video: John Mayer, Ph.D., UAB professor of mathematics, discusses goals of research into math teacher readiness. view more
Credit: UAB News
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership (GBMP), a partnership between the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham-Southern College and area school districts, has earned a $2.1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to provide professional development programs for middle-school math teachers and research the impact of the programs.
Math teachers at 12 schools from the partnership's six participating school districts — Jefferson County, Shelby County, Hoover City, Homewood City, Trussville City and Tarrant City — will participate in fully funded professional development courses, including intensive summer camps led by UAB faculty, during the three-year life of the grant.
"We want to help teachers improve their performance and help them energize their classrooms and get students excited about math," said John Mayer, Ph.D., a professor of mathematics at UAB and principal investigator on the GBMP project.
The newly announced grant is a second round of NSF funding for GBMP, which was started in 2004 with a five-year, $10 million award.
The latest round of funding also will pay for continued research into the success of the partnership's professional development programs. Previous investigations by GBMP researchers have shown that the program is having a positive impact on teacher content knowledge and mathematical disposition.
"We also found that by growing a teacher's knowledge base we can grow the feelings of empowerment as both a learner and teacher of mathematics. They become believers in the power of providing a challenging, inquiry-based environment for their students," Mayer said.
"The GBMP has renewed the math faculty throughout our district and led to new strategies for teaching," said Pat Hodge, Ed.D., the Trussville City School system director of curriculum and instruction. "Our students are moving beyond simple problem-solving and are learning to understand the process of mathematics to the tune of improving standardized math scores districtwide."
Ryan Minisman, a teacher at Trussville's Paine Intermediate School, summed up her GBMP experience with a quote from well-known mathematician Ruth Parker.
"Our job is to teach children to see, not to see what we see. GBMP has taught us how to do that," Minisman said.
GBMP leadership hopes to turn the program into a successful, self-sustained community enterprise that offers well-researched and beneficial programs by the time funding from newly announced NSF grant expires in 2012.
About UAB
The UAB Department of Mathematics offers a complete range of courses in both pure and applied mathematics at the undergraduate, master and doctoral levels. The majority of the more than 20 full-time faculty members in the department are practicing research mathematicians, many of whom are nationally and internationally respected for their work.
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