Overview of Project Implementation
The project will be carried out in four phases over two years. Each phase has a specific objective with activities designed to achieve it. Full detail about each phase is provided in the following sections.
Phase 1 – Establishment:
A steering group comprising representatives of each partner university will meet face-to-face, and then periodically via video or teleconference, to establish guidelines and governance of the project, and negotiate data collection tools to measure pre-service teachers’ outcomes in terms of PCK, content knowledge and beliefs about mathematics relevant to the Australian context. In addition, pre-service teacher, lecturer, and institution level surveys and interview schedules will be created to gather data on the three aspects of teacher education that impact pre-service teacher outcomes as shown in Figure 1. All of the tools will be based on existing research and publicly available material, adapted to an online format if not already available in this form. This phase will also include gaining ethics clearance and establishing the website for the project. All primary and secondary pre-service mathematics teachers in the final semester of their courses will be surveyed at the end of 2010 along with their lecturers/tutors, including casual, seconded and part time teaching staff. An institution level questionnaire will be completed by an appropriate person in each participating university as determined by the relevant steering group member. Data will be processed at the University of Tasmania but every participating institution will have access to its own data for local analysis to inform planning for the coming academic year.
An external evaluator will develop an evaluation plan that will be agreed with the steering group and will collect initial data during this phase, using the conceptual framework of the project as a guide, with a focus on impact and sustainability.
Phase 1 – Establishment:
A steering group comprising representatives of each partner university will meet face-to-face, and then periodically via video or teleconference, to establish guidelines and governance of the project, and negotiate data collection tools to measure pre-service teachers’ outcomes in terms of PCK, content knowledge and beliefs about mathematics relevant to the Australian context. In addition, pre-service teacher, lecturer, and institution level surveys and interview schedules will be created to gather data on the three aspects of teacher education that impact pre-service teacher outcomes as shown in Figure 1. All of the tools will be based on existing research and publicly available material, adapted to an online format if not already available in this form. This phase will also include gaining ethics clearance and establishing the website for the project. All primary and secondary pre-service mathematics teachers in the final semester of their courses will be surveyed at the end of 2010 along with their lecturers/tutors, including casual, seconded and part time teaching staff. An institution level questionnaire will be completed by an appropriate person in each participating university as determined by the relevant steering group member. Data will be processed at the University of Tasmania but every participating institution will have access to its own data for local analysis to inform planning for the coming academic year.
An external evaluator will develop an evaluation plan that will be agreed with the steering group and will collect initial data during this phase, using the conceptual framework of the project as a guide, with a focus on impact and sustainability.
Phase 1 summary (July 2010 – Jan 2011). Establish governance, communication and reporting guidelines; Agree on initial survey instruments; Implement initial on-line survey; Analyse data and provide data to participating institutions.
Phase 2 – Changing teaching culture within the steering group:
Prior to the start of the first full academic year of the project (2011), the results of national and local data analyses will be shared via videoconferences, along with plans for change based on that data. Steering group members, including the project leaders, will be expected to make feasible (given the time frames and stage of the project) but meaningful changes to any aspects of their courses or teaching that the data suggest could be improved. For example, if the initial data indicate that geometry is an area of weakness among students, the content of units could be modified to include more emphasis on this content aspect. Similarly if students are unable to suggest suitable intervention for particular mathematical errors, lecturers might modify their approach to provide opportunities for students to develop targeted teaching plans. These changes will be documented and will provide the basis for implementing wider changes within consortium institutions.
Further, during this phase a sample of students and mathematics education teaching staff from each of the partner institutions will be interviewed. The interviews will be organised and conducted locally, using a framework agreed by the steering committee but adaptable for local use. The exact number and nature of the students and staff interviewed will depend on the collaborating institutions. The interviews will elaborate on the survey data, and will provide valuable insights into pre-service teachers’ experiences of their mathematics education units, and the perspectives of those teaching them. Data analysis from these interviews will be undertaken both locally, to inform local institutions about their own students’ experiences, and also centrally to provide more global information.
