Michigan State University’s Global Education Engagement Program, part of the Office of International Studies in Education, is pleased to present this 32-hour Numeracy Education online professional development course for teacher educators (16 hours synchronous, and 16 hours asynchronous). This intensive professional learning course is designed to strengthen and enhance professional practice, engage participants in active learning, and promote the integration of numeracy practices across the curriculum.
The program involves an intensive online learning series followed by an application of concepts through the development of a short module for teaching and modeling numeracy concepts in a teacher education classroom.
The format of this course is designed to work around teacher educators’ busy schedules. The first two weeks provide several synchronous meetings to provide opportunities for live discussions among participants and MSU faculty and graduate students. In addition, asynchronous work allows participants to explore short videos and readings by MSU faculty that introduce and support the content of each session. During the initial two weeks, participants will also decide on their final project and interact on discussion boards to share their experiences and questions. These posts will prompt further videos and readings to address specific areas of interest, chosen by MSU facilitators.
This is followed by a time for individual work and reflection, where participants will design and teach a small module on numeracy in their teacher education classroom. This provides an opportunity to both see how numeracy integrates into their subject area and to model its teaching for their own students. During this time, there will be one synchronous discussion section each week to support this work. The last week provides opportunities for each participant to give an online presentation on their module and their experience teaching it.
This session will build a foundation for the course through covering what numeracy is and what it looks like across the curriculum. Session participants will discuss how numeracy is a critical component of understanding and solving problems in the world.
Building on Session I, this session engages participants in discussing their own concepts of numeracy and identifying core numeracy teaching practices with a focus on engaging students in challenging content and encouraging inquiry. Key to the session will be a discussion of what classroom teachers need to know to promote numeracy in the classroom.
Using what is learned in Session II, this session will focus on the ways in which teacher educators can support the development of numeracy teaching practices in those preparing to become classroom educators.
In this session, teacher education experts will share their approaches to center numeracy within their specific subject area. Smaller groups will then brainstorm ways in which the ideas and strategies that have been shared can contribute to their own professional work.
This session will focus on guiding participants as they develop a project to support numeracy teaching practices. Participants will consider what aspect of numeracy they find particularly important for their future teachers. They will design a short module (one or more lessons that introduces a concept, provides some readings or resources, and offers an opportunity for students to use numeracy in some way) and teach it in the coming two weeks.
At this point, participants have had some time to consider the materials from weeks 1 and 2 and to attempt some mini-lessons or discussions of numeracy with their students. This discussion session will cover the following questions: What are the challenges in beginning such work? What issues will your module have to address to meet them?
This week, participants will gather in groups related to their final project goals to workshop their modules. Depending on the class makeup, these groups may be organized according to grade level or subject area.
This session will serve as an opportunity for participants to ask questions, get feedback, and collaborate with other participants as they finish preparing their final project presentation.
In this session, each participant will present their module design, report on what happened when they taught their module, share their reflections on the process, etc.
The final project provides an opportunity for participants to apply the learnings from this course in their own classrooms. By the end of week 2, participants will decide on a principle of numeracy that is important to their subject area and begin designing a short module for introducing this content and providing an opportunity for their students to use it in examining an issue or solving a problem. At the end of the course, participants will present on their module and its reception and share their reflections on teaching numeracy in their area. A dropbox will be provided where participants can turn in their presentation slides, an outline of their module, and a brief written reflection.
Tonya Gau Bartell is an associate professor of mathematics education interested in exploring teaching practices that promote mathematics learning for all students. Her research focuses on issues of culture, race, and power in mathematics teaching and learning, with particular attention to teachers’ development of mathematics pedagogy for social justice and pedagogy integrating a focus on mathematics, children’s mathematical thinking, and children’s community and cultural knowledge.
Gail Richmond’s research, which has been funded over many decades, has focused on the support of meaningful teaching and learning, particularly those taking place within high-poverty’s settings, within and outside traditional classrooms, and how these might inform the design of teacher education programs. Richmond’s scholarship has appeared in many books and journals, including the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Teachers College Record and Science Education, and she has served on the editorial boards of many scholarly journals. She is co-editor of the Journal of Teacher Education, has served as president of NARST, the principal international scholarly organization for research in science teaching and learning, and as director of MSU’s Graduate Certificate Program in Science Education.
Email: caughlan@msu.edu
WhatsApp: +1 517 974 8081
Dr. Samantha Caughlan is the Curriculum Coordinator for the College of Education’s Global Education Engagement program. Dr. Caughlan has coordinated curriculum and directed short-term training of international educator groups since 2015. Her previous projects and roles include: Coordinator for a two-week professional development program for faculty and instructors from Open University China: “Online Education to Meet the Needs of the Adult learner;” management of the Argentina Educators Training Program for teachers and principals, Fulbright of Argentina; and Director of PRESTASI, a USAID program for Indonesian teacher educators, where she was responsible for building strong connections between all program elements and leading the action plan thread as well as the M&E plan. Prior to this experience, she was faculty head of English language arts teacher preparation at two universities. She is widely published in the areas of teacher preparation, English education, and discourse analysis. Prior to earning her Ph.D., she was an English and theater teacher. In all of these endeavors, she has maintained a focus on assessment as a learning tool for teachers and students.
Lynn Paine was previously the associate aean for International Studies in the College of Education. She is a professor emerita of Teacher Education and affiliated faculty in MSU’s Asian Studies Center and the Center for Gender in Global Context. Her work focuses on teacher learning and development. Much of her scholarship has involved teaching and teacher education as well as the comparative study of teachers and has been supported by research in China, the United States, England, and other countries. She is interested in understanding teacher change in context and in support of local and global visions of reform. Dr. Paine’s work on learning in and from practice draws on her ongoing comparative research of teacher education, including her participation in a US Department of Education‐funded comparative study of mentored learning to teach and her co‐leadership of two US NSF-funded comparative case studies of policies and practices that support beginning teacher learning. Her current involvement as leader of the thematic working group developing a framework for future‐oriented teaching for the OECD’s Education and Skills 2030 will contribute to shaping the program. A secondary school teacher before she became a teacher educator, she has led international professional development for teacher educators and teachers from Indonesia, Argentina, Tanzania, China, and other countries. She is deeply committed to reciprocal learning in and through international professional development.