Mathematics Education Around the World: Bridging Policy and Practice Park City Mathematics Institute International Conference. July 14-18, 2002. Jean Michel

Mathematics Education Around the World:Mathematics Education Around the World: Bridging Policy and Practice Bridging Policy and Practice

Park City Mathematics Institute International Conference. Park City Mathematics Institute International Conference. July 14-18, 2002.July 14-18, 2002.

Jean Michel Hanna

French Center of Culture and Cooperation in Cairo

[email protected]

PCMI 2002 Jean Michel Hanna

IN-SERVICE TRAINING IN-SERVICE TRAINING IN EGYPTIN EGYPT

Training Program For Teachers and Inspectors of Mathematics In Primary Schools

1995-1998


OutlineOutline

Introduction.Principal features of the training program.Short description of the three phases of the

program.Results.Some difficulties.General remarks.


IntroductionIntroduction

Adding information or reorganizing pre-existing knowledge for a teacher is not a hard task.


IntroductionIntroduction

But what is challenging is to change teachers’ practice in classrooms according to certain philosophy.


Trainer

Pupil Teacher

training?

teaching

training


The present experience can be The present experience can be considered an attempt to give a considered an attempt to give a practical solution for the problem ofpractical solution for the problem of

changing teachers’ changing teachers’ practice.practice.


Principal features of the Principal features of the programprogram

The group of trainees consists of teachers and inspectors working together.

The total period of the program is three school years, divided in three phases.

In the first phase, I used “non-traditional” methods of studying mathematics.

In the second phase, the trainees observed, analyzed and criticized the classroom practice of some other teachers.

In the third phase, the trainees observed, analyzed and criticized their own classroom practice.


Short description of the Short description of the three phasesthree phases


First phase


The main purpose of this phase is to allow the trainees to modify their “model of teaching”.


To achieve this goal, I tried to create a new relationship between trainees and mathematics, through studying mathematics “differently” for enough time.


I assume that the trainees way of teaching is initially influenced by the way they have been taught.

Therefore, I gave special attention to the choice of the content, and used “non-classical” methods of treating this content.


Examples of the type of Examples of the type of content content

- Open problems.

- Games.

- Activities.

- Creating new problems and sub-problems.


Examples of the methods Examples of the methods usedused

- Working in small groups.

- Self-learning.

- Participating in analyzing and evaluating the work done.


At the end of this phase (140 hours), trainees are supposed to have “other” conceptions of learning and teaching mathematics.

This is a necessary condition for the required modification, but not a sufficient one.


Second Phase


In this phase, the work was focused on teachers’ practice.


In each training session ( 4 hours )The trainees are asked to :

- Watch a previously taped classroom lesson.

- Analyze this lesson according to some given questions.

- Write down (individually) their comments.


Second phaseSecond phase

Afterwards, individual presentations took place, followed by a general discussion.


In this way every one finds the occasion to:

- Express his/her ideas and conceptions explicitly.

- Confront his/her analysis with those of others.


- Hear and discuss the point of view of

the specialists in mathematics education according to the results of research in this domain.


At the end of this phase (100 hours) trainees are supposed to have acquired new criteria to judge the quality of mathematics teaching.


Third phase


This phase was mainly focused on teachers and based on the “self-image” of their practice in classrooms, while inspectors participated only in the common discussion, on the previously agreed criteria.


Each teacher was asked to : - Prepare a classroom lesson.- Discuss his/her preparation in front of the

group.- Do any necessary modifications. - Teach this lesson in classroom in my

presence.


By means of a video - camera we filmed each of these lessons.

After each lesson I stayed with the trainees individually to watch the film, and to discuss his/her comments and self-evaluation, specially the determination of differences between the previously prepared plan and what has happened with him in a real classroom.


ResultsResults

- Radical changes in the way of teaching of almost 70% of the trainees were obvious.


These changes consisted mainly of :

- Changing the nature of their questions to the pupils, and the way of responding to the answers.

- Using different methods based on pupils’ activities.


- Having more freedom to choose some additional problems, which demand some sort of stretch of the imagination.

- Giving more attention to observing and interpreting pupils’ errors and behavior.


Some difficultiesSome difficulties

There were some obstacles that hindered the required changes of teachers’ practice in classrooms (the remaining 30%).


Examples of these limitationsExamples of these limitations

- Influence of teachers’ colleagues working in the same school, specially the senior teachers.


- Rigid programs and centralized system of education in Egypt do not allow enough freedom for the teacher.


- Parents’ expectations from teachers. (only to help their children to obtain higher grades

in exams)


- The individual meetings with teachers in the third phase took longer time than expected (about 150 hours for 24 trainees).


General remarksGeneral remarks

- The participation of some inspectors with the teachers made situations more realistic, and helped each side to understand the other’s point of view.


- Differences between trainees’ backgrounds had been observed during different phases of the program (specially the second one). These differences have had positive influence, and made discussion much richer.


- No special type of teaching had been recommended. Each trained teacher started with what he/she thought promising.


- It will be beneficial to organize a follow up program for these trainees.


Last and not leastLast and not least

There is a need to evaluate the whole program in terms of possibility of its generalization and its effect in introducing qualitative change of “traditional” teaching.


Every time a mind is stretched, it can never go back where it started.

Documents

Mathematics Education Around the World: Bridging Policy and Practice Park City Mathematics Institute International Conference. July 14-18, 2002. Jean Michel