Teacher Inquiry as Professional Development: Improving algebra teaching and learning in urban middle schools

Michele Crockett

The proposed study represents the initial investigations of a five-year research program I plan to undertake. Using the teacher inquiry group (TIG) as a professional development vehicle, in the larger study, I plan to investigate two broad questions: (1) how learning is accomplished in TIGs and (2) how this learning is related to improved practice and student outcomes. Since little is known about the contents of TIGs, most specifically, the study will focus on what specific activities, or, objects of inquiry, place teachers on a trajectory for improving their knowledge of mathematics and pedagogy. Pre-algebra ideas that provide a foundation for high school algebra will be the topic of focus for the inquiry groups. Pre-algebra, or, algebraic thinking is an important target and an obvious one, since high school algebra is the primary gatekeeper for college preparatory mathematics and recent results from the National Assessment of Education Progress indicate that the academic gap between Black or Latino and White students remains disturbingly large. During the first year of the study, four or five 7th grade teachers will comprise a TIG that will meet weekly. The teachers will come from schools that serve large numbers of poor and underachieving students. The professional development model that guides the inquiry process is fashioned after Japanese “lesson study.” The teachers in this study will meet weekly and engage in a recursive cycle that begins with analyzing their students’ work to identify algebra teaching and learning problems and plan lessons to address these problems. During their regular instruction time, they will teach the lessons to their students. These lessons will be videotaped. In subsequent weekly sessions, they will reflect on their teaching and their students’ learning. Two additional TIGs will be added during the second year of the study. The procedures will be the same, however, the primary object of inquiry will vary. Instead of student work products, one group will focus on videotapes of algebra teaching. The other will focus on their curriculum materials as starting points for discussions about teaching and learning algebra.

About Michele Crockett

After earning my doctorate in education at the University of California, Los Angeles, I began my academic career at the University of Southern California in the Rossier School of Education, teaching education foundations and math methods courses. Beginning in August 2002, I will be a member of the faculty in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I will continue my study of teacher inquiry groups as vehicles for improving mathematics teaching and learning at the middle school. My interest in the professional development of middle grades mathematics teachers arises from my own struggle to become an excellent teacher of mathematics, my work with teachers over the last ten years, and a concern for underachieving populations.