Sample 2005 Accepted Proposals

Sample 1: Putting Conversations About Race and Achievement at the Center of Professional Development

Evanston Township High School, a multiracial, suburban school includes honest conversations about race and achievement in its professional development program. Experience conversations and strategies that engage educators in examining their beliefs about teaching and learning, in considering their own racial identity, in raising awareness of cultural diversity and in using student voice to change their instructional practice.

There are no prerequisite skills required to participate in this session. However, participants should be willing to talk openly about issues related to race and achievement.

Outcomes:

Participants will leave this session with an understanding of the rationale for addressing issues of race and achievement in professional development.

Participants will acquire strategies to engage faculty in examining their beliefs about teaching and learning, in considering their own racial identity, and in using student and community voice to change their instructional practices.

Participants will leave this session with a commitment to counter-hegemony.

Session process:

Time - .5 hrs
Content - Overview of the ETHS Professional Development Program
Process - Participants will compare the professional development programs at their schools to the ETHS model.

Time - 1.5 hrs
Content - Rationale for including issues of race and achievement into professional development programs
Process - Based on the premise that race matters, participants will examine their own racial identity development and their beliefs about the relationship between race and achievement as educators.

Time - 2 hours
Content - Strategies to embed conversations about race and achievement into professional development programs
Process - Participants will experience several of the strategies implemented in the ETHS Professional Development Program. such as a fishbowl conversation, a case study around expectations, a discussion of entity vs. incremental theories and effective effort, acknowledgement and analysis of the dilemmas, and using readings as a prompt for discussion.

Time - 1 hour
Content - Strategies to use student and community voice in professional development conversations on race and achievement
Process - Participants will process ways in which students and community voices can be brought into the conversation such as student panel discussions, videotaping student discussions, and community forums with breakout discussions.

Sample 2: Leading with Heart

Servant Leadership is essential in developing and sustaining the organizations that continue to improve and experience meaningful success. Learn how to abandon power and embrace authority built upon relations, love, service, and sacrifice. Learn six elements of Servant Leadership and how they work to transform people and organizations.

Outcomes:

• understand the power of leading with heart and creating powerful relationships
• be introduced to the beliefs and values of Leader as Servant
• learn ideas from Servant Leadership that can be used to create dynamic organizations
• consider how the elements of servant leadership can by used in the workplace to create an environment that promotes others and builds success

Session process:

Time: 35 min
Content: Welcome/Warm-Up/Setting Context
Processes: Heart match activity, identify strengths as a leader, learning outcomes, review agenda, brainstorm of heart words

Time: 2 hours
Content: 6 Elements of Servant Leadership
Processes: table share, stories from literature, participants create icons for elements, create trust banks, pair share reinforcers, communication game, role play, button story

Time: 10 min
Content: Review the 6 Elements of Servant Leadership
Process: gallery walk to music and debrief

Time: 5 min
Content: Closure
Process: Reflection on learning small group and whole group

10 min break

Sample 3: Lesson Study as Community Building

The Japanese model of lesson study provides a structure for building a community of learners. Learn how one elementary school supported teacher teams to increase their mathematical knowledge, to design powerful lessons, to observe “researched lessons”, to analyze student learning, and to build a shared body of professional knowledge. Examine the impact this project is having on students’ mathematical learning. Knowledge about constructivist epistemology, inquiry-based professional development, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards are prerequisites.

Outcomes:

1. Participants will learn how inquiry-based professional development supports inquiry-based instructional practices.
2. Participants will learn how multiple inquiry-based models can be melded into a powerful professional development project.
3. Participants will be able to understand lesson study, an action research model, as a vehicle for transforming instructional practices.
4. Participants will have the knowledge to replicate the professional development model presented.

Session process:

TIME:

• Introduction to mathematics professional development project 15 minutes
• Professional development project components 25 minutes
• Participants will engage in problem solving and discussion 20 minutes
• DVD on the professional development practice 10 minutes
• Discussion of the DVD 10 minutes
• DVD on the debriefing and revising process 10 minutes
• Discussion on the DVD 10 minutes
• Results of the case study 10 minutes
• Question and answer period 10 minutes

CONTENT and PROCESS:
The introduction is an overview of a longitudinal case study conducted at one elementary school. The two-year study asked the question: how can we best support the professional development of mathematics teachers? The professional development project under study was an integrated, inquiry-based, collaborative model. The assessment of need for the professional development will be discussed, the necessary leadership, as will the structural components. Process: Participants will have visuals in the form of a PowerPoint and a handout of the PowerPoint to refer to and write notes.

The professional development components will include a discussion of the National Standards set forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 2000. The Standards represent the foundation of reformed mathematics and the need for teacher professional development. Cognitively Guided Instruction research, and instructional approaches as well as the framework for problem types and the framework for problem solving strategies will be reviewed. Cognitively Guided Instruction as implemented in the elementary school formed the mathematical content basis for the professional development. The lesson study model will be discussed as a vehicle for building a collaborative community of learners and building a professional knowledge base. Coaching, as a method of implementing the lesson study model in America will be highlighted. Process: The Participants will have visuals in the form of a PowerPoint and a handout of the PowerPoint to refer to and take notes.

Participants will be given a mathematical problem to solve and asked to think about their thinking and the strategies they are employing as they work to solve the problem. Selected participants will be asked to share the strategy that worked for them and the whole group will discuss and compare their various strategies. The affective elements of problem solving will also be discussed. The purpose of this activity is for the participants to have a sample experience of reformed mathematics instruction at the elementary level. Process: Participants will engage in problem solving, metacognition, and discussion of strategies and emotion.

Participants will view a DVD clip of a “researched lesson” being observed by a team of teachers involved in the project. The observing teachers and the teacher teaching the lesson are on the same team and have planned the lesson together. The observers are collecting data on what and how the students are learning in order to answer the team’s research question. Process: After viewing the DVD and hearing an explanation of the lesson study process, the participants will engage in a discussion of what was observed and heard about the process.

Participants will view a second DVD clip on a debriefing session by a team of teachers after the observed lesson. They will hear the debriefing protocols and watch the team collaborate on revising the “researched lesson”. Process: After watching the DVD and hearing an explanation of the process, the participants will engage in a discussion of what was observed and heard about the process.

Results of the case study including data analysis of the Mathematical Beliefs Survey and the Reformed Teaching Observational Protocol will be demonstrated. Interviews of the teachers involved in the study will be highlighted, as well as the interpretations of those interviews. Process: Participants will view the PowerPoint illustrating the results of the longitudinal study. They may refer to their handouts and take notes.

There will be a question and answer period. Process: Participants may engage in the discussion.