EFFECTS OF AN INNOVATIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ON TEACHING GEOMETRY

Catherine Pomar

Florida State University

cmp5740@garnet.fsu.edu

Elizabeth Jakubowski

Florida State University

ejakubow@coe.fsu.edu

This poster presentation describes an innovative professional development model for elementary and middle school teachers and the evaluation of its effect on teacher change. In its fourth year, the PROgram for Mathematics And Science Education (PROMASE) has had 226 graduates with 97 completing a master’s or specialist’s degree in mathematics education. The PROMASE is a distance learning project focusing on improving teacher effectiveness in mathematics and science education and preparing teachers for the changes of the new millennium. Currently 100 teachers are enrolled in the mathematics education program. This poster presentation will concentrate on these teachers with a specific focus on teaching geometry. Furthermore it will present an analysis of the components of the PROMASE (using the principles and strategies of professional development described by Loucks-Horsley (Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, 1998)) and describe the changes in teacher practices.

Responses were collected from class assignments to determine the teachers’ geometric understanding as categorized by the van Hiele levels. For each level, further analysis of class work, informal interviews and individual classroom observations of teaching were done with a subset of teachers. The relationship between content understanding and pedagogical content knowledge will be presented.

Reference

Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. (1998). Ideas that work: Mathematics professional development (ENC 98-015). Columbus, OH: Author.