Developing a Methodology for Understanding How Professional Dev Translates¿..

Proficiency in high school mathematics is increasingly important in our technological world, but American students have improved only slightly, if at all in recent years. Our nation struggles to attract and retain qualified teacher, but the immediate challenge in mathematics education is to find a program of curriculum, training and support that works with present day teachers and schools. Carnegie Learning has a program proven to work: the Cognitive Tutor. Cognitive Tutor courses incorporate computer software, print curricula, and teacher professional development program. We propose gathering objective data to better understand and quantify the implementation of oru Cognitive Tutor courses. This data will help facilitate improvements in teacher training and in-service support. Our initial work will involve examining, coding, and analyzing videotapes of teachers teaching Cognitive Tutor Courses. This will allow us to compare the results of our teachers' practices with those of TIMSS study, as well as with what our professional development staff woul ideally like teachers to do, and what they think teachers actually do.