Prof receives $200,000 grant to improve math teaching in GR

Calvin professor of mathematics and statistics Jan Koop is the recipient of a $220,000 Michigan Department of Education grant.

Full story: http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/improving-math-teaching-in-gr

Koop is using the "Improving Teacher Quality Grant"-her third since 2005-to help area teachers better understand and teach mathematics.

Koop's students this time around are 43 elementary teachers and two principals from Gladiola and West Elementary schools in Wyoming and West Side Christian School in Grand Rapids.

She is working with these local educators to improve their knowledge and teaching of math. For many of these teachers, Koop emphasized, math is not a speciality.

"They teach science and math and, sometimes, PE too ...," she said. "They don't tend to have strong backgrounds in math. They probably didn't understand the mathematics that they learned as they grew up." "Like many of us," Koop summarized, "they are people who very conscientiously learned their multiplication tables but didn't know why the answers made sense."

To encourage deep understanding Koop welcomes the teachers to two weeklong workshops held in consecutive summers and a total of five days of instruction during the school year. In addition, the teachers receive in-school coaching in their classrooms.

Koop called upon a group of consultants to assist with the workshops, including Hope College mathematics professor Mary DeYoung and Calvin education professors Deb Buursma and Jane Genzink. Educators from the Kent Intermediate School District will lend their expertise in English language learning.

Koop tracks the results of the workshops, testing teachers (in the summer following their instruction) in both content knowledge and attitudes toward math.

For more info, contact Koop at 616-526-6427 or at kooj@calvin.edu

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Received on Thu Jul 21 14:06:50 2011