In preparing for the interview assignment I wanted to consider how to conduct the interview in a way that reflected by current reality of being a consultant for my school district and focus on teacher professional development. I decided to interview two of my colleagues from the department I work for called Learning Services Innovation. This department is comprised of consultants that are responsible for technology, curriculum, assessment, languages, and inclusive education. The primary role of consultants is to provide teacher professional development, model classroom lessons, create classroom resources based on the Program of Study, and support research in their discipline area. We all work independently and separately of each other, that is unless we choose to collaborate. This collaboration became the inspiration for my interview. One of my fellow Emerging Technology Consultants decided to work together with one of our Mathematics Consultants to create a series of professional development to support technology in mathematics instruction. I decided to interview them both.
“Doug” has been teaching for 20 years from Elementary to Junior High. He was trained as a Generalist Educator teaching all subject areas but through the years his focus became Science, Technology and Math in junior high. He holds a BEd, CST (Computer Systems Diploma) and a Masters of Educational Leadership. He has been an Emerging Technology Consultant for for 6 years
“Tracy” has been teaching for 26 years as an Elementary generalist. She has taught all subjects for grades 1-6. She always loved teaching math according to her “once I understood it”. Tammy has been an Elementary Math Consultant for the last 5 years with a focus on grades 1-4.
The interview was conducted on Jan 17 at our Learning Services innovation home base St Peters Centre. This is an old school that has been converted to hold meetings in old classrooms, and house consultants in an old gym which we lovingly call the Bull Pit. Despite the openness of the gym, we have cubicle areas for our departments thus creating physical silos. Collaboration is rare. Used voice typing in Google Docs to capture the conversation.
My questions were developed to examine teacher professional development.
- What was your rationale for deciding to have both the Math Consultant and the Emerging Technology consultant collaborate for teacher professional development?
- As an educational consultant, how would you respond to the statement “technology is optional in mathematics instruction”?
- How do you use and model technology in teacher professional development?
- What are specific technology tools and use of those tools that you recommend to enhance math instruction?
- What has been the impact of using technology for mathematics on student learning you have experienced both positive and/or negative?
- If you could offer some advice, how could we better prepare teachers to integrate technology in math?
The interview was enlightening and inspiring. Three key words became clear as we engaged in this professional conversation. Professional Development, Student Learning, and Mindset.
Professional Development
Teacher professional development is key to my role as a consultant. My job is to vision what information and skills teachers need in order to affect student achievement. Traditionally professional development has been face to face sit and get style sessions where the “expert” (in this case the consultant) transmits information to the participants. The teachers then take away the information and go back to their classrooms to apply it. Our department runs these sessions in independent subject area silos. The time and space between the session and the classroom is where the difficulties of application can be found. Teacher’s do not find themselves sufficiently prepared to use technology in the classroom due to a lack of preparation during the course of their education degrees and a one size fits all technology integration approach found in professional development that does not take into account the diverse context of their teaching (Koehler, Cain, & Mishra, 2013). A new approach for teacher professional development is necessary. One that is cross disciplined, hands on, community driven, and timely. Tracy and Doug wanted to reimagine the possibilities of professional development. Tracy spoke of the rationale for this partnership based on “ it rose out of aneed. As the math consultant I was looking for ways to incorporate more technology into classrooms and also help technology be seen as a tool for instruction and learning. Not simply for using computers to play or to go on the math website and have students randomly play games on it.” Many teachers will contact consultants only for lists of apps or websites. It is a difficult conversation to have when you know that the teacher needs the pedagogy and content to go with the list of tech. Doug is hoping these professional development series where teachers come for hands on application and training can help. Doug said “it was important to me as an educational technology consultant to root the technology into pedagogy and embed as part of curriculum. There does have to be a purpose communicated for teachers so that it [technology] is not looked upon as a shiny new toy or something fun that’s in the classroom that has no rigor behind it. To be able to link up with another consultant provides that for me as well. As well it helps to reduce the silos that we often experience in education where we have people working in their own areas, but yet there’s so much richness among the other areas it was good to join forces so that we can share the strengths and talents to better serve our students”. Prior to working with Doug, Tracy shared that her professional development lacked the importance of technology as one of the mathematical processes. She said “Prior to working with “Doug” I was integrating only a small amount of technology but when we look at our mathematical processes one of our processes is technology. So I had the use of low tech like pencils, paper and calculators, but I really wanted to integrate technology by using it as an effective tool to enhance student instruction instead of for gaming purposes”. Tracy goes on to describe the purpose behind this PD model “I think it’s really important that when we are modeling the technology we also give the rationale behind it. It’s really important to to share with teachers our purpose and the purpose of using a specific tool in their math classrooms. We also really showcase how by building teacher capacity with a sharing out of crowdsourcing and co-creating lessons showing how technology can be used and shared amongst others and in ways to easily differentiate your math instruction.” It is essential in professional development that teachers have the opportunity to understand the deeper knowledge fundamentals of what they teach (Koehler, Cain, & Mishra, 2013). This is what leads to student learning.