A reporting system will be developed to provide information to universities about their achievement. Structural equation models will identify relative influences on pre-service teacher outcomes of factors such as course delivery and structure, lecturer background and students’ characteristics as indicated in the conceptual framework (Figure 1), and recommendations will be built on these results. Individual institutions will be expected to develop strategies for future monitoring and review of mathematics units and courses as a basis for course level changes in the future (see Phase 3).
During this phase, participating institutions will share progress through newsletters, formal reports, monthly 2-hour videoconferences and the project website. The project leaders will ensure that a focus remains on sharing best practice through modelling change, initiating discussions among participants and preparing publications and conference presentations. Plans for and exemplars of evidence-based change will be collected and shared as case studies. These will also form the basis for workshops and presentations to promote change among the wider mathematics education community in Phase 3.
Phase 2 will end with a face-to-face meeting at the joint conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) and the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT) to be held in Alice Springs in July 2011. The conference program includes time for roundtable discussions and the project leaders will propose a roundtable to be attended by the steering group but also open to anyone in attendance at the conference. The MERGA conference is routinely attended by members of the steering group along with mathematics educators from almost every Australian tertiary institution involved in teacher education. This 2011 event will provide an ideal opportunity to inform and seek input from the wider mathematics education and mathematics teaching communities because it will link mathematics educators with school teachers (via AAMT), Findings to date, from survey and interview data, will be shared by the steering group members, refinements to data collection tools will be discussed, and workshop tools trialled. Other institutions will be invited to participate in Phase 3 of the project.
The external evaluator will collect additional information and provide an interim report to the steering group about the progress of the project by early in Phase 3, to allow data collection during the roundtable.
Prior to the start of the first full academic year of the project (2011), the results of national and local data analyses will be shared via videoconferences, along with plans for change based on that data. Steering group members, including the project leaders, will be expected to make feasible (given the time frames and stage of the project) but meaningful changes to any aspects of their courses or teaching that the data suggest could be improved. For example, if the initial data indicate that geometry is an area of weakness among students, the content of units could be modified to include more emphasis on this content aspect. Similarly if students are unable to suggest suitable intervention for particular mathematical errors, lecturers might modify their approach to provide opportunities for students to develop targeted teaching plans. These changes will be documented and will provide the basis for implementing wider changes within consortium institutions.
Further, during this phase a sample of students and mathematics education teaching staff from each of the partner institutions will be interviewed. The interviews will be organised and conducted locally, using a framework agreed by the steering committee but adaptable for local use. The exact number and nature of the students and staff interviewed will depend on the collaborating institutions. The interviews will elaborate on the survey data, and will provide valuable insights into pre-service teachers’ experiences of their mathematics education units, and the perspectives of those teaching them. Data analysis from these interviews will be undertaken both locally, to inform local institutions about their own students’ experiences, and also centrally to provide more global information.
A reporting system will be developed to provide information to universities about their achievement. Structural equation models will identify relative influences on pre-service teacher outcomes of factors such as course delivery and structure, lecturer background and students’ characteristics as indicated in the conceptual framework (Figure 1), and recommendations will be built on these results. Individual institutions will be expected to develop strategies for future monitoring and review of mathematics units and courses as a basis for course level changes in the future (see Phase 3).
During this phase, participating institutions will share progress through newsletters, formal reports, monthly 2-hour videoconferences and the project website. The project leaders will ensure that a focus remains on sharing best practice through modelling change, initiating discussions among participants and preparing publications and conference presentations. Plans for and exemplars of evidence-based change will be collected and shared as case studies. These will also form the basis for workshops and presentations to promote change among the wider mathematics education community in Phase 3.
