It is my hope that the title of this blog (a quote from Heather Ash Amara) gets you thinking about what transformation really entails. Often change is thrust upon us by outside factors, but to truly transform, we need to make a choice to do so. Transformation (according to the Cambridge Dictionary) is ‘a complete change in the…character of something or someone, especially so that the thing or person is improved.’ As instructors, as well as people, we should always be striving to improve ourselves.
AMATYC is doing its part to transform mathematics education in the first two years of college by continually updating our standards (as highlighted last month). It is time for departments to take a part in this transformation - but most do not know where or how to begin. Teaching for PROWESS has answers to these questions in the form of our Vision and Transformation Catalyst Tool (VTCT) and our Observation Protocol for Active Learning (OPAL). The VTCT is a comprehensive set of resources that are designed to engage departments in meaningful discussions, determine areas to improve upon, and to create visions and action plans tied to those areas. In the near future, departments will have the opportunity to have trained facilitators come to their college and guide the department along this process. For now, faculty can check out the rubrics (one of the 6 steps in the process) to get an idea of the areas their department may want to start having open discussions about.
For those departments that want to focus on transforming their classrooms to embrace active learning, OPAL is the recommended tool. The goal of OPAL is to serve as a framework for observing teaching of mathematics, with a focus on active learning, in community college settings. OPAL serves as a tool to better understand and capture the desired elements of teaching and learning mathematics at the community college level when the learning occurs through an active and engaging process. The OPAL tool includes 12 traits clustered into 4 themes to capture research-based features of effective active learning. Faculty can check out this incredible tool (OPAL information, AMATYC webinar) which can not only be used for observations, but also as individual inspiration for faculty to facilitate active learning in their classrooms.
The TfP project believes these tools can be instrumental in transforming your department. We have already seen some exemplary implementation of the tools by members of our college teams.