2019 ICTM Fall Conference

Christa Jackson

Associate Professor
of Mathematics Education

Equity and Access: Examining Teachers’ Conceptions to Effectively Position Students

Many mathematics teachers contend issues of equity are not relevant factors in the mathematics classroom. However, mathematics instruction should build on students’ cultural background and experience. In order to effectively teach mathematics from an equity stance, teachers must understand students from diverse backgrounds come into the mathematics classroom with different world-views. NCTM (2014) states, to address issues of equity, mathematics teachers must include aspects of the student’s culture to support mathematics learning for each and every student. In this session, we will examine our own conceptions of access and equity and discuss its relevance in our own practice of mathematics teaching and learning.

Christa Jackson, Ph.D.,  prepares prospective teachers at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels to teach mathematics as well as chairs and advises masters and doctoral students in the School of Education at Iowa State University. Christa is a Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum Fellow and has expertise writing STEM curriculum, providing professional development to elementary and middle school in-service teachers on implementing STEM curricula, and examining the influence curricular materials and the standards have on teachers’ practices. Her research focuses on the instructional strategies and teaching practices teachers use that afford opportunities for students from diverse cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds to learn rigorous, challenging mathematics while simultaneously fostering productive mathematical identities. She has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences, and the Iowa Department of Education. She serves as a Board Member-at-Large for the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and School Science and Mathematics Association.

Alfie Kohn

Author (of The Schools Our Children Deserve
and other books) and Lecturer

In a Context and For a Purpose:

Constructing a Progressive Math Classroom

Traditional math instruction consists of filling students with information about decimals and variables, having them memorize algorithms and practice procedures. The process typically relies on lectures, worksheets, textbooks, grades, tests, and homework -- and has two predictable results: Millions of children end up hating math (and thinking of themselves as incapable of doing it), and even many of those who "succeed" really don't understand what they're doing. Our challenge is to help students actively construct meaning around mathematical ideas -- to think like mathematicians and, ideally, get a kick out of doing so. In his keynote address, Alfie Kohn invites us to reflect on how we can bring about just such a shift in our classrooms.

Alfie Kohn is the author of 14 books on education and human behavior, including PUNISHED BY REWARDS (1993), BEYOND DISCIPLINE (1996), THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE (1999), WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WELL EDUCATED (2004), THE HOMEWORK MYTH (2006), and, most recently, SCHOOLING BEYOND MEASURE (2015). He has written for most of the leading education periodicals and has appeared twice on “Oprah.” Time magazine described him as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” Kohn works with educators and parents across the country and speaks regularly at national conferences. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.

Michael Steele

President, Association of Mathematics
Teacher Educators

Taking Action in
Mathematics Teacher Education:
Effective Teaching and Effective Teacher Learning

NCTM’s Principles to Action describes eight research-based effective mathematics teaching practices that positively impact students’ mathematics learning. AMTE’s Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics outlines an aspirational vision for well-prepared beginning teachers of mathematics across the PreK-12 spectrum. The AMTE Standards also describe the roles that all of us - classroom teachers, mathematicians, education faculty, district and higher education administrators - have to play as mathematics teacher educators. This session brings together the vision of Principles to Action and the messages of the AMTE Standards to call us to action in strengthening our classroom instruction and developing a meaningful mathematics teaching community at the local, state, and national levels.

Michael D. Steele is a Professor of Mathematics Education in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is currently a rotating program officer at the National Science Foundation and the President of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. A former middle and high school mathematics and science teacher, Dr. Steele has worked with preservice secondary mathematics teachers, practicing teachers, administrators, and doctoral students across the country for the past two decades. He has published several books and journal articles focused on developing mathematics teacher knowledge and supporting teachers in enacting research-based effective mathematics teaching practices. He is the co-author of NCTM’s Taking Action: Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades 6-8 and several research-based professional development resources for secondary mathematics teachers. He is also the author of A Quiet Revolution: One District’s Story of Radical Curricular Change in Mathematics, a resource focused on reforming high school mathematics teaching and learning.