The Delaware Department of Education has awarded two grants to help K-12 science and math educators improve their teaching skills.
The awards, totaling more than $1.3 million, will fund partnerships with Delaware universities to provide professional development to those teachers.
$1.1 million goes to the Delaware Math Coalition and the University of Delaware to assist teachers and administrators in implementing the content in the Common Core standards for mathematics. With assistance from Delaware State and Wilmington University, approximately 230 K-12 teachers at 15 school districts and four charter schools will receive 80 hours of training and professional development.
Jon Manon, Associate Director for Mathematics at UD’s College of Education and Human Development says that training will reflect the most up to date teaching techniques.
"There’s a new definition of rigor in the Common Core state standards, mathematical rigor," said Manon. "That is that it’s the development of deep conceptual understanding which will promote procedural fluency and ultimately that it has to be contextualized,that mathematics is best learned in a problem solving environment."
Another $230,000 dollars will be used by UD to work with First State high schools on a project at the University’s new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering or (ISE) lab. Manon says the program, which promotes problem based learning, is already off to a promising start.
"We had 60 teachers from 12 schools come here to Newark and spend two days in the ISE lab, two long intense days to develop new ways of thinking about teaching and learning," said Manon.
Manon says the initial training, which took place earlier this month, will be enhanced this summer when teachers spend a full week at the ISE lab with students from their respective high schools. In all, participating teachers will receive 64 hours of professional development through the program.
Funding for both grants is spread out over two years, with a state option to extend funding for a third year.