MfA: A replicable NYC program
Critical Issues in Education: Teaching Teachers Mathematics
May 31, 2007 10:55 AM to 11:45 AM
Speakers:
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Abstract: |
The five year Math for America (MfA) Fellowship program is designed to attract, train and retain outstanding
public secondary school math teachers. During the first year Fellows complete a full MA program that includes
significant supervised student teaching experiences at an MfA Partner University and obtain initial New York
State teaching certification. For the four remaining years of the program, the Fellows commit to teaching in a
NYC public school. Currently, there are nearly 50 Fellows at a wide range of secondary schools throughout the
five boroughs.
MfA deals with the challenge of increasing teacher’s mathematical knowledge for teaching in a variety of ways.
Fellows come into the program with a deep understanding of mathematics; many of the Fellows have degrees
in mathematics or in other fields, such as engineering, that require extensive work in mathematics. However,
they have limited pedagogical knowledge, and often struggle to find productive and appropriate ways in which
to bring translate their extensive work in higher mathematics into their classroom teaching experiences. For
this reason, during their year of full time study, MfA Fellows take mathematics courses based in mathematics
departments, as well as an assortment of general education and mathematics education courses.
Throughout the Fellowship, MfA provides forums for Fellows to come together to improve their mathematics
and pedagogy. These professional development sessions are lead by invited experts from the broad education
community and by individuals from the Math for America community. They cover topics with a strong
emphasis on connecting the mathematics learned in the university with the mathematics being taught in high
school, and about ways in which to work in the intersection between the content and the pedagogy. A recent
session covered the topic of combinatorics and discrete mathematics, and ways in which these subjects could
be introduced into a high school curriculum.
The forums and social events for Fellows organized by MfA are part of our program to create a Corps of
dedicated outstanding mathematics and science public secondary school teachers.
For MfA, the issue of mathematical knowledge for teaching is a distinctive one. It is not just a matter of
equipping our Fellows with more knowledge; it is a matter of figuring out what kinds of knowledge are
important, and ways in which to make that knowledge relevant to their professional lives. As we aim to create
a program that has a profound impact on the shape of mathematics education, what kinds of mathematics
knowledge should we be looking at? What kinds of questions should be asked during screening and selection
to see if our Fellows have an understanding of math in a profound way? Is it enough to understand math
procedurally? How important is it for someone to be able to understand how two different disciplines connect
together, or to provide multiple representations for fundamental mathematical ideas? How can we create a
program that encourages individuals who have had success in mathematics to hypothesize what mathematics
looks like to a student that struggles? |
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