Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning Through School-Based Support: Champions or Naysayers
These preliminary findings suggest that school-level support is an important factor in the successful implementation of TEAM-Math and other large-scale projects seeking to change mathematics teaching and learning. Very different school climates can emerge depending on the support provided. The school with a high commitment to the project had supportive administrators and effective teacher leaders. Teachers attended professional development events, and they were held accountable for implementing innovative practices. Ultimately, those differences in practices were evident to the students. In contrast, the school with a low commitment to the project had an administrator who did not take supportive action and whose teacher leader was virtually unknown to her peers. Teachers attended events grudgingly, and students reported limited experiences with the innovative instructional practices. Even though teacher participation in TEAM-Math is voluntary, some teachers feel pressured to participate when the majority of their peers want to go in to a cohort, which may lead to the types of attitudes and practices exhibited by teachers in the low commitment school. We do not encourage coercion. Turnover of the principal and teacher leader seemed to also have an especially negative impact on this school.
These preliminary propositions and findings suggest the need for further exploration of the role of teacher belief systems with regard to student-centered approaches to teaching and learning, the role of the teacher leaders in tying together the university and the schools in professional development, and reasons why teachers choose to use or not use the methods taught by TEAM-Math. In addition, the role of the school culture in terms of innovation, administrative support and professional development will also be further investigated. Finally, continuing analyses will focus on triangulation of the qualitative data analyses with survey, achievement, and other data provided by quantitative collection methods, thus providing a more comprehensive view of the impact of school level support.
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