Using Inquiry in Professional Development for Faculty in Mathematics

Abstract

In this paper, we invite the reader to think deeply about professional development opportunities for faculty. The focus of this professional development is to improve teaching and learning by including more inquiry in the mathematics classroom. Building on theories of teaching and learning, we develop the idea of “teaching procedures” and “teaching concepts” and think about implications for professional development. We then use our personal stories to illustrate that our beliefs and attitudes matter when we want to improve our teaching. Bringing both of these perspectives together, we showcase activities we created for inquiry-based learning (IBL) workshops for faculty. Finally we discuss feedback received from workshop participants.

Keywords:

• Inquiry-based learning
• IBL
• IBL workshops
• faculty workshops
• discovering the art of mathematics
• COMMIT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to our colleagues from the Discovering the Art of Mathematics Team, Julian Fleron and Philip Hotchkiss from Westfield State University, as well as Mairead Greene from Rockhurst University. We also gratefully acknowledge our colleagues and collaborators from the PRODUCT Team, the NE-IBLM community, and the COMMIT network. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes

1 An early exploration of these ideas was published on our “Discovering the Art of Mathematics” blog [27].

2 To help the reader, we emphasize certain key portions of longer quotes from the literature using bold text throughout this article. All such emphasis is ours.

3 Problem-based learning (PBL) is very similar to IBL. The term is being used more at the high school level in the USA.

Additional information

Funding

This project is based upon work currently supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF1525058 (PRODUCT) and previously under NSF1225915 (Discovering the Art of Mathematics).

Notes on contributors

V. Ecke

V. Ecke loves diving into mathematical inquiry with his students where they can discover their own power in making sense of mathematics, often for the first time. Similarly, he appreciates inquiring into teaching with fellow faculty. Volker's current professional interests are centered around working with faculty who explore the potential role of inquiry in their classes. He is a co-founder and leadership team member of the New England Community for Inquiry-Based Learning, where he focuses on fostering regional expertise in creating opportunities for faculty to learn together about teaching. After undergraduate studies in mathematics and physics in Germany, Volker earned a Ph.D. in computational algebraic geometry and theoretical computer science before joining the faculty at Westfield State University.

C. von Renesse

C. von Renesse uses open inquiry techniques in all of her teaching. Her passion for music and dancing has been woven into her teaching as part of her inquiry-based approach to mathematics for liberal arts classes. Christine has advanced degrees in elementary education, music and mathematics from the Technical University Berlin, Germany and a Ph.D. in computational algebraic geometry from UMass, Amherst. She is now a full professor at Westfield State University. Christine is also part of the leadership team of the New England Community for Inquiry-Based Learning, and, in this effort, continues to support faculty in reflecting on and adapting their teaching.