What's New
Improving Teacher Quality
Mathematics Understanding Learning and Teaching (MULT) Project
Grant Number: 07-424 Grant Award: $974,959 Duration of Project: Monday, October 01, 2007 - Friday, September 30, 2011 Project Subject Areas: Mathematics Grade Band: K-2Project Websites:
Institutes of Higher Education:
- California State University, Fresno
Local Education Agencies:
- Riverdale Joint Unified, Riverdale
Partners:
- Chowchilla Adventist Elementary, Chowchilla
- Laton Elementary, Laton
- Robinson Elementary, Fresno
Number of teachers/principals/highly qualified paraprofessionals participating in the project:
50Goals:
- Provide a coherent and comprehensive program that empowers teachers to make informed instructional decisions based on children’s thinking
- Strengthen children’s conceptual understanding of mathematics
- Establish a school culture that is collegial and supportive among and between teachers, school administrators and staff, and the local community
- Conduct meaningful research that adds to the knowledge base of both Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) and Lesson Study instructional strategies
- Disseminate findings broadly
Activities:
The primary activities include professional development based in Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) and Japanese Lesson Study. During each year of the project, teachers will participate in five Saturday sessions which will address making instruction decisions based on children's mathematical thinking.One Saturday each year will include a guest speaker who has done research in CGI or Lesson Study. Additionally there will be 2 school site meetings each month and 2 days each semester when lesson study teams will teach, observe and revise their lesson study lessons. Summer activities will include attending related conferences and summer institutes focused on Lesson Study and mathematics content.
Anticipated Outcomes:
- Teachers will have a deeper knowledge about the development of children’s mathematical thinking as shown by an increase in the use of alternative pedagogical approaches and instructional strategies to guide mathematics instruction
- Teachers will demonstrate a significant increase in the percentage of correct answers on a mathematics content assessment given twice each school year
- Teacher attitudes and beliefs about mathematics instruction will become more positive over time
- Students will use an increased number of strategies to complete mathematical tasks; demonstrate significantly higher achievement scores on state (CST) and local standardized mathematics assessments as compared to a matched control group of student
Contacts:
Project: Naomi Kent, Research Director, naomik@csufresno.eduInstitute of Higher Education: Rajee Amarasinghe, Co-Director, ramarasi@csufresno.edu
Institute of Higher Education: Melanie Wenrick, Project Director, mwenrick@csufresno.edu
Local Education Agency: Terry Anderson, LEA Co-Director, tanderson@riverdale.k12.ca.us