Sustainable Math ReformThis is a featured page

As TMP considers a Phase III initiative, input from our local partners and state and national supporters will help us formulate a viable proposal for continued funding. Discussing, reviewing and evaluating those successful, sustainable elements of our local and statewide work to date, along with discussing the lessons learned, and where we see potential for more targeted efforts and scaling up, all will go a long way in helping the TMP maintain momentum and extend its reach. Please add to this discussion. We need your input!


JJHouse
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ShadMoarif Math: The Language of Science? 0 Oct 17 2009, 12:31 AM EDT by ShadMoarif
Thread started: Oct 17 2009, 12:31 AM EDT  Watch
Math has been touted as a language of science which cannot be contested. However, to claim the status of a language, a few conditions need apply. For one thing a language can be read easily, seamlessly, and invokes comprehension as it is read. It is decodable. That means the black squiggles one sees on a page (and calls print) can be decoded into sounds, and the sounds, being speech-sounds, evoke meaning. To decode in this manner is basically "to read". It can also be encoded. We can take meaning, reconvert it back into speech-sounds, then encode those speech-sounds back into those black squiggles on a page. That is what writing is all about. Can we do that with Math? Anybody can "read" math few can understand it. That's because the sounds that mathematical symbols create in our heads are not familiar speech sounds. They invoke neither images (as of a tree when when one reads "tree"), nor the continuous flow of meaning. How then does it qualify as a language except in its most primitive form? Yet, paradoxically it is among the most advanced forms of language.
An obvious contradiction in terms.

Alphabetic languages uses auditory mediation (or phonics) to facilitate the creation of meaning when print is converted to speech sounds. In fact, if it is the phonical element of spoken and written languag that facilitates comprehension of the written and the spoken word.

In math, this phonical element plays a hollow, mechanical role. You can sound out "pi" (as "pie") and visualize nothing. It is an abstract concept and remains abstract (and often utterly meaningless to most) . And yet pi has meaning (to those who know it) and even an image (to those who understand where it comes from).

My conclusion therefore, is that, there subsists, within the language of math, something that could function as the equivalent of auditory mediation (or phonics).
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JJHouse Creating Sustainable Math Reform 2 Sep 18 2008, 3:37 PM EDT by BillM
Thread started: Sep 10 2008, 2:02 PM EDT  Watch
A TMP Phase III effort beginning 2009, IF approved and funded, will focus on disseminating, implementing, supporting those most effective/promising elements of the TMP work to date on a broad(er) scale. As we wrap up Phase II, and consider a Phase III, we need to look harder and harder at how our efforts to date are moving toward being sustainable -- after TMP -- in schools and districts and colleges. I reminded myself of the dictionary definition of 'to sustain' which is 'To keep in existence; maintain; to support from below; prolong.' Despite this straightforward definition, we recognize that indicators of sustainability can and will take many forms, and is in general a longer-term process, but the question now is what progress have we begun to see?

The literature talks about district and state policy, school culture, leadership (administrators and teachers), and teaching/classroom factors as main factors impacting sustainability. So...within your local TMP work, where are you seeing movement towards some level of sustainability for select aspects of or all of your TMP-funded initiatives and newly created resources? Some examples may flow from:

-New or increased district /school funding support,
-Broadening, formalizing, or perhaps better targeting aspects of your work,
-Using data to improve and continue TMP-supported efforts,
-Increased levels of teacher and leader buy-in and commitment,
-Adoption of new practices, behaviors,
-Changes to PD,
-and more.

Please share your examples, thoughts and opinions on this important sustainability question.
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Word Document Institute 08 Planning Session Summary.doc (Word Document - 39k)
posted by JJHouse   Sep 15 2008, 5:39 PM EDT
TMP Summer Institute Planning Session Summary