Catalyzing Change Through Proactive Mathematics Coaching: Empowering Leaders to Transform Teaching and Learning 

A leader's decision-making about designing and delivering professional learning is a key lever in instructional improvement. Regardless of your role, it is crucial to understand how your choices can help transform the culture of teaching and learning mathematics, ensuring that all learners have opportunities to engage in rich and relevant mathematics. This workshop addresses activities and practices that result in improved teaching practices that have the potential to enhance student learning.

In this workshop, participants will delve into cases about coaches who have faced similar challenges and found practical solutions centered on seven Mathematics Coaching Practices (adapted from Baker and Knapp 2019; Gibbons and Cobb 2017; Teachers Development Group 2010) that are at the heart of the Proactive Coaching Framework (PCF). The PCF is a tool that guides mathematics coaches' and leaders' goal setting, advocating for research-informed practices and facilitating critical conversations and actions that sustain change within schools and promote equitable and ambitious mathematics teaching. Participants will also examine how mathematics leaders in formal and informal positions enact the four key recommendations from the Catalyzing Change series (NCTM, 2018, 2020a, 2020b).

This workshop offers a unique opportunity for participants to collaborate, network, and gain valuable insights into transforming mathematics education through proactive coaching and leadership.

Date: Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Goals:

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Analyze the PCF, which recognizes a range of coaching contexts, focuses on math content, and empowers school communities to overcome obstacles.
• Explore the impact of the PCF's guiding questions to purposefully bridge content and high-leverage coaching and teaching practices.
• Use the PCF with peers to evaluate contexts, define a content focus, establish goals, select appropriate practices, and engage in collaborative debriefs to inform future actions.
• Acknowledge their critical role in catalyzing change and explore how the PCF can empower mathematics coaches and teacher leaders to surmount obstacles.
• Develop a course of action using the PCF to support high-quality mathematics instruction specific to your context.
• Network and collaborate with peers to share common problems of practice and engage in debriefs that will inform goal setting within your context.

Facilitator: Courtney Baker

This preconference workshop is based on the NCTM publication, Proactive Mathematics Coaching: Bridging Content, Context, and Practice. Book sold separately. Add-on option available when you register for this preconference workshop.

Schedule:

All times are Central Time.

9:00–9:30 AM	Welcome and introductions
9:30–10:00 AM	Understanding coaches’ critical role in building teacher capacity
10:00 AM–10:50 AM	PCF overview; Explore the 33 guiding questions
10:50–11:00 AM	Break
11:00 AM–12:15 PM	Unpack coaching practices embedded in PCF (e.g. co-teaching, rehearsals)
12:15-1:00 PM	Lunch
1:00-2:30 PM	Explore cases; Dig deep into Catalyzing Change
2:30-2:45 PM	Break
2:45-4:30 PM	Develop an action plan