The current emphasis of many mathematics education reform documents is on the need to change the environment of mathematics classrooms from the transmission of knowledge by the teacher to the transaction of knowledge between the teacher and the students which promotes mathematical investigation and exploration. In this article, we discuss the details of a Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Project which was aimed at increasing the quality of learning of Grade 9 Applied Mathematics, while at the same time, improving professional development opportunities for the teachers. A total of 11 schools participated in this project which spanned over three semesters. Participants included teachers, department heads, curriculum leaders, and administrators. Each school created an implementation team of administrators and teachers to implement collaborative strategies and improve teaching and learning in Grade 9 Applied Mathematics. The main benefit to the participants was that they were able to increase their knowledge and skills through collaboration in six interconnected areas: (a) achieving the goals, (b) student success, (c) professional development, (d) co-planning and co-teaching opportunities, (e) increased communication, and (f) improved technological skills. Bringing in different partners to achieve a common goal was the most challenging aspect of the project.
This article presents some opinions, views and advice that graduate students might consider in order to assess and improve their success as new scholars. Contrary to the famous motto 'publish or perish,' we argue that publishing academic research should be headed by intrinsic motivation for becoming a scholar and not by external pressures of social or professional requirements to produce scholarly work. This paper gives practical recommendations about building and sustaining the initial momentum in publishing. First, we discuss the importance of practicing academic writing as a way to improve scholarship and modalities to practice it. Some important issues about social collaboration, ethics, and policies that should be considered in the process of publication are also presented.
This study explores the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) for three experienced mathematics secondary teachers from a Toronto public school. By using a multiple case study, teachers' attitudes, skills, and approaches toward the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in classrooms are described. By being aware of the three main facets of TPACK (technological, pedagogical, and mathematical aspects), the relative importance of each component and their intersections were scrutinized. Although from the same school, the teachers had very different conducts of showing their integration of ICT in mathematical pedagogy and therefore, their TPACK was different. Teachers demonstrated various strategies and different paces of adopting ICT: One teacher was a later adapter of ICT with strong emphasis in pedagogy, a second teacher was an early adapter of ICT with focus on finding an adequate technical support for mathematical content, and the third teacher was a very early adopter of ICT with extraordinary capabilities to reflect on the mathematics curriculum and continuingly adapt to his classrooms' needs. It was noticed that the teachers integrated technology to (a) help them describe the concepts to students; (b) motivate students to learn mathematics; (c) give students opportunities to experiment with mathematical concepts and skills; (d) assess, evaluate, and provide feedback to student's work, and (e) help them communicate mathematical solutions. Overall, the framework shows consistency in tracing their assorted routines of integrating technology in various classroom contexts. In the end, some considerations and insights on the potential of the TPACK framework are provided.
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