Kochmanski supports those who teach teachers, with new funding from the Gates Foundation
Math is still math: 2+2 still equals 4. But the way students learn math – and, more particularly, the way teachers teach it – has changed significantly in the last 25 years. Rote memorization of times tables, simple sums, and fraction conversions has given way to more depth of thinking when it comes to numbers and how they interact.
“We want kids to learn to be more than just calculators – we want them to be doers and thinkers of mathematics, who can solve challenging problems, think critically, and generate new ideas ” says Dr. Nicholas Kochmanski, assistant professor of teacher education and higher education at UNC Greensboro, who secured the Gates Foundation grant. “For the past 25 years, there’s been a lot of progress in math education of investigating and understanding the kinds of teaching that can help kids do that.”
One factor contributing to that progress is instructional coaching for math teachers.
Kochmanski seeks to improve the efficacy of those coaching relationships with new, highly competitive funding from the Gates Foundation. “School districts across the country are hiring coaches because there’s a lot of research that says they can have a big impact,” he says. “But the keyword is ‘can.’ It depends on how much time they spend with teachers, the quality of their interactions and all kinds of other things.”
In the United States, the Gates Foundation prioritizes projects to improve K-12 education, with a particular focus on math.
“Over the last 25 years we’ve seen a push in our country to improve literacy and mathematics scores, and with COVID, math scores fell behind more than literacy,” says Kochmanski.
“We know from research that the quality of the learning environment can have a big effect on helping kids learn math, but that kind of teaching is complex and challenging to do. We know coaching for teachers can have a significant impact.”
Kochmanski and his collaborators previously developed a set of what they call classroom practical measures to help K-12 math teachers and those supporting them. “These are really easy-to-use, easy-to-analyze measures that can give them information about what’s going on in their classrooms, so they can implement improvements on a quick, ongoing basis.”
Their latest project seeks to develop similar tools specifically for instructional coaches. “We’ve had people reaching out to our team asking for these tools. It’s tough for coaches to do their work effectively if they can’t measure whether they’re getting better.”
Over the next two years, Kochmanski and his team will work with teachers and their coaches to measure and improve outcomes in schools across the nation, including here in Guilford County.
By Brian Clarey and Sangeetha Shivaji
Photography from UNCG Math Help Center by Sean Norona