics professional development to scale by fostering the facilitation skills of middle school mathematics instructional leaders (ILs). The study includes 2½ years of preparation and support for all the ILs within a large urban school district with a substantial minority student enrollment. These ILs will implement the PSC with the mathematics teachers in their schools. Researchers will analyze the preparation and support that ILs need, the quality of their implementation, and the impact of the PD process on ILs, teachers, and students.
In recent years there has been a growing demand for professional development (PD) opportunities that strengthen mathematics teaching and lead to improved student learning. To meet this demand, the educational community must create effective PD models that are scalable and sustainable - models in which mathematics teachers come together on a continual basis to identify relevant goals and to hone their craft. One key factor in implementing sustainable, scalable PD is the identification and preparation of qualified individuals who can serve as PD leaders. The Problem-Solving Cycle and Mathematics Leadership Preparation models offer one approach to addressing all of these needs. The Problem-Solving Cycle is an iterative, long-term, practice-based approach to PD for mathematics teachers, with the goals of increasing teachers’ knowledge of mathematics for teaching, improving their instructional practices, and fostering student achievement gains. The Problem-Solving Cycle consists of a series of interconnected PD workshops organized around a rich mathematics problem. In the first workshop the teachers work on a mathematics problem they will later have their students solve. They generate and compare multiple solution strategies, identify the fundamental mathematical concepts, plan how they will adapt the problem to meet their students’ needs, and anticipate the challenges they may encounter. Then, they teach the problem to their students and their lessons are videotaped. In the second workshop, the facilitator selects and guides a discussion of video clips and presses teachers to analyze student thinking and sense-making. In the third workshop, the facilitator selects additional video clips and guides the group to discuss the teacher’s role and instructional moves. The Mathematics Leadership Preparation model is designed to prepare teacher leaders to facilitate site-based Problem-Solving Cycle workshops with their colleagues. The model consists of two major components: a Summer Leadership Academy and cycles of Leader Support Meetings. Just as the Problem-Solving Cycle provides ongoing professional learning opportunities for teachers, the Mathematics Leadership Preparation model provides continuous learning opportunities for teacher leaders. In both the Summer Leadership Academy and Leader Support Meetings, teacher leaders meet regularly to try out PD practices and receive feedback through modeling, role-playing, and rehearsals. As part of the "Toward a Scalable Model of Mathematics Professional Development: A Field Study of Preparing Facilitators to Implement the Problem-Solving Cycle" our research team investigated the impact, scalability, and sustainability of the Problem-Solving Cycle and Mathematics Leadership Preparation models. We worked closely with one large suburban school district in Colorado to prepare mathematics teacher leaders to facilitate the Problem-Solving Cycle in their middle schools. The basis of our partnership was that university personnel would provide initial preparation and support to designated teacher leaders through Summer Leadership Academies and Leader Support Meetings. The teacher leaders, in turn, would implement the Problem-Solving Cycle at the school level. Over a three-year time period, the research team provided gradually decreasing support, whereas the school district provided gradually increasing support. By the fourth year of the project, responsibility for maintaining, overseeing, and ensuring resources for the Problem-Solving Cycle and Mathematics Leadership Preparation models shifted to the district. At the conclusion of the partnership, the district remains highly committed to continuing the implementation of these models and using them as a vehicle for promoting not only teacher and student learning, but other district priorities as well. These priorities include implementing the Common Core State Standards and reform-based mathematics teaching more generally, strengthening district-wide and site-based professional learning communities for mathematics teachers, and developing the leadership capacity of mathematics teachers throughout the district. They have now expanded the Problem-Solving Cycle and Mathematics Leadership Preparation models to include high school mathematics teachers, established the Problem-Solving Cycle as a district-wide initiative for secondary mathematics teachers, and created an internal structure for the facilitators to be supported on an ongoing, long-term basis. This research project demonstrates the promise of the Problem-Solving Cycle model of PD for impacting both teachers and students. The participating teachers showed a significant gain in their mathematical knowledge for teaching and notable improvement on specific dimensions of instructional quality. The most consistent instructional improvement was in teachers’ ability to respond to students’ ideas and remediate errors in mathematically appropriate ways. Additionally, in four of the five years of the project, students of the participating teachers earned the highest average scores on the state standardized mathematics assessment, relative to both an in-district comparison sample and a state sample. The project contributes specific knowledge about how to introduce and maintain large-scale instructional improvement that is aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The Problem-Solving Cycle and Mathematics Leadership Preparation models provide a structure for improving instruction and student learning outcomes by building capacity within districts to offer sustainable and scalable mathematics PD.
