Expanding Secondary Math Teachers Knowledge Base: A Summer Institute

In this course includes two parts: (a) a professional learning experience for teachers with no students present and (b) a practicum in which students learn in the presence of a collaborative team of teachers. In part a, participants will solve math problems and share their problem-solving approaches, representations, and mental images, anticipate student responses, plan to incorporate specific problems into a summer academy for middle school students. In part (b), participants deliver summer academy instruction. Part b is a collaborative endeavor, where pairs of teachers take turns delivering approximately mathematical instruction to participating secondary school students while other teachers observe. Each day participants plan for and reflect on their instructional experiences with particular attention to specific students’ epistemological obstacles and the didactical obstacles encountered that day. Together, part (a) and (b) of this course address secondary school teachers’ knowledge of mathematical content, pedagogy, and student epistemology.