A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MODEL: INCLUDING COACHING AND PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

A professional development program has been implemented for the last five years for elementary and middle school mathematics teachers from schools of the western part of Puerto Rico. This model has two important characteristics: it is an intensive program, in terms of contact hours with the teachers and follows a content-based model. One of the main strategies which has been used is the problem-based model using exercises from different international mathematical Olympiads. University professors and participant teachers work together in the production of educational materials with emphasis in solving problems.
Activities of the program include residential academies, an 80-hour summer institute and Saturday academies. A strong follow-up plan has been also implemented. The goal of this component of the project is to make sure that the teacher’s acquired knowledge, the developed or acquired materials and the suggested curricular changes have been implemented in the classroom. This follow-up includes coaching and support for classroom activities and extracurricular activities. These extracurricular activities are for instance coaching for math fairs and math Olympiads. University professors make school visits to participant teachers. During these visits teachers share ideas and concerns related to the application of topics learned in the professional development activities in their own classrooms. Materials that are used during the professional development activities are provided to teachers so they can use these materials with their students in their classrooms.
Some other strategies have been implemented to make this project a comprehensive professional development model. Participant teachers had the opportunity to obtain a certification to become “cooperating teacher” which means that they can receive pre-service teachers to make their practice in their classrooms. Several field trips have been offered so teachers can learn different places where mathematics is used and then have more tools to motivate the teaching-learning. The project has a program of “research to practice” where teachers receive coaching to work on a research question related to their teaching-learning process. In an annually-held conference teachers have not only the opportunity to participate in workshops and plenary conferences, but also to present successful classroom practices and results from their research projects.

An important component of the project is evaluation and dissemination. All the activities of the project are evaluated, the administrative and academic components. A quasi-experimental study was designed to compare content knowledge of teachers participating in the project with that of non-participant teachers. On the other hand, a validated text was offered to students of project participant teachers and control group teachers. State exams were also used to compare students of participant teachers versus students of non participant teachers. As part of the dissemination efforts, the project has a web page which allows the participants to share materials and discuss classroom strategies to implement activities in their classroom.

One of the main long-term goals of the project was to create an elite cohort of teachers who can serve as mentors for other teachers. Some participant teachers have been working in professional development of their peers in some conferences around the Island.