DALE SEYMOUR LENSES ON LEARNING MODULE 1 READINGS BOOK 2003C

Module 1: Instructional Leadership in Mathematics

This four-session module provides a broad overview of the fundamental ideas about mathematics, learning, and teaching on which Standards-based mathematics education is based. It gives administrators the opportunity to sort out their initial thoughts and reactions to these ideas and to begin to consider their implications for their own work. Participants have the opportunity to:

• do mathematics together
• explore how children’s mathematical thinking develops by examining student written work and by viewing a clinical interview with a student
• think about the nature of Standards-based instruction and how it differs from a procedural approach to mathematics education.

They also consider some of the norms and values that are embedded in Standards-based mathematics education and how these connect to school and district culture, and to their own leadership roles.

In each module participants read and discuss articles focusing on various aspects of mathematics, learning, and teaching. They

• do mathematics together
• engage in small-and whole-group discussions
• watch and discuss videotapes that reveal children’s mathematical thinking and the nature of standards-based classrooms
• examine samples of children’s mathematical work and excerpts from teachers’ professional journals
• discuss the challenges of their own administrative practice
• write in their journals.

They also carry out guided assignments in their schools related to the ideas explored in the course. Participants form an intellectual community among themselves as they reflect on a range of new ideas and consider the implications of these new ideas for their practice as administrators and instructional leaders.