The Program

The “Professional Learning Community for MathemaTIC” program (PLC for MathemaTIC) is developed to support collaboration of teachers in primary schools in Luxembourg. One underling aim is to understand the learning process of the students in a better way and to support them in developing mathematical competences.

Why?

PLC for MathemaTIC will introduce you to the basic and advanced use of MathemaTIC. The practical applications will use examples from MathemaTIC. Moreover, the program will guide you in acquiring the collaborative skills required to work efficiently in “équipes pédagogiques”.

How?

PLC for MathemaTIC implements a new approach being offered through online interactive tools with permanent access. You can get together with your colleagues in your school and participate in the sessions as a group, when convenient for you and at your own rhythm.

The entire team is committed to understand how this training can improve your school experience and provide you more satisfaction in your professional work. This is why we will follow your experience through a research program and provide you all the information and support needed to improve your learning.

Who?

PLC for MathemaTIC is developed by SCRIPT in collaboration with the MathemaTIC team and LISER, and includes research, policy-making, and applied innovative practice. The training is offered through IFEN and was developed with the technical support of DPAV – SCRIPT.

Goal?

The program combines research, strategy-development and innovative practice. The results of this research shall help the people in charge of school development to understand how they can support teachers in implementing innovations in schools in the best way possible. Moreover, policy-makers will try to understand, if the usage of digital tools and materials supports the collaboration and teaching in schools.

For more information about the “PLC for MathemaTIC” program, please watch this video:

About Us

Team

PLC for MathemaTIC is unique, being especially designed by teachers and educational specialists from SCRIPT and LISER to answer your professional development demands.

The team members bring their own rich experience of the needs, expectations, and limits, inherent in working together as a team. Moreover, they provide the knowledge on professional community formation and the theoretical content and support needed for acquiring these skills.

The trainers

Catalina Lomos
Catalina is an educational researcher working at LISER and has been part of the MathemaTIC team since 2015. Catalina’s research focuses on professional learning communities and its positive impact on student learning in different European countries. She studies the development of professional communities within schools and strives to understand how it can be integrated in daily practice to benefit teachers and students.
Carole Frieseisen
Carole has been working as a teacher since 1994 in the elementary school in the Cycles 2-4. Since the academic year 2016/17 she is committed to SCRIPT on the MathemaTIC project. She creates items for the C3-modules and is also active in the support of teachers in schools and in the teacher trainings. Since September 2017, she is in addition a member of the working group, who is been developing new material for the French language in Cycle 2 and has started the Master's degree in Media Games Education in Austria. In addition, since 2013, she is actively participating in the item creation for the standardized assessment Epstan in mathematics.
Filipe Lima
Filipe has been an elementary school teacher for cycles 2-4 since 2008 and has gathered experience as an ICT manager, cycle coordinator and a member of the school committee. In addition, he has actively participated since 2013 in the item creation for the standardized assessment Epstan in mathematics for the cycles 3 and 4. From September 2016, he engaged in SCRIPT for the MathemaTIC project. Some of the daily tasks are the development of the modules for cycle 3, supporting the MathemaTIC users on the field and offering teacher trainings. Since September 2017, he has also started with the master’s degree “Instructional design” at the university of Lille.
Frauke Kesting
Frauke is currently a consultant to MatemaTIC, enjoying her role of creating and reviewing items for the online platform. Her research work focused on developing test items to gauge primary school students’ mathematical knowledge. She has also published her ideas for classroom teachers by contributing to publications by Klett in Stuttgart. In her work, Frauke constantly draws upon her 16 years of experience as a classroom teacher at an inclusive primary school in Trier, Germany.

The collaborators

Michaela Zuniga
Michaela Zuniga is currently working as a Research Assistant at LISER. She is part of the PLC for MathemaTIC-Team and works on the development of concepts and content for the sessions and the group and individual feedbacks. She studied Sociology and Political Science in Trier and gained her Bachelor’s Degree in 2015. She is currently writing her Master’s thesis in Sociology at the Technical University Dortmund.
Laura Bertelli
Laura works as a research assistant at LISER. She is part of the PLC for MathemaTIC-team and works, among other things, on the development and improvement of the contents and concepts for the PLC-sessions. She completed her Master Studies in Ingénierie Pédagogique at the University of Lorraine in 2018. Laura could gain important experiences as a trainee teacher during the first year of her Master Studies.
Undine Seineke
Undine Seineke is a research assistant in the Living Conditions department at LISER. She holds a Bachelor degree in Integrated Social Sciences from the Technical University of Braunschweig and is currently studying towards a Masters degree in Sociology at the Leibniz University of Hannover. Within the department, Undine mainly works in the fields of education and evaluation.
Dianne Marie Petrov
Dianne Marie petrov is a research assistant in the Living Conditions departement at LISER. She is currently studying towards a Bachelor degree in European culture and English literature and linguistics at the University of Luxembourg. Within the department, Dianne mainly works on collective feedback for the PLC’s group.

Review Pilot Project 2018

In 2018, a number of teachers from different schools registered for this pilot project. We want to thank them for their commitment and the constructive feedback they gave to the trainer team after all sessions. Thanks to this feedback, we could optimize and develop the program from one session to the other, in order to fit it to the needs and expectations of the teachers.

Following, a few impressions of the schools that participated in the pilot project:

“I am quite satisfied with this training. Our group was fun, I had the chance to experience MathemaTIC in detail, we saw how well we were functioning as a group and we have an idea for other projects in the future. I did not even have so many expectations from this training.”
(Teacher, who participated in the PLC for MathemaTIC Pilot-Project 2018)
“Such kind of training is productive and interesting because we can project the particular elements directly onto our practice. Besides, we learned a new method for MathemaTIC but also how to teach other subjects in different ways.”
“Overall, I am very satisfied: a very nice sort of training in which we could choose the group, the time and the place on our own, which leads to a very nice and productive atmosphere between the participating colleagues.”
“I use MathemaTIC more often in class, I could watch the instructions at home and could work on it concretely then. I exchange more with the others and we are more motivated to start mutual projects.”
“Motivating teachers to use TIC in all its forms in school but especially promoting the exchange in the lesson practice and trying new methods.”
“We have a nice group, that constructively worked together. We were all on the same page with one another and agreed on working on more projects together in the future.”
“The people had an idea about how to work constructively together in a group and get an insight into MathemaTIC. That was achieved in our group and also our joy to work with MathemaTIC increased extensively.”

How