Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota – Progress Reports
- Principal Investigators: Tracy Bibelnieks, Matt Haines
- Topic of Mini-grant: Revision of Math Content Courses for K-6 Preservice Teachers
- Duration of Minigrant: December15, 2003 - 2005
- Date for Visit by PMET Monitor, given by PI: We would like a site visit in the Spring Semester, 2005. Specific dates will be forwarded as soon as possible once course offeringtimes are finalized this fall.
Progress and Activities
The overall goal of course restructure and content/pedagogical revision of courses is to provide an improved educational opportunity for preservice K-6 teachers that will better prepare them to teach mathematics. The progress in addressing components of course restructure and revision as proposed in the grant are as follows: Proposal, approval and offering of a two course mathematics content sequence to be enrolled only by K-6 preservice students: Two new mathematics content courses for preservice K-6 teachers (sequential vs previously stand alone) were proposed to and approved by the Augsburg Academic Affairs Committee in April, 2004. The courses are being offered for the first time this fall and are both fully enrolled by students seeking K-6 licensure. Revised Course Pedagogy: Revisions to course pedagogy include explicit incorporation of discussion and informal presentation of mathematicalideas and reasoning. This is reinforced through the adoption of broader evaluation and assessment tools (e. g. percentage of course grade dependent on interactionwithin the classroom and narrative homework assignments and test items related to mathematical content and evaluation techniques such as those presentedat the MAA PREP Workshop “Active Learning Approaches to Teaching Mathematics Content Courses for Elementary and Middle-School Teachers” by Laurie Burtonand Maria Fung at Western Oregon University (attended by Project Directors,July 2003). Incorporation of exposure to K-12 Curricula into courses: Topics in the K-12 curricula are threaded into the courses with an emphasis on exposure to K-6 curricula. NCTM and MN State Standards will be referenced to make explicit the vertical alignment of topics within the K-6 curricula and make explicit to that K-6 teachers must understand mathematics and mathematical thinking at a much greater level of depth than the level of the students they are teaching.
Coordination and Collaboration with Mathematics Education Course and Faculty: There has been ongoing collaboration between the PI's and the Math Education Specialist (Linda Stevens) at Augsburg to achieve closer alignment betweenthe mathematics content courses and the math methods course. For the firsttime in June 2004, the PI's and Linda Stevens co-directed (and taught) a two-week professional development program for inservice K-8 teachers from charter schools in the twin cities area. Work on alignment on courses will continue this semester.