Phase 2 will end with a face-to-face meeting at the joint conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) and the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT) to be held in Alice Springs in July 2011. The conference program includes time for roundtable discussions and the project leaders will propose a roundtable to be attended by the steering group but also open to anyone in attendance at the conference. The MERGA conference is routinely attended by members of the steering group along with mathematics educators from almost every Australian tertiary institution involved in teacher education. This 2011 event will provide an ideal opportunity to inform and seek input from the wider mathematics education and mathematics teaching communities because it will link mathematics educators with school teachers (via AAMT), Findings to date, from survey and interview data, will be shared by the steering group members, refinements to data collection tools will be discussed, and workshop tools trialled. Other institutions will be invited to participate in Phase 3 of the project.
The external evaluator will collect additional information and provide an interim report to the steering group about the progress of the project by early in Phase 3, to allow data collection during the roundtable.
Phase 2 summary (Feb 2011 – Jul 2011): Steering group members plan and initiate changed personal practice; Interviews conducted with pre-service teachers and lecturers; Analysis of interview data; Development of reporting system; Preparation for Roundtable at MERGA/AAMT conference.
Phase 3 – Establishing an evidence-based teaching culture within mathematics education staff.
Members of the steering group and mathematics educators joining the project in this phase will be supported to advocate evidence-based approaches to course and teaching review within the mathematics units of their courses. They will be provided with PowerPoint presentations and workshop outlines addressing the aims of the project, the rationale for evidence-based practice and national agendas driving the need for change. These materials will be based on the evidence collected from the surveys and interviews, adaptable for local use, but providing a degree of coherence across institutions. They will provide an evidence-based resource that will have an educative purpose particularly for new participants. Participants will be expected to organise a seminar within their institution for all mathematics educators and other interested parties, including mathematicians.
A second round of survey data collection using refined versions of the tools employed in Phase 1 will occur at the end of the second semester, 2011. The purpose of this second round of surveys is to establish ongoing monitoring processes that can be used by any institution in the future, using refined instruments. It will also be used to monitor the success of changes made to practice in Phase 2. Data will be analysed centrally but each institution will have access to local data to inform planning and to use as the basis of ongoing course monitoring.
Towards the end of this phase, during the period from November 2011 to March 2012, the project leaders will visit each consortium university. The visits will include:
Members of the steering group and mathematics educators joining the project in this phase will be supported to advocate evidence-based approaches to course and teaching review within the mathematics units of their courses. They will be provided with PowerPoint presentations and workshop outlines addressing the aims of the project, the rationale for evidence-based practice and national agendas driving the need for change. These materials will be based on the evidence collected from the surveys and interviews, adaptable for local use, but providing a degree of coherence across institutions. They will provide an evidence-based resource that will have an educative purpose particularly for new participants. Participants will be expected to organise a seminar within their institution for all mathematics educators and other interested parties, including mathematicians.
A second round of survey data collection using refined versions of the tools employed in Phase 1 will occur at the end of the second semester, 2011. The purpose of this second round of surveys is to establish ongoing monitoring processes that can be used by any institution in the future, using refined instruments. It will also be used to monitor the success of changes made to practice in Phase 2. Data will be analysed centrally but each institution will have access to local data to inform planning and to use as the basis of ongoing course monitoring.
Towards the end of this phase, during the period from November 2011 to March 2012, the project leaders will visit each consortium university. The visits will include:
- Meetings with the steering group members at each institution and influential leaders in teaching and learning within each institution, such as Heads of Schools, Deans, and PVCs responsible for Teaching and Learning. Appropriate people will be nominated and invited by the local steering group members. Among items to be discussed will be ways of extending and embedding an evidence-based teaching culture within the university and how leadership expertise gained by project participants might be used to this end.
- Discussions with local education teaching staff from within the consortium institution to share project outcomes and changes made and planned. A major focus will be ways in which the project’s objectives can be extended, including to other curriculum areas.
Phase 3 summary (Aug 2011 – March 2012): Provision of workshops to participating institutions; Second online survey implementation using refined tools; State and territory meetings to disseminate project findings and tools.
