Research Report: Mathematics Educator Leadership in ON

Our Mathematics Leadership CoP member organizations (pictured below) have been busy collecting data and monitoring their professional development activities.

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To learn about their research findings so far, check out this Research Report on Mathematics Educator Leadership in Ontario by Dragana Martinovic, co-Lead of our Mathematics Leadership CoP.

This report will be revised annually to address their recent activities and new data, and relate those to the findings of others. This living document will detail their work and inform further research-practice-policy conversations about mathematics educator leadership in Ontario.

See more from our Mathematics Leadership CoP here.

Math Leadership: Professional Learning Guides

Take a look at the two guides used by the GECDSB facilitators to lead the professional learning in their board!

The Moderating Mathematics Guide is a protocol for professional development in mathematics especially developed for the whole school inquiry or for work with teams of educators from across all grades. The goal of the Facilitator (e.g., Coach, Math Lead) is to support the school’s professional learning community until the group is confident enough to lead their own learning. Building educator efficacy and leadership is a central goal of this process and is what contributes to its sustainability over time.

The Professional Learning Facilitators’ Guide was used by the GECDSB Principals to support sessions on Number Sense, organized in their schools.

See more great resources from the Math Leadership Community of Practice on their page!

Content for this post was provided by Dragana Martinovic, Math Leadership CoP co-Lead.

NEW Case Study: Concreteness Fading

In 2016, Eastwood Public School, an elementary school in the GECDSB, set out to develop an understanding of how Concreteness Fading could inform planning of tasks, lessons, and units, both within and across grades.

The goal of this inquiry was to look at the question: How is the pedagogical approach of Concreteness Fading applied in the elementary classroom?  Many educators in Ontario expressed interest in this topic and were curious how the whole school inquiry may look.

To see the results of the whole school inquiry on concreteness fading, see the report prepared by our Mathematics Leadership CoP members, Dragana Martinovic (University of Windsor) and Heidi Horn-Olivito (GECDSB).

Want to learn more about our Mathematics Leadership CoP? Visit their page to see their plans, partners, resources, and more.

Canada 150 Math Leadership

See the report on the Canada 150 Math Challenge prepared by our Mathematics Leadership community of practice!

This mathematics activity was initiated by the staff of Dr. David Suzuki PS in Windsor, as part of their whole-school mathematics leadership project. Check out the challenge tasks for Canada 150 of which most were developed by Kyle Pearce and Heidi Horn-Olivito from GECDSB, and enriched by many contributions across Canada.

Interesting findings emerged from the school data; students were interested and engaged in the activities with real-life data related to Canada’s anniversary. While this project enhanced Dr. David Suzuki PS students’ productive disposition towards mathematics, it may have also contributed to changing public attitudes towards mathematics, as it involved students, educators, parents, and communities across Canada.

Learn more about our Mathematics Leadership CoP here.

Content for this post was provided by Dragana Martinovic, co-Lead of the Mathematics Leadership CoP.

GECDSB’s Vision for Mathematics

In the spring of 2015, the Trustees of the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) approved a motion for the formation of a “Math Task Force.” Its purpose was to examine the practices of mathematics teaching and learning from multiple perspectives within the GECDSB, and to advise Senior Administration and the Board of Trustees as to how best to support future planning in the area of mathematical teaching and learning.

In the spring of 2016 the GECDSB released a report from the work of the Math Task Force. One of the areas examined in this report was that of mathematics leader and mathematics leadership. In the first year of implementation of the recommendations from the report, the GECDSB focused on building mathematics content, pedagogy, and leadership capacity of lead-learners. These lead-learners were identified as formal leaders (central office and administration) and school-based mathematics learning teams.

The GECDSB Math Task Force continues to meet and discuss implementations of the Board’s collective vision related to teaching and learning mathematics. Check out the learning briefs based on the research, and discussion and insights from the intensive work of the Math Task Force:

As the GECDSB is a partner in our Mathematics Leadership Community of Practice, their great work in mathematics has been informing the work of this CoP, and will continue to inform their work going forward.

Content for this post was provided by Dragana Martinovic, Professor at the Faculty of Education at University of Windsor, and Math Leadership CoP Co-Lead.