Conference to focus on improving math skills

Conference speaker to talk about how to engage students, improve their success

Math teachers from across Saskatchewan will converge on Saskatoon later this year to hear from a research analyst whose work has focused on math instruction, evaluation and helping underperforming schools excel at math.

Steven Leinwand, a principal research analyst at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), is scheduled to speak at the Saskatchewan Understands Math conference in October. According to the AIR’s website, he has more than 30 years of experience in “leadership positions in mathematics education.”

Leinwand said he plans to deliver a clear message to the conference.

“The heart of my message is that the most important variable in student achievement is the quality of instruction,” he said in an interview this week, noting he’ll advocate for fewer worksheets and a greater focus on student inquiry.

“The best way to get students actively engaged is to ask them engaging questions — questions like, ‘Why? How do you know? Can you convince us?’ ... Those are small but powerful moves, on the part of classroom teachers, that are all correlated to higher student achievement.”

Leinwand said he’ll also be “strongly urging” division administrators in Saskatchewan to give teachers more time, because schools where students thrive in math usually allow teachers time to share, plan, reflect and watch their colleagues teach.

“The single greatest obstacle to professional improvement is the isolation of the professional,” he said, arguing that leaders in the school community have to create a culture where educators can learn from and collaborate with one another.

Math teachers from across Saskatchewan will gather at TCU Place on Oct. 23 and 24.

Some students in the province appear to be falling behind their counterparts in math.

A recent report from the Programme for International Student Assessment found Saskatchewan 15-year-olds scored worse than their peers in all other Canadian provinces last year in science, reading and math.

Michelle Naidu, president of the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society and an associate director with the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, said the conference is a partnership between the Saskatchewan Educational Leadership Unit and the Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit.

The decision to have Leinwand address the 2017 conference isn’t tied to the low scores, as he’s spoke at the conference before, but his insight will be important because schools and school divisions will start to submit mathematics data as part of the province’s Education Sector Strategic Plan in 2019, Naidu said.

“His message really speaks to how we can thoughtfully implement classroom change and how team support is really instrumental to trying new things and doing things differently . ... Teachers are doing the best they can with what they know. So we need to support them learning and doing differently if we hope to see anything different happen.”