St. John Fisher College – Progress Report
- Principal Investigator: Dr. Erica Johnson
- Topic of Minigrant: Course design for an "Advanced Mathematical Perspectives for Secondary Teachers"
- Duration of Minigrant: Spring2004 through the onset of Fall 2005
- Date for Visit by PMET Monitor, given by PI: My courses are on largely scheduled on M/W/F and thus, during Fall 2004,Tuesdays and Thursdays are good days for a visit. Further, Tuesdaysare better than Thursdays. Although my Spring 2005 schedule is not technically known at this point, based on my previous schedules, I expect that Tuesdays and Thursdays will again be the best days for a visit. Again, Tuesdays are better than Thursdays.
Activities and Progress
The purpose of this project is three-fold. The first goal is to establish partnerships between undergraduate and secondary educatorsfor the collaborative development of curriculum materials for use in an undergraduate “Advanced perspectives for Secondary Teachers” course. These joint efforts will serve to strengthen the pedagogical content knowledge of the participating secondary teachers and that of preservice secondary teachers. Secondly, this project aims to develop a deeper and more explicit understanding of preservice secondary teachers' mathematical content knowledge. Further, established regional PMET networks will be used to impact the visibility and support for teacher education in the broader mathematics community. Additional funds were secured through a local grant to supplement the PMET mini-grant awards during Spring 2004. The collegiate and secondary collaborative partnership has been established during Summer 2005. In particular, the team will consist of the Mathematics and Mathematics Education Project directors (Mathematics faculty at St. John Fisher College) and two area secondary teachers, Rebecca Tiffin and Suzanne Plouffe.
Secondly, initial student interview data collected for my intervening year project associated with the Secondary PMET workshop has been transcribed. Additionally, I attended a Middle School PMET workshop in Bowling Green, OH, further increasing possible networking opportunities. As the beginning of the AY 2004-2005 approaches, preparations are being made for follow-up interviews, including subsequent interview protocols and completion of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process. The working group will also establish regular communications for the onset of the project.
Lastly, one might expect that little progress has been made on the third and final goal of networking, but I recently received from a regional PMETTerwith a project similar in focus. It is expected that we will share individual results and collaborate, as appropriate, to hone our respective course designs. Further, networking with other mini-grant leaders to share experiences and, more generally, to create a critical mass of concerned faculty to sustain participants' enthusiasm for many years, serves as a vehicle to engage other faculty.