In this project, one of our aims is to learn about how GeT courses contribute to instructional capacity for secondary geometry and the perspectives of key stakeholders on its improvement. We interview and survey GeT instructors, mathematics department administrators, new teachers who took GeT, experienced teachers of geometry, school and district leaders who hire and staff high school courses, and other community members such as parents and students who have recent experience with the high school geometry course. We use the information collected to feed back into the community of GeT instructors in order to inform improvement.  In addition to conducting interviews, we are collecting data about the curriculum, instruction, and learning outcomes of GeT courses.  These efforts have included the design and administration of questionnaires and instructional logs for instructors, collection and analysis of syllabi, and administration of mathematical knowledge for teaching geometry assessments at the beginning and at the end of the course. Instructors receive periodic reports on the aggregate information as well as detailed information about their students’ outcomes in comparison with the mathematical knowledge for teaching geometry observed across a large national sample of practicing secondary mathematics teachers.

A second aim of the GeT Support project is to facilitate conversations and collaboration efforts among instructors of the university geometry course in their work to improve their courses. We started this community by hosting a two-day in-person conference in Ann Arbor which included nearly 50 professionals. During the conference, instructors shared their experiences teaching the GeT course and helped identify ways in which the course might be improved. From here, an online community emerged, where GeT instructors have been working synchronously and asynchronously in online working groups and seminars. The online working groups focus instructors’ efforts on common goals, such as identifying the mathematical knowledge needed to teach high school geometry, the learning objectives for college geometry students, a common set of axioms for teaching transformational geometry, and tasks that can be used to teach geometry for future teachers. The efforts in these groups enable the community to focus on areas for collective improvement while also allowing for individual professional growth through collaboration. In these working groups, instructors gather in monthly videoconference meetings as well as on asynchronous forums for 3 to 6 months’ time. The working groups are facilitated by experienced members of the community who support the group in setting a direction for their shared work. Like the working groups, online seminars happen synchronously every two weeks, are recorded and posted for the community’s reference, and are led by community members on topics that are of common interest. Individuals from outside the community (e.g., graduate students) are welcome to participate in these seminars and can join our mailing list. We also publish a newsletter (GeT: The News) three times a year to share news from the community and topics of common interest.

See Upcoming Seminars

Publications related to this project