Phase 4: Developing capacity in standards focussed, evidence-based change.
The focus of this phase will be to link the learning from the project to implementation of the National Professional Standards for Teachers, and to extend and embed an evidence-based teaching culture among teacher education institutions using the tools and leadership capacities developed through the project. Representatives of institutions who joined the project in Phase 3 will be expected to work in similar ways to the CEMENT partners, within and beyond their institutions, particularly if they are located in a region distant from a steering group institution (e.g., north Queensland or metropolitan Sydney). Support will be provided in the form of access to all of the data collection tools, interview schedules, workshop outlines, presentations and reports of the project as well as access to the website and regular videoconference meetings.
Results of the analyses of the second round of survey data collection will also be shared at the regular videoconference meetings and on the project website. Findings will be discussed with a focus on the outcomes of changed practice (see Phases 2 and 3) to provide recommendations for future course developments, plans for change within each institution and future sustainability of the approach.
In order to disseminate the recommendations and findings as widely as possible, the final meeting of the steering group will be expanded to a dissemination forum. Influential leaders of teaching and learning from each institution involved will be invited, as will representatives of other interested higher education institutions, mathematicians and statisticians, and other interest groups from the teaching profession, such as Teaching Australia. Individual institutions will present their own perspectives on CEMENT, including aspects such as the benefits and costs of participation and their own findings; plans for the ongoing use of the tools; ways in which the underpinning principles and learning can be applied beyond mathematics teacher education; and plans for leading a focus on evidence-based teaching within and beyond their institutions. Practical suggestions for change and ways in which this can be achieved will be the basis for a manual, “CEMENTing Change”, published as a result of the forum. This manual will include the tools used within institutions to bring about changes within their practices at lecturer, unit and course level.
The external evaluator will attend the project conference, and will finalise the evaluation report. The evaluation report will become part of the final project documentation.
The focus of this phase will be to link the learning from the project to implementation of the National Professional Standards for Teachers, and to extend and embed an evidence-based teaching culture among teacher education institutions using the tools and leadership capacities developed through the project. Representatives of institutions who joined the project in Phase 3 will be expected to work in similar ways to the CEMENT partners, within and beyond their institutions, particularly if they are located in a region distant from a steering group institution (e.g., north Queensland or metropolitan Sydney). Support will be provided in the form of access to all of the data collection tools, interview schedules, workshop outlines, presentations and reports of the project as well as access to the website and regular videoconference meetings.
Results of the analyses of the second round of survey data collection will also be shared at the regular videoconference meetings and on the project website. Findings will be discussed with a focus on the outcomes of changed practice (see Phases 2 and 3) to provide recommendations for future course developments, plans for change within each institution and future sustainability of the approach.
In order to disseminate the recommendations and findings as widely as possible, the final meeting of the steering group will be expanded to a dissemination forum. Influential leaders of teaching and learning from each institution involved will be invited, as will representatives of other interested higher education institutions, mathematicians and statisticians, and other interest groups from the teaching profession, such as Teaching Australia. Individual institutions will present their own perspectives on CEMENT, including aspects such as the benefits and costs of participation and their own findings; plans for the ongoing use of the tools; ways in which the underpinning principles and learning can be applied beyond mathematics teacher education; and plans for leading a focus on evidence-based teaching within and beyond their institutions. Practical suggestions for change and ways in which this can be achieved will be the basis for a manual, “CEMENTing Change”, published as a result of the forum. This manual will include the tools used within institutions to bring about changes within their practices at lecturer, unit and course level.
The external evaluator will attend the project conference, and will finalise the evaluation report. The evaluation report will become part of the final project documentation.
Phase 4 Summary: State-based wider dissemination; Extension beyond mathematics educators; Final CEMENT dissemination forum; CEMENTing Change manual; Development of plans for ongoing use of the tools.
Unless otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.
Visit the 2015 conference website:
www.conversationsonkft.weebly.com
www.conversationsonkft.weebly.com