MSU students, Partnership Middle School educators engage in ‘Building Thinking Classrooms’ professional development
Contact: Bethany Shipp
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Aspiring and current secondary math educators from Mississippi State and Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s Partnership Middle School are engaging in professional development together, thanks to a $10,560 grant secured by the university.
Liza Bondurant, MSU associate professor of secondary mathematics education, is receiving funds from the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership to cover books, flip charts, stipends and continuing educational units, or CEUs, for eight Partnership Middle School math teachers and administrators, and nine MSU secondary education students. Bondurant is leading the group to read, discuss and implement practices from “Building Thinking Classrooms,” which offers 14 teaching practices to enhance learning and engagement.
“This book provokes teachers to consider practices they can use to promote thinking in their classrooms,” Bondurant said. “The first three practices focus on the type of tasks, how groups are formed and where students work. The author has over a decade of research supporting how these practices have the potential to positively transform teaching and learning. I am thrilled Partnership and MSU educators are working together on this professional development.”
Funded by the National Science Foundation, MTEP is a collaborative network of secondary mathematics educator preparation programs across the nation. Bondurant and Dana Franz, MSU director of academic quality and professor of secondary education, lead Mississippi’s team.
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