Page 124 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

The Role of Teacher Leadership for Promoting Professional Development Practices

the types of tasks that can be delegated among peers. Moreover participant responses also indicate the
feeling that their time face-to-face was well spent, highly structured and organized. Higher-order tasks
that require participants to think critically and negotiate meaning are more valuable during face-to-face
meetings whereas lower-level demand tasks can be managed and completed via electronic communication.
Mentoring tasks that were highly reported include allowing a visitor to observe (80%) but least likely
to include supporting a new teacher leader (20%) this finding suggests the teacher leaders in this study
were less likely to take on a coaching and supportive role. This could be an area for growth for this
organization. The program director and/or experience teacher leaders may consider ways to promote
teacher mentoring. Teacher leaders were more likely to report engaging in activities such as allowing
someone to observe them in their class, but less likely to engage in activities that new teacher leaders
often need to develop their competence and confidence as a teacher leader. Since teacher leaders were
also less likely to report finding other teacher leaders (30%) this may be an area for growth within the
organization. Training and advisement may be necessary to support teacher leaders in this task.
Common advising tasks include determining the direction of a conference (70%) and institute (60%).
This is aligned with the types presenting and planning tasks that were commonly reported by teacher
leaders such as planning and presenting a breakout session and doing this without the support of a teacher
leader. These findings suggest teacher leaders appreciate the autonomy and choice that the director pro-
vides in designing and delivering professional development. Only two of the participants shared they
were able to produce an entire event without the director. More training may be necessary by the director
or Level 5 teacher leaders to give teacher leaders the support to produce an entire event independently.

Establishing a University-School Model of Teacher Professional Development

The Monterey Bay Area Math Project (MBAMP) is a site of the California Math Project (CMP) and
part of the California Subject Matter Project (CSMP). CMP was founded in the early 1980s through a
grant from the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) in order to provide Professional
Development (PD) to K–12 math teachers. The original seed money funded a 21-day summer retreat for
15 to 30 teachers and teacher-leaders and UC faculty to support the participants in pedagogy, mathemat-
ics content and leadership skills. At first, there was no need for MBAMP to write grants or partner with
school districts because the UCOP funding covered all program expenses. At this point, all of MBAMP
staff was able to spend all their time in service of summer institutes and developing teacher-leaders. In
2001, however, UCOP reduced their funding by 70 percent. As a result, the originally promised “seed”
funding became conditional. In order to receive the money, each site needed to develop a plan outlin-
ing how they would find additional funds for developing teacher leadership; staffing the site; offering
the summer institute; continuing to work with Mathematics faculty and Mathematics Education fac-
ulty; serving a minimum of 200 teachers from low-performing school districts; working with regional
Mathematics PD providers; building relationships and partnerships with local school districts; building
relationships and partnerships with other university programs involved with PD. The requirement to
“develop teacher-leadership” forms the cornerstone of all CMP work. It is the presence of teacher-leaders
that enables the program’s unique “teachers-teaching-teachers” approach to professional development.
In the face of little to no funding for this foundational requirement, MBAMP director developed the
Volunteer Teacher Leadership method. This helped MBAMP change so it could thrive despite lack of
funding and continue developing teacher-leaders.

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