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This is the best PD I've done in a while if not ever. My favourite part of the course was the lack of long-winded theoretical research papers saying what should work. It was straight to the point, this is what I've done and it works with real workable examples. Thank you for giving examples of what you have done and reading other peoples work was also good to get some ideas as well. 

Peter Davies 
Narrandera High School, March 2018

Course Overview


​A quality, 4-month, online, guided learning journey

​This online PD course is relevant to teachers globally; accredited in NSW. 
Are you tired of having bored and disengaged students in your maths lessons? Would you like to win more of your students over to your cause i.e. have (most of) them become truly engaged learners? Would you like to have more of your middle/high school students spending the majority of all lessons understanding the work you are giving them to work through? Are you – the teacher – the hardest working person in your classes and would like to change that? This 15-hours-over-16-weeks, online, guided learning journey provides a tried and proven model for school mathematics teaching and learning which can be applied to any mathematics topic. The course is packed with quality pedagogy, incorporating formative assessment practices, feedback strategies, open-ended questions, additional open tasks and well-scaffolded, student-centred activities. All strategies and resources are designed to generate aha moments - genuine experiences of understanding - for students. This is a self-paced course, and is therefore accessible 24/7.

Everyone gets to complete!
This is a self-paced course, with an allocated completion time of 16 weeks. However, as teachers have hectic lives and sometimes things get in the way of completing a course in the allocated time - be assured that if you are keen to complete, we will enable you to do so. 

Time-saving strategies
You won't believe this now but, rather than the conceptually-based strategies requiring more time, the ones presented in the course will, surprisingly, pose necessary teacher timesavers. Once you are three-quarters the way through the course, you should have experienced this to be true.

A conceptual approach
Participants are guided through an approach to teaching mathematics which is in line with formative assessment and feedback strategies and which is based on pedagogies which better-generate 'aha' moments in students. The approach could be referred to as a 'hybrid conceptual approach' because, in addition to it being conceptually-based, it is well-structured and incorporates the explicit teaching of procedures. Numerous classroom-ready strategies and resources are explained in detail which make the classroom implementations relatively seamless.     

 In a nutshell ... 
Participants LEARN through exploring numerous resources, IMPLEMENT some of the resources and strategies with their students and SHARE back to the course their implementation experiences. In addition to improving teachers’ ability to enable conceptual understanding in their students, the course also contains tried and proven student management strategies for teachers requiring support in this area. In the above ways, the course equips teachers with the skills to significantly improve the learning environments in their mathematics classrooms.

The ‘flavour’ of the course
If you need to gain some extra insight into the course these articles may help:

Course Modules

​​1. Overview / Getting Started ( 30 min )
Participants are welcomed to the course and 'meet' the presenter/facilitator. The course requirements are explained. Participants introduce themselves via an introductory post.  

2. The mathematics classroom unpacked (1.5 hrs)
The first of several modules which prepare the ground for the coming opportunities for change. Before we can improve we need to acknowledge where we are at in our teaching. Several typical classroom scenarios are explored which have the effect of putting everyone at ease and to which participants respond. Module Two also explores some factors affecting change and issues around control within the classroom.

3. Student Engagement (1 hr)
Explores the nature and makeup of an engaged mathematics classroom. An opportunity to share.

4. A human is a learning machine  (1.5 hrs)
The process of learning is explored with the help of an excellent snippet from a TED talk. This leads to an unpacking of independent - or student-centred - learning. Also, a quick look at student resistance and creating proactive vs reactive students.

5. School mathematics - A game of memory  (1 hr)
Is school-based mathematics too compartmentalised? And if it is, what is the alternative? These and related issues are explored as an introduction to the remaining modules. An opportunity to share.​​​

6. Unpacking conceptual teaching and learning  (1.5 hrs)
The notion of conceptual teaching and learning has received a pretty bad rap over recent decades and many widely-held misconceptions abound. Participants commonly respond at this point with comments such as “This all sounds fine but I just can’t see this working” to which I respond with “Thanks, that’s a very understandable response … but stay tuned!” The videos, articles and opportunities to comment in this module allow participants to reap the benefits during the remainder of the course.

7. Conceptual teaching and learning - some strategies (1.5 hours)
Here we unpack specific, tried-and-proven strategies which can be implemented ‘the next day’ by any teacher, strategies which serve to increase engagement of students - and the teacher - as well as understanding, collaboration, higher order thinking and more. An opportunity to comment is provided. Teachers choose some of these strategies to implement with their students during the remainder of the course.

8. Conceptual teaching and learning - some examples   (1.5 hrs)
Now we explore specific, tried-and-proven resources which are infused with the conceptual approach principles proposed throughout the course. Again these are resources and ideas which can be implemented ‘the next day’ and prove to be excellent for implementations. This is the point in the course where participants become especially inspired.

9. Dealing with student spread ​(30 min)
If we are going to approach mathematics teaching in a more student-centred, conceptual manner then we need to learn to deal with the resulting increased student spread. This is easier said than done if you don’t have appropriate strategies. This module equips teachers with some excellent strategies to effectively deal with student spread.

10. The Work Requirement System ​(45 min)
One excellent option for running an engaging, student-centred, conceptually-based unit of work is the consistently successful Work Requirement System. The system has proved to be a popular implementation choice for course participants.

11. Further engagement and management strategies (1 hr)
There’s always more to explore! This module, in addition to sharing some extra engagement strategies, includes some bonus tried-and-proven student management strategies for those with students of the more ‘difficult’ type.

12.  Implementations ​(1.5 hours) (1.5 hrs)
Participants share their experiences of trialling their chosen strategies from the course.

13. Course Completion (15 min)
The course completion process including accreditation information, a short survey, staying in touch and options for continued access.

FAQs

Should we enrol more than one teacher in this online course? 
If you are looking for department-wide improvement regarding the engagement of students in mathematics lessons then the ideal way to achieve this is to enrol all or most of your teachers into this course. However, this course is also ideal for individual teachers wanting to see significant changes occur in their classroom teaching. 

It says courses commence in March, June, September and December of each year. Can I start at a different time which suits me better? 
Yes. Included on the application form is an option to ‘Start now’. If you choose this option, we will contact you to ascertain the best occurrence to place you in. 
For Southern Hemisphere teachers - the December occurrence enables you to complete most of the content during the Christmas holidays, allowing you to run your implementations during Term One and complete the course by mid-March.

What happens if I don't finish my course within the four months?
Teachers have hectic lives, and sometimes things get in the way of completing a course in the allocated time. Be assured that if this happens to you, and you are keen to complete, we will do enable you to do so.  ​​

Will I have to be logged in at specific times?
The course is self-paced and accessible 24/7. There is no requirement to be logged in at any specific time.

Example Implementation Reports

A requirement of the course is to implement strategies from the course with students and to report on those implementation experiences. Click the button below to access some example implementation reports.

Download the course flyer and share with your team

Engagement: Winning over your mathematics class - Flyer

Course Overview
A 2 ½ minute overview of the 'Mathematics-Engagement' course.

I wish more courses were as useful as this one. This course has changed the way I am teaching my current classes as well as my outlook on how to deal with disengaged students. The changes have been very positive. My students are actually liking maths and can't quite believe that "I can do this" regularly slips out of their mouths. Reading other peoples' thoughts and ideas has been truly enlightening. Richard's feedback and comments were very helpful, thought provoking and supportive. ​
Lyndell Hatch, NBSC, Cromer, 'Maths-Engagement' course, Sept 2016

Testimonials

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