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Professional Development

Algebraic Thinking in College- and Career-Ready Standards Workshop

Deepen your understanding of how concepts of algebra and algebraic thinking develop in the Common Core and other college- and career-ready standards, and learn instructional practices to help students, grades 5-10, think algebraically to solve problems and succeed in algebra.

Contact Us About This Service

What You Will Learn

  • Strengthen your understanding of relationships between arithmetic and algebraic reasoning
  • Understand how the Standards for Mathematical Practice support algebraic reasoning
  • Increase your ability to identify, describe, and foster algebraic reasoning in students
  • Prepare and enact lessons that will help students develop conceptual understanding of algebraic ideas while engaging in the Standards for Mathematical Practice

Who Will Benefit

  • Mathematics Teachers, grades 5–10
  • Mathematics Coaches and Instructional Leaders
  • Staff Developers

Service Details

Two-day teacher workshops with flexible dates are available for school or district teams of up to 35 people. WestEd mathematics educators and researchers will collaborate with you to plan, customize, and facilitate sessions at your school, district, or regional site.

Sessions are structured around materials from Learning and Teaching Linear Functions: Video Cases for Mathematics Professional Development. These video cases were designed to engage teachers in mathematics tasks, analysis of classroom video clips, discussions, readings, and tasks designed as a bridge to teachers’ practice.

What Makes This Service Unique

Three independent research studies evaluated* the video case materials that structure these workshops. They reported that the materials can:

  • Create a professional culture for teachers in which they reflect upon mathematical ideas and students’ thinking and learning of mathematics
  • Improve a teacher’s understanding of the ideas involved in teaching linear functions, and
  • Improve teachers’ content knowledge and their ability to interpret classroom practice.

WestEd mathematics educators and researchers, with more than 20 years of experience in mathematics teaching and professional development, will collaborate with you to plan, customize, and facilitate sessions at your school, district, or regional site.

* LTLF Project Evaluation: Heck, D. J. (2003). Measuring teacher knowledge in mathematics professional development using embedded assessments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

* Turning to the Evidence Study (NSF): Goldsmith, L. T., Seago, N., Driscoll, M. J., Nikula, J., & Blasi, Z. (2006, April). Turning to the evidence: Examining the impact of two practice-based professional development programs. Symposium paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.

* Linear Functions for Teaching Efficacy Study (IES): Seago, N., Carroll, C., Hanson, T., & Schneider, S. (2014). The impact of learning and teaching linear functions professional development. In Proceedings of the 38th conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Vancouver, BC.

Cost

The two-day teacher workshop, including all accompanying materials and facilitator travel and expenses, cost $10,000 per site, for up to 35 participants.

Learn More

To learn more, please contact WestEd’s Angela Knotts at 650.381.6408 or aknotts@wested.org.