Mathematics curriculum reform has no significant effect on what and how students learn unless classroom teachers learn about newly developed ideas and methods and get support for integrating them into their teaching. Results of the Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) study establish the technical basis for a model of teacher inservice offering not only training and follow-up but ongoing support. The results also demonstrate that there is an important opportunity for publishers of educational materials to play a key role in providing inservice support for their innovative materials which in turn support adherence to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. The objectives of the Phase II research focus on (1) continuing to develop and test a professional development model; (2) extending the range of professional development workshops and institutes both geographically and beyond its Phase I substantive focus on geometry; (3) creating a series of videos that can be used to provide or supplement professional development workshops; (4) starting professional development leadership workshops cum associated materials; (5) publishing a newsletter on professional development in secondary mathematics for workshop leaders, teachers, and mathematics supervisors; and (6) disseminating findings from Phases I and II. The project aims to prepare large numbers of teachers to use innovative materials effectively; to apply its inservice mode in more schools in a variety of settings (urban, suburban, rural); to propagate the successful professional development mode to other areas of mathematics education: problem solving, calculus, the core mathematics curriculum, and probability and statistics; to disseminate inservice economically and profitably, to research ways technology can be employed; and to promote effective integration of innovative technology tools such as computer software and graphing calculators into mathematics teaching. The project will contribute to the facilitation of sound curriculum change based on the premise that teachers are the key to producing change in the classroom and professional development is the key to reaching teachers with new ideas, content, methods and materials.
