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Episode Summary:

What if your next professional development session could transform not just how educators teach math but how they conceptually understand it?

As educators, one of the biggest challenges we face is balancing the need to deepen our own mathematical understanding while effectively teaching students at various levels. This episode tackles how engaging in well-chosen math tasks during professional development can help strengthen educators’  conceptual understanding of mathematics, while also modeling strong facilitation techniques educators can bring back to your classroom.

Resources:

• Key Considerations for Unlocking Impactful Professional Development For K-12 Math Educators [Change to blog post link]
• Assessment For Growth: A Blueprint Course For Standards Based Grading in Math Class
• Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons & Units

Attention District Math Leaders:

K-12 Math Coordinators, Coaches, Directors and Math Leaders. Get Professional Development Support from Make Math Moments

Learn how you can create, coordinate, and implement an aligned school and district math action plan for improved student success. 

So that you can create long term sustainable student success in mathematics and proficiently & pedagogically strong educators.

Book a call with us to learn how we can not only help you craft, refine and implement your district math learning goals, but also provide all of the professional learning supports your educators need to grow at the speed of their learning.

Episode Summary:

One of the most impactful ways to build our students’ mathematical proficiency is by prioritizing our own. As educators, deepening our understanding of mathematics can significantly enhance how we teach it. Engaging in rich mathematical problem-solving with our colleagues is one of the most effective ways to strengthen our content knowledge. This deeper understanding allows us to be more responsive and effective when facilitating lessons and providing interventions, ultimately benefiting our students.

During professional development  sessions, it’s essential to prioritize doing the math ourselves. However, it’s not enough to simply plan to do any math. Just like in the classroom, we must carefully select tasks that promote reasoning and problem-solving. In other words, the math tasks need to be interesting enough to be worth doing.

The Importance of Productive Struggle in Professional Development

Engaging in a math task is only impactful when it places participants in a productive struggle. I want to emphasize the word “productive.” We’re looking for the “Goldilocks” of tasks—one that is not too hard, not too easy, but just right. Tasks that challenge without overwhelming help foster the kind of mathematical growth we hope to see in our classrooms.

When selecting tasks for PD, particularly for a wide audience, consider choosing tasks from the middle grades. For instance, selecting a task from 6th-grade offers enough food for thought without being too taxing. Mathematics anxiety is real, even for teachers, and we want to avoid participants shutting down before they even get started.

At times, I’ve received pushback from primary teachers who argue that the tasks we engage with during PD aren’t relevant to them because they would be too difficult for their students. It’s my responsibility as a facilitator to make it clear from the start that these tasks are not for their students—they’re for the teachers themselves. These tasks are designed to build their mathematical proficiency. If I were to select a primary-level task, there could be little struggle, which would likely result in minimal learning.

When we select a great task and engage with it alongside other educators, we have an opportunity to strengthen our strategic competence. There is tremendous value not just in knowing how to solve a problem, but in understanding how to approach it in multiple ways. This knowledge is best gained through collaborative problem-solving.

Modeling Strong Facilitation During PD

Doing the math during PD sessions not only strengthens teachers’ mathematical proficiency but also offers an opportunity to model effective facilitation techniques. Whether it’s selecting and sequencing solutions, asking probing questions, or making connections during consolidation, the way you facilitate the task is an opportunity to notice and name great pedagogy. 

Just like a well-structured math lesson in the classroom, the goal of PD is lasting and enduring understanding for everyone involved.

Questions to Consider When Selecting a Task for PD:

• Is this task interesting enough to spark debate or rich discussion?

• Does this task encourage reasoning through problem-solving?

• Are there multiple ways to approach this problem?

• Does this task allow for multiple representations?

• Is the cognitive demand too high, potentially causing participants to shut down?

• Will the consolidation of this task lead participants to an “aha” moment?

Selecting the right tasks for professional development is critical. When done well, it provides a powerful way to enhance not only the content knowledge of teachers but also their pedagogical skills. With the right blend of challenge and collaboration, PD can become a space for profound growth.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

In this video, we are unpacking yet another consideration for planning effective maps. We all know that one of the best ways to build student mathematical proficiency is by focusing on teacher content knowledge. In my opinion, the best ways to build teacher content knowledge is by actually doing the math during a session. You can actually carve out the time to simply engage in mathematics, and as an added bonus, you get to engage in mathematics with others, which is incredibly powerful when it comes to selecting a task for your session.

We are looking for the Goldilocks test, one that is not too easy, not too hard, but just right. Whether you have 60 minutes with teachers and all you’re able to fit in is a problem. String or an entire day with teachers where you are engaging in a three part math lesson. You really want to make sure that the math that they engage in is interesting, meaningful, and it really promotes rich discussion and leads to those aha moments for teachers.

If you do have the opportunity to engage in a full three part math lesson, the advantage to that is that not only are you going to do some interesting math, but you actually get a chance to model those facilitator moves. You can notice and name the effective teacher practices that are happening during the facilitation of that lesson from start to finish.

So when you’re selecting a task I want you to consider will the task that I selected put my participants in a productive struggle? And I’m going to emphasize both words and needs to be productive, and it needs to give them a chance to struggle. If I select a task that’s too easy, there won’t really be much to do with it.

They’re going to simply solve it very quickly. It may not even warrant representing it multiple ways. And then again, it’s not going to lead to any math epiphanies. On the other hand, you definitely don’t want to select something that’s too challenging. We all know that math anxiety is real. And so if I select a task that’s really out of the reach of my participants, we know that many of our teachers are going to shut down.

So we really do need that just right task. And in my experience, I have found content around fifth and sixth grade seems to be the sweet spot. It’s challenging enough to warrant representing a different ways, connecting mathematical representations that lead to an interesting consolidation. And the thing about content from those grades is that it often really leads well into ninth and 10th grade as well.

There are so many connections that you can make. So just really thinking about when I’m selecting a task, I want to make sure that it’s meaty enough that it’s going to be interesting for participants, it’s going to seem worthwhile and I try to be super clear with participants before the task that I have selected this task for them as mathematicians, for them to engage in the work.

Sometimes in a session I might hear from a primary teacher. That task was really interesting, but I can’t take it back to my classroom tomorrow. So just being really clear with participants that the purpose of engaging in the math is to build our own mathematical proficiency. It’s to have an opportunity to put the effective teaching practices into practice, not necessarily it’s going to be a task for them to take back to their students.

So this is just another consideration for planning effective PD. The priority is on doing the math and being really intentional about the math that we are selecting.

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