Collaboration: An alternative approach for mathematics teachers' professional development and student learning [PowerPoint presentation]
Date
2013-06-24
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Abstract
The Jamaican education system is failing to prepare and qualify many of the nation's youth exiting secondary school for higher educational pursuits or for the workforce because of the predominant use of the traditional direct teaching methodology in the classrooms. This study therefore sought to conceptualize, introduce, and examine the development of an alternative approach to the traditional approach for professional development for a selected set of secondary school mathematics teachers, and to explore the generation and accommodation of this approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics. Data were collected from participants through interviews, observations, coaching conferences, students' written reflections, and small group discourses. The results revealed that the trust-building tools of Cognitive Coaching Discourses, which included grouping in the collaborative setting with the assignment of specific roles; and techniques in questioning, including wait-time, paraphrasing and probing, and body language were considered important cornerstones of the professional development experiences and the mathematics learning experiences. The tools employed by teachers and students led to them experiencing a greater sense of efficacy, deeper understanding of principles and concepts, and a sense of caring and teamwork, which generated of a trusting culture for mathematics teaching and learning
Description
Paper presented at the Biennial Conference of The University of the West Indies Schools of Education, 23-25 April, 2013, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
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Secondary school teachers, Mathematics teachers, Secondary school mathematics, Secondary school students, Mathematics education, Teaching techniques, Learning outcomes, Conference papers, Jamaica