Student Learning
The key to all we do is student learning. It is what we are in the business of afterall. It is essential that we attempt to dispel the myth that technology is optional in mathematics instruction. In fact it is one of the mathematical processes as found in our Alberta Program of Study. Yet a major impact on student learning of ICT skills as part of their daily instruction is teacher skill. The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is a new international study whose purpose is to assess the extent to which students know about, understand, and are able to use information and communications technology (ICT). When teachers face too many barriers and obstacles with using technology, they are more likely to not have those technologies used by their students in class.
Additionally we need to look at personalized learning and what each student needs to succeed. Tracy outlines this by stating “technology is not optional in a math classes when we really look at the needs of all learners and we look at the different needs of how are students are coming in and where we have gaps in their learning. We have to look at technology to enhance student instruction, so it really is about differentiation. Traditionally when we only have the paper, pencil and textbook we are reaching only a small number of students. So technology to me is hugely valuable and it can’t be an option, you can’t opt out when we look at all these list of tools that are out there and all the support that can act as a central component in the math world”. Doug furthers this by sharing “I think it’s also important that we look at leveling the playing field for kids. Technology definitely plays a large role in helping those students who need those other methods. It’s at least allowing more venues for students to be able to to learn the concepts they otherwise could not learn from traditional pencil and paper alone. We are building upon a competency so that we are creating those individuals that are ready for society as adults that can contribute in a productive and effective way.” Purpose is important and we need to model and share specific ways to use technology as part of our instruction in order to impact learning. We cannot make suggestions based on general ideas and terms. Both Tracy and Doug are very specific in their modeling and recommendations as actionable tasks to be taken directly to students. Tracy recommends using technology for “guided math or small group instruction. Technology really enables teachers to set up stations where students can be self-paced. They can work on their own or they can work in a group so you know it could be a mass light that yoon math learning sites or virtual manipulatives. Really individualizing personalized instruction by using such things as hyperdocs makes learning personal for the student.” Doug continues this by also recommending “some of the movements that we had in our district with the use of Google Apps for Education and the Makerspace movement and how that really ties into math from bringing things in such as stop motion to Green Screen. It really immerses the students into those concepts and competencies that we are looking to have students achieve with the Alberta education curriculum that will prepare them for what we consider an unknown future”.
Mindset
Impacting teacher mindset is both a goal and an obstacle. If we can influence teachers to see the value of technology as part of mathematical instruction as having a positive impact on student learning, then we can begin to build their own personal technological skills in relation to content and pedagogy. Yet the mindset of “back to the basics” and math being about answers on paper, change is slow. Tracy shares here experience of this “I think the impact on technology in math has been slow. When I look at your mindset, math is that one subject area that has been traditionally set with paper and pencil tasks. It is more the teacher mindset to the willingness to be open to try new things. They are still very comfortable teaching the way they were taught. Even though technology you know might be for one student, they’re not impacting all learners so it’s not reaching students. Teachers are still not comfortable in the classroom using technology in the area of mathematics so right now to me it it’s limited. There are certainly teachers using it and when they embrace it they love it, but I do find it’s very slow moving because of the comfort level and mindset of teachers”. Doug experiences this as well in classrooms “it goes back to the old saying where we often mentioned we we teach the way we were taught and in particular I think mathematics takes takes that to heart. Technology integration has been in pockets of classrooms, but definitely not has not called wildfire and been consistent among all classrooms. I think it’s just very select few kids or a student with difficulties with learning as opposed to looking at things from a Universal Design for Learning kind of a platform where they can look at all these tools to benefit all kids. So it’s definitely a paradigm shift and the teachers mindsets to open themselves to the possibility of how they can use technology in math but it’s it’s definitely a journey that we are still continuing to try to make some ground up on it and get those teachers to a place where they can certainly support all kids.”
