Exploiting available research more effectively

Elementary, Mathematics Education, Science Education

Teaching and Learning

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The GTA Professional Network Centre (GTA PNC) member school districts:

Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board

Halton Catholic District School Board

Halton District School Board

Peel District School Board

Toronto Catholic District School Board

Toronto District School Board

Upper Grand District School Board

Wellington Catholic District School Board

York Region District School Board

This project integrates work in four different areas: knowledge mobilization, Assessment for Learning, professional learning for conceptual change, and mathematics education. Each of these fields forms a critical part of the work for this project, as it is designed to meld the current knowledge base in these four areas to bring clarity and focus to how teachers can learn about research in ways that will result in real change to their beliefs and their practices, not just the application of techniques and algorithms.

This group forms a collaborative inquiry team with expertise in mathematics, Assessment for Learning, and collaborative inquiry for conceptual change. This group will: (a) examine and summarize key concepts in Assessment for Learning; (b) identify threshold concepts in numeracy and mathematics that are essential to master if students are to proceed in understanding mathematics instruction; (c) develop professional learning approaches that address Assessment for Learning in mathematics, using methods that are rooted in professional learning for conceptual change; (d) create exemplars of professional learning “learning cases” based on real situations that will facilitate a viable process for working with teachers; and (e) create a process for using learning networks for sharing the learning from this project with the remainder of the GTA PNC school districts and beyond.

Knowledge mobilization in this project will begin right at the beginning of the project. The team will work to create new knowledge together and to find ways to engage others in the process of creating their own understanding of Assessment for Learning , especially in numeracy and mathematics in ways that trigger conceptual change.

The GTA PNC is already very committed to knowledge mobilization and sharing learning across all of the GTA PNC boards through: (1) artifacts ; (2) an electronic share point ; and (3) face-to-face meetings . In this project, the team will use these processes to move their development work into the districts that are part of this network centre . At the end of the project, the GTA PNC will convene a meeting with representatives from all of the member districts to highlight learning cases and engage in reflection with the team on the successes and the challenges that they have faced, as well as in planning for the next steps in the GTA PNC and beyond. The latter will involve both creating space for developing local implementation plans for mobilizing the learning within each member board’s professional learning strategy, and it will also move to take up the learning in the established cross PNC network-to-learning channels. In this way, there is potential for every school district in Ontario to benefit from this project.

Knowledge mobilization and new learning for teachers that will result in sustainable change is a complex undertaking. These concepts, taken together, provide the possibility of creating the conditions for professional learning in new ways that are more effective and have a greater impact on student learning.