Today at the National Press Club, NCTAF release a report titled, Learning Teams: Creating What's Next. The report addresses the aging teaching workforce and the need to restructure schools into cross-generational learning teams!
Read the report: Learning Teams: Creating What's Next
State Snapshots: State-by-state teacher demographics
Other NCTAF Resources on Learning Teams:
- NCTAF/PBS/MetLife Foundation Learning Teams Initiative
NCTAF has partnered with PBS to host a series of regional forums, which showcase videos of schools that have learning teams. All of the forums were held between March and June 2007. - Induction Into Learning Communities Report
This is NCTAF's policy paper on induction for new teachers. The paper presents NCTAF's vision for new teacher induction into strong schools that support a career of continuous professional growth. The paper examines data on induction's impact on teacher retention and emerging information on induction's effects on improving student learning, and goes in-depth on models of strong mentoring programs in the U.S. and comprehensive induction systems in other countries.
Algorithmic Geometry: a team-based curriculum innovation
ReplyDeleteI just read the "Teaching Teams" position paper, and I was very glad to see the conventional wisdom challenged about how best to staff our classrooms.
My group is spearheading a brand new course this summer, Algorithmic Geometry, a 50-50 blend of math-computer science. It's
geared for 11-12th graders. For details, go to http://www.AlgoGeom.org.
Our project serves as an example of the Team-teaching paradigm, not just in classroom environment, but more importantly in the development of state-of-the-art math content.
I am a boomer computer scientist who was inspired by the Hart-Rudman Commission to look for ways to reinvent math education for the 21st century starting around 2000. The key Hart-Rudman finding was that math and science education are pivot points for global competitiveness in the 21st century, and the place to be laying strategic national investments.
As a mid-career biotech computer scientist, inventor and software developer, I bring an insider's awareness of how applied math is being used in high-tech. All the top
performers in my field apply their math knowhow by writing automated algorithms in software, as a means of implanting their brainpower into medical devices and smart gadgets. These people know math and can program their creative thoughts into software.
The epiphany for me came about four years ago, when it occurred that high school students might be able to learn how to do algorithmic geometry. You don't need to know much programming to do impressive things, and it's mostly about learning the new representations that software people prefer. Yes...the math concepts are different from what we learned in high school geometry! I had to gradually unlearn this orthodoxy over the years to become more proficient in software geometry. To me, it's shocking that high
school geometry has not picked up on this
conceptual shift yet. If we want the US to remain competitive in software (an industry we invented!), somehow we must confront the ossification of math content that passes for the "standards-based" approach.
I'm not a professional educator, but was able to pull off a "proof-of- concept" pilot course in 2005 with 2 willing students. The results were very encouraging. These two youngsters wrote very sophisticated geometry software libraries over the 9-week summer course. They solved the problem of how a GPS receiver
works in 3D...How a robot arm obtains the motor
coordination to reach towards a desired point in space. And, how to navigate in deep space by camera-based star-tracking.
I immediately tried to get an NSF grant to investigate whether I could teach credentialed 9-12 math teachers to become effective with this new content. The reviews were discouraging, with none responding to the new math concepts being proposed, and instead questioning whether a scientist from industry could lead an educational project (NSF reviewers are mostly all academics).
I am gradually rounding out my team. We're currently focussed on teaching a Summer '09 course here in the Bay Area, and will run the grant gauntlet again afterwards with more learning outcomes and stats, and some professional teachers on our team.
The in-class lineup includes a primary instructor, and one TA for every 5 students. The labs involve programming in Java, and
the TAs are there to get students over the inevitable programming glitches. But they have an even more important job....serving as
role models of young people who already know Algorithmic Geometry and are teaching it as a paid summer job.
In the dissemination phase (2011-12), student TAs will be extremely important, as they will be the resident experts in Java there to back up a credentialed math instructor who will be the expert on theory. he other "brains" in the classroom are the laptop computers,
who do all the number crunching andalgorithmic recall. In Algorithmic Geometry, we teach young people how to delegate everything except the creative work to their personal computer. Kids love this automated way of
doing math. Just the same as the adults out there in industry love it.
For the next round of grant-making, we're looking for credentialed 9-12 math/CS teachers who have experience organizing professional development workshops and materials. They may contact us through http://www.AlgoGeom.org.
Big picture, we're in danger of becoming too fixated on raising test scores. What if the content on these tests is already obsolete?
We'll end up with students did very well on their SATs, but cannot lead the high-tech
agenda. The problem is, other countries are ahead of the US in Computer Science education
(called "informatics" in Europe). Even worse, most educational policy leaders are unaware of this new "gap", lobbed on top of the math gap.
It's encouraging that NCTAF is championing a Team-Teaching paradigm. It is the only hope right now to re-professionalize the teaching industry, and make it responsive to opportunities for constant renewal.
Pierre Bierre, Director
Algorithmic Geometry Project
Math Education for the 21st Century
www.AlgoGeom.org