Through effective modeling, re-imagined professional development, and quality classroom examples and resources, we can impact teacher mindset. This mindset is the deciding factor to successful professional development experiences which in turn will affect student learning.
References
Council of Ministers of Education, Canada Programs & Initiatives Learning Assessment Programs International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS). (2013). Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.cmec.ca/322/International_Computer_and_Information_Literacy_Study_(ICILS)_.html
Koehler, M.J., Cain, W., & Mishra, P. (2013). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)?
Hey Trish! Great interview!! I really liked how specific it was and how practical/grounded the conversations were in terms of moving toward real solutions to real problems. I also saw that you had no comments on it, which was shocking, so I just had to comment! 😀
First, I appreciated the frank discussion on profession development. Notable points were how teachers need more than a list of apps or websites – they need the pedagogy and content to support it – even if they think the list is sufficient. I also found great value in the discussion on the importance of modeling during Pro D; explaining the rationale behind integrating tech and giving the opportunity to understand the fundamentals more deeply. I’m currently working on helping my instructors start using Desmos in classes for demonstrations as well as student activities. I realized quickly that it was necessarily that my instructors were not capable of using the tool – certainly they were competent enough to learn it – but they weren’t confident enough to take the plunge and try it in-class. Listening to my instructors’ feedback when I show them what the tool can do, paired with some inspiration from your Koehler, Cain & Mishra quotes, has made up my mind to go back to work on Sunday with the intent of creating a Desmos modeling session. Just telling them what wonderful things it could do and including a few links to websites wasn’t enough… I see now I have to show them how it could be used in classroom environment.
Second, I was intrigued by the information you included on the 2013 ICILS study… especially because I’m from Newfoundland and Labrador! 😀 I didn’t know the province had participated in the study so I was quite interested to see what came out of it. Unfortunately I couldn’t access the International study (http://www.iea.nl/icils_2013.html), but I did manage to get the study focused on Ontario and NL (http://cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/340/ICILS2013_CdnReport_EN.pdf). Thanks for this!
Lastly, thanks for providing some grounded examples of how one could approach using tech to incorporate personalized learning and differentiation. Specific touch-points/keywords like “guided math”, “small group instruction”, “self-paced stations”, “hyperdocs”, “Google Docs”, and “stop motion and green screen” help to give me ideas on what I could try and work on in my math department moving forward. I did want to ask: How are these teachers — or yourself — suggesting stop motion and green screen could be used for math?
I’m not sure I’ve really seen it used for this, but I’m intrigued and would love to know how! Would it be the teacher creating the videos, or would the students be tasked to create math-related things using these tools? So curious!
Thanks for teaching me a few new things today, Trish. Wonderfully enlightening as always. I gotta say, I almost wish there was group work this term so we could collaborate!!
-Scott
Scott seriously thank you so much for replying to me! Your feedback was so detailed and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your sharing with me. I actually had no idea you were from Canada! That is crazy it has taken me this long to figure it out.
