DMI

Developing Mathematical Ideas
(DMI)

Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) is a professional development curriculum designed to help teachers think through the major ideas of K-8 mathematics and examine how children develop those ideas. DMI materials engage teachers in a process of inquiry-- into mathematics, into learning mathematics, into students' mathematical thinking in general, and the thinking of one's own students in particular. In a DMI seminar, teachers discuss print and video cases, explore mathematical questions, investigate the mathematical thinking of their own students, analyze lessons from innovative curricula, and read and discuss essays about related research. DMI is published by Dale Seymour Publications/Pearson Learning Group.

DMI Institutes are designed for educators who support professional development in mathematics. The institutes provide classroom teachers, teacher-leaders, mathematics specialists, coaches, and administrators an opportunity to experience one of the DMI modules in a supportive learning community. The DMI Institutes are held at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

In 2008, a one-week seminar of all seven Developing Mathematical Ideas modules is offered from July 12 to July 18. Participants will examine the content of one of the DMI modules in depth: Building a System of Tens (BST), Making Meaning for Operations (MMO); Working with Data (WwD); Measuring Space in One, Two, and Three Dimensions (MS123), Patterns, Functions, and Change (PFC), Examining Features of Shape (EFS), and Reasoning Algebraically about Operations (RAO). No prior experience with a module is assumed.

Participants in the DMI seminars will:

learn the mathematics content of the module

explore the ideas that underlie elementary and middle school mathematics

analyze the mathematical thinking of elementary and middle school students through video and print cases

learn to recognize key mathematical ideas with which students may grapple

investigate how to support the power and complexity of students' mathematical ideas

learn how core mathematical ideas develop across the grades

examine an overview of educational research related to the ideas of the module

reflect on your own experience in a community of inquiry to consider implications of your teaching practice

learn how to continue learning about children and mathematics.

Program activities allow participants to engage with the mathematical ideas of the module, to consider how students develop these ideas over time, and examine the implications of what they are learning for their own teaching.

The one-week program cost is $2,000, and includes room and board in Mount Holyoke College facilities for 6 days beginning with dinner on Saturday evening, July 12, and ending with lunch on Friday, July 18. Participants can arrange to receive two graduate credits in mathematics education from Mount Holyoke College at a cost of $125 per credit.

The DMI Institute Program is a collaboration between Education Development Center, Inc. and SummerMath for Teachers at Mount Holyoke College, with support from the ExxonMobil Foundation and the National Science Foundation, grant #ESI9731064.

For more general information, please contact:

Virginia Bastable, SummerMath for Teachers
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA 01075-1441
(413) 538-2071 Fax: (413) 538-2002
vbastabl@mtholyoke.edu

To request additional information and an application form, write, call, or e-mail:

SummerMath for Teachers
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA 01075-1441
Call (413) 538-2063
Fax (413) 538-2002
E-mail smt-dmiinfo@mtholyoke.edu

Please indicate that you are interested in the DMI one-week Institute.

The Developing Mathematical Ideas Institutes are a component of the Mathematics Leadership Program (MLP). For additional information, please visit www.edc.org/MLP.