Secondary Teacher Development
The elements distinguishing UCSMP texts from most others – wider scope, an emphasis on reading and problem-solving, many more applications, the use of technology – have obvious implications for the way mathematics should be taught. When the first edition was completed, the secondary component intensified its efforts in the area of teacher development.
Institutes
The Project received funding in 1989 from the Ford Motor Company for five UCSMP Secondary Summer Institutes, held from 1989-90 to 1991-92. For two weeks each institute brought together 25 university educators, secondary supervisors, and teachers in leadership positions chosen from a nationwide pool of applicants. They attended sessions focusing on new content (including applications, modeling, statistics, discrete mathematics) and new approaches (problem-solving and understanding, careful development of geometry and proof) as well as technology workshops and discussion groups.
To facilitate the transmission of new ideas to teachers across the country, while at the University of Chicago participants developed plans for further dissemination tailored to the particular situation in their own districts.
Conferences and Workshops
UCSMP is pleased to announce that its November conference series will resume with the "UCSMP Grades 6-12 User's Conference" on November 15-16, 2008, at The University of Chicago. Similar conferences were offered each November from 1985-86 through 2001-02 for current and prospective users of Project materials. These conferences include users' sessions offering teachers an opportunity to share experiences and ideas with their peers, overviews of each text presented by UCSMP authors and teachers experienced with the materials, and sessions on teaching each book.
Workshops were held each August from 1989-90 to 1998-99, providing new and experienced users of UCSMP materials with opportunities to learn more about them. Participants registered for an entire day devoted to one of the texts. Following an overview of the secondary curriculum as a whole, the day consisted of sessions led by UCSMP authors and experienced teachers who provided detailed information about teaching from the text, offered advice, and answered questions.
Those seeking more information about secondary materials can contact UCSMP to arrange for additional training.
Mathematics For High School Teachers - An Advanced Perspective
This is a text designed for both prospective and experienced secondary school mathematics teachers as an upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate mathematics course.
The objective is to discuss the content of high school mathematics from an advanced perspective. This perspective takes into account not only the many interconnections among high school mathematics topics, but also their relationship to college-level mathematics. This perspective includes a deeper analysis of problems and concepts drawn from high school mathematics to help teachers gain important new mathematical insights and understandings. This advanced perspective is also mindful of the historical and conceptual evalution of mathematical theory and school mathematics. Finally, this advanced perspective is designed to encourage teachers to explore mathematical ideas in depth and to explain mathematical ideas with clarity and percision. In this way, we hope to help teachers develop a deeper understanding of high school mathematics and a new appreciation of its beauty, its logical structure, and its applicability.