Mathematics teacher professional development in schools for the poor: Insights from a five year research and development project in South Africa

Presented by Presented by Professor Jill Adler Professor of Mathematics Education, Kings College London and FRF Chair of Mathematics Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

In this seminar I will share insights from a 5-year research-led professional development project working in ten disadvantaged “schools for the poor”, in South Africa. I will focus on how we work with school mathematics teaching, teachers’ professional development and research. Of particular interest to the mathematics education community is the framework we have developed to describe teaching and operationalise it for focused research that at the same time is respectful of and usable by teachers in their work. While located in the specificity on the South African education context, we contend that the framework, and insights from our research and development work, have wider appeal.

Professor Jill Adler holds the FRF Mathematics Education Chair at the University of the Witwatersrand, and is Professor of Mathematics Education at King's College London. She is the 2012 recipient of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Gold Medal for Science in the Service of Society. She leads the QUANTUM research project, the focus of which is Mathematics in and for Teaching, and the research and development projects within the FRF Chair. Professor Adler is past Vice-President of the International Commission for Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), and recipient of both the Vice Chancellor's Research Award, and the Vice Chancellor's Team Award for Academic Citizenship at Wits University. Jill is the author and/or editor of three books, on teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms, professional development, and mathematics education research in South Africa.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/education/people/academic/adlerj.aspx

http://www.wits.ac.za/Academic/Humanities/Education/Staff/AdlerJ