From Teacher Research to School Change: Involving More Teachers in Teaching Mathematics for Understanding

Judith Kysh

Univ. of CA, Davis

jmkysh@ucdavis.ed

Amy Kari

Rio Vista Elementary

ARKari@aol.com

Catherine Essary

Rio Vista Elementary

cbessary@aol.com

Judy Rummelsburg

Rio Vista Elementary

jrcello@aol.com

From 1998-2000 our research group, composed of one university researcher and three teacher researchers has documented the use and effects of constructive assessment and teaching methods in mathematics in order to learn what happens when the whole school adopts new assessment methods and more teachers start to use methods designed to build student understanding of mathematics. We began by working with the principal to establish a set of assessment benchmarks to be used school-wide and to organize a program of workshops and peer coaching to introduce our colleagues to teaching methods based on the work of Constance Kamii (1985, 1989) and the Cognitively Guided Instruction Program (1994). We gathered and analyzed data in relation to two main questions: To what extent will each of the 26 teachers participate? What changes will we see in student performance in mathematics?

All of the nineteen K-3 teachers have been actively involved in grade level grouping for mathematics, in the staff development meetings, and in coaching. Three fourth grade teachers participated,but there was not as much evidence of change in their teaching of mathematics. The fifth grade teachers continued with their own methods but did participate in the assessment and showed some interest in the mental math. In relation to our benchmark assessments for conservation of number, missing addends, place value, timed addition and multiplication, and explaining multiplication, students have shown significant and steady growth through the three years. In relation the state’s standardized test the average percentiles for the second, third and fourth grades showed little change from the first to the second year and very large gains (ranging from 9 to 22 percentiles) in the third year, while the fifth grade scores improved each year.

References

Carpenter, T., Fennema, E. (1994) Children's thinking about whole numbers. CGI: Cognitively Guided Instruction, Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

Kamii, C. (1989) Young children continue to reinvent arithmetic, second grade. NY: Teacher's College Press.

Kamii, C. (1985). Young children reinvent arithmetic: implications of Piaget's theory. Columbia University, New York: Teachers College Press.