Collaborative Research: PROfessional Development and Uptake through Collaborative Teams (PRODUCT) Supporting Inquiry Based Learning in Undergraduate Mathematics

教育研究不断提供证据表明，使用主动学习策略的教学方法可以提高学习效果，提高学生在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）学科的成绩。然而，许多大学数学课还没有使用这样的策略。为了解决这一问题，“通过协作团队的专业发展和吸收（PRODUCT）：通过研讨会、研究和能力建设支持本科数学探究性学习（IBL）”项目旨在提高院校为教师提供专业发展的能力。专注的主动学习策略，被称为“探究性学习”（IBL），强调学生在教师的指导和指导下对数学概念的创造、探索、交流、协作和实验。该项目直接建立在先前资助的产生和研究成功的专业发展讲习班模式的工作的基础上，将发展多个新的小组，开展关于IBL教学策略的讲习班和外联活动（称为“培训教员”传播模式）。与研讨会活动同时进行的研究将有助于了解鼓励使用IBL等主动学习方法的有效策略，并支持教师学习在自己的课堂上应用和适应这些方法。PRODUCT将举办12个为期4天的IBL密集研讨会，15个短期研讨会和5次专业发展（PD）筹备会议，并将为数学教师开发人员举办专业发展峰会。通过这些活动，PRODUCT将直接为320名本科数学教师提供专业发展，调整和改进IBL PD材料，发展多个新的教师开发团队，这些团队将准备在未来聘请更多的教师，并制定一个建立专业发展能力的框架。一项结合评估的研究将提供形成性反馈，研究专业发展团队发展的过程和结果，为新团队领导的针对已知有效模型的基准研讨会收集数据，并调查研讨会参与者的课堂实践，以了解专业发展经验如何影响他们的教学。该项目将通过谨慎和协作的过程，为教师开发团队做好准备，并为他们提供良好的领导经验，从而为扩大专业发展项目提供新的知识。

Education research continues to produce evidence that teaching methods that use active-learning strategies yield improved learning outcomes and student success across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Yet, many college mathematics classes are not yet taught using such strategies. To address this problem, the project, "PROfessional Development and Uptake through Collaborative Teams (PRODUCT): Supporting Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) in Undergraduate Mathematics through Workshops, Research and Capacity-Building", is designed to increase institutional capacity to offer professional development for instructors. The active learning strategy of focus, known as "inquiry-based learning" (IBL), places emphasis on student creation, exploration, communication, collaboration, and experimentation with mathematical concepts, under the mentorship and guidance of an instructor. Building directly on previously funded work that produced and studied a successful professional development workshop model, this project will develop multiple new teams to conduct workshops and outreach activities on IBL teaching strategies (known as a "train the trainers" propagation model). Research conducted alongside the workshop activities will contribute to knowledge about effective strategies for encouraging use of active learning approaches such as IBL, and for supporting instructors as they learn to apply and adapt these approaches in their own classrooms.PRODUCT will conduct 12 four-day intensive IBL workshops, as well as 15 short workshops and five Professional Development (PD) Preparatory Meetings, and will host a Professional Development Summit for mathematics faculty developers. Through these activities, PRODUCT will directly provide professional development for 320 undergraduate mathematics faculty, adapt and improve IBL PD materials, develop multiple new teams of faculty developers who will be prepared to engage additional faculty in the future, and develop a framework for building professional development capacity. A research-with-evaluation study will provide formative feedback, study the process and outcomes for development of the professional development teams, gather data to benchmark workshops led by new teams against a model known to be effective, and investigate the classroom practices of workshop participants to understand how the professional development experience shapes their teaching. The project will produce new knowledge about scaling up professional development programs through a careful and collaborative process to prepare teams of faculty developers and provide them with well-supported leadership experiences.