2008-10 Supported Collaborative Teacher Inquiry

This project was a supported collaborative teacher inquiry across the four partner boards (TDSB, TCDSB, York Region, and Peel) focusing on the improvement of instructional strategies in grade 9 applied level mathematics, with the goal of improving student achievement and engagement in mathematics.

Professor Doug McDougall was the lead researcher on this project. Dr. McDougall is an associate professor of Mathematics education at OISE. His research focus in this project is to determine the efficacy of co-teaching, peer-coaching, and supported collaborative learning among grade 9 mathematics teachers as a strategy to improve instructional practices in the classroom. Teachers were given extensive support from the program and instruction department in each board to implement and research the effects of selected evidence-based best practices in mathematics teaching.

Teachers involved in the project had access to a wiki that was designed by Professor Jim Hewitt of the Centre for Math, Science and Technology at OISE. The wiki was monitored by OISE and the Mathematics Coordinators from the partner Boards. In this way, the collaboration among the participating teachers in all Boards could continue without numerous meetings and off-site workshops.

This was a 3-semester project, beginning Semester II (January, 2009) and ending Semester II (June 2010). Throughout the project, participating teachers incorporated lateral capacity-building and sharing, resulting in substantial improvements in student achievement, both in credits earned and in the provincial EQAO test.

   Teachers at work in one of 

   our sessions.

May Symposium - 2010

Sue Ferguson and Doug McDougall welcome participants to the symposium.  Panel guests Myrna Ingalls (MOE), George Gadanidis (U of Western Ont.), and Cathy Bruce (Trent University) talk about their work in mathematics education.