Successful implementation of IM Math curriculum includes a long-term, connected professional learning plan consisting of workshops, collaborative planning through professional learning communities (PLCs), and content-focused coaching. Ensure these opportunities are led by skilled facilitators who have expertise in content, pedagogy, and adult learning.
“A teacher’s views of their students’ math capabilities is a predictor of their students’ math performance. A critical first step to real change for learners underestimated by the system is to engage teachers to critically examine their beliefs and assumptions.”
~The Future of Math Teacher Professional Learning, MIT Teaching Systems Lab
A. Create a plan for all instructional staff that is aligned to the school vision for ongoing learning and includes job-embedded PL opportunities to reflect on their beliefs and assumptions about how students learn, including:
PLCs and grade-level meetings
content coaching
PL workshops
B. Create goals and outcomes for students and educators aligned to the plan.
C. Determine a system for collecting and analyzing data in order to identify priorities for PL for teachers, coaches, and leaders throughout the implementation journey.
D. Allocate time each year for learning that is aligned to the priorities for each group.
"Real change hinges on practitioners learning to interact with students and content in new ways. Therefore, developing a strategy requires not only a vision for the instructional core, but also a plan of action for professional learning and collaboration required for realizing this vision."
~ The Internal Coherence Framework, p. 118
"Improvement is a challenge of learning, not implementation. There is growing consensus among scholars that the success of any instructional intervention, improvement initiative, or policy is better understood as a challenge of teacher learning and organizational capacity building rather than a challenge of faithful implementation. Teachers can only implement instructional practices that they already know how to perform. Asking teachers to work with students and content in new ways to produce better outcomes in student performance requires learning.”
~ The Internal Coherence Framework, p. 10
A. Review the schedule of IM Certified Professional Learning offerings for each audience listed in the tables.
B. Reach out to an IM Certified partner to learn more about delivery and scheduling options and to gain full access to our PL catalog.
Reach out to IM directly or your IM Certified® Professional Learning partner to schedule.
IM Certified Professional Learning service providers offer registration for academy-style PL events that can be helpful for schools with a small number of math teachers or when onboarding new teachers.
C. Purchase and schedule professional learning.
"To affect teachers' practice and student outcomes, professional development should have the following qualities:
Be directly focused on content knowledge and pedagogy, allowing teachers to deepen their disciplinary understanding and to convey content to students
Engage educators in active learning that allows them to make meaning of new practices and skills
Be strategically aligned with other school learning goals and be linked to the districts' priorities for supporting and evaluating educators
Be based on the use of data and assessment results
Occur in a continuous, work-embedded model, where teachers have the opportunity to practice new learning over time
Occur in a collaborative environment, where teachers can work together and receive support from coaches and mentors."
~ The Internal Coherence Framework, pp. 121–122
A. Ensure all PL offerings are aligned to IM Math and meet the criteria for high-quality professional learning (referenced under "Why").
B. Identify the skilled facilitators who will lead the learning:
at the district level
at the school level
in collaborative teams
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