Professional Development has been a hot topic in my district this last 6 months as we try to imagine better and more effective ways to meet the needs of teachers with the specific goal of affecting student achievement. This school year I started to use a YouTube channel with a weekly “power up your prep” web show for teachers and I created online self-paced courses for the content I would have presented live at a face to face banquet style PD. In the courses I included videos, classroom challenges and the chance to earn certificates or badges. It went off gang busters. So now I want to take this a step further beyond the tech training I have been doing. For my TELE I am creating an online course for Numeracy and Technology together. It is a 6 lesson sequence that focuses on the mathematical processes that are taught using a variety of technologies (Google Apps, Extensions, Sites, Stop Motion, Green Screen, and Robotics). This is just a small start to something that I hope goes much larger scale. My district is very excited I am doing this project and now two other consultants (the math and other tech consultant I interviewed) are joining me on the project! I love when UBC MET projects take on a life of their own beyond this class or the marks. But boy oh boy do I wish you could work on this with me, it really would make such a great group project!
So you will get to see the stop motion in action. Essentially we used it to have students show the process of their computational fluency. The little grade 2 class used manipulatives to showcase basic operations, grouping, skip counting, graphing and more with the images organized into a stop motion sequence.
Hi Trish, thanks for your reply! 😀 I have to laugh when you said you didn’t know I was from Canada. I wonder where you thought I was from?
I’m so excited to see what you come up with for your TELE. I haven’t started mine yet, I’m stuck on determining its focus. I’m sure I’ll come up with something. Just gotta get down to business on it soon!
Let me know when you get that stop motion done. Sounds fascinating!
Hi Trisha,
I enjoyed the unique perspective of a consultant in your abstract. I saw similarities to the way the colleague I interviewed used math technology, primarily as a website to play games when students were “done”. I think you hit the nail on the head when you talking about Mindset as being the primary component behind teachers’ pedagogical change.
Are you familiar with Ertmer (2005)’s paper about teacher pedagogical belief being the final frontier for technology integration? I came across the paper while researching for etec500 and many of the ideas expressed there stuck with me. For example, the notion of the power of the peer teacher for modelling change that is more likely to be adopted (see p.33 on vicarious experience and the “supervising” teacher – actual teachers doing things in actual classrooms that make sense and can be seen to work has a greater impact than any other form of teaching). PD that allows teachers to see other teachers model classroom practices increases teachers confidence and therefore likelihood of attempting the same behaviours.
Two quotes from this seemed applicable to share after reading your abstract. “If…beliefs follow successful practice, and confidence and competence are foundational to achieving that success, then at the very least, confidence and competence must be built [during PD] before changes to beliefs can be expected” and ”If teachers are going to actually change their practice, they will need access to others who can both challenge and support them as they implement these new ideas in their classrooms” (Ertmer, 2005, p.34). It’s encouraging to hear what you and your colleagues are doing to become those “others” and recreate the PD experience to promote real change in the TPCK of teachers in your area.
Reference
Ertmer, P. A. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs: The final frontier in our quest for technology integration? Educational Technology Research & Development, 53(4), 25–39. Retrieved from http://galleries.lakeheadu.ca/uploads/4/0/5/9/4059357/pedagogical_beliefs_psts_technology.pdf
Thank you SO MUCH for this article! I really love how you connected to what I hope will be my TELE which is a Numeracy and Math online course as a form of teacher professional development that we are going to release to my school district this March. The quote you shared “confidence and competence must be built [during PD] before changes to beliefs can be expected” really grounded for the two critical skills that I need to ensure I focus on, because at the end of the day this is about affecting change in the classroom. I wonder what is the magic recipe that creates confidence and competence? To me hands on application and practice are necessary, as well as contributing to the understanding instead of just receiving information. What are your thoughts on this? Do you mind if I use your article as part of my TELE?
Hi Trisha,
I know you will likely never see this because of the way Canvas is organized but I want to apologize for not replying to your comment. I honestly did not see your reply until today as I was preparing things for me eFolio 🙁
Certainly you can use the article (I hope you just went ahead and did that)! As for the magic recipe I suspect it does not exist but Ertmer (2005) did talk about some things that I think can apply in most situations. I don’t have it in front of me but I think I recall a few things like repeated positive experiences making an emotional memory that helps teachers feel confident about their own abilities, and the presence of mentor teachers that others can feel respect for because they are also on the front-lines of teaching and therefore have a more credible voice than those who are sitting at the Board office creating initiatives and have been out of the classroom for years. The way we do teacher development is so important to the actual success and long-term change we are hoping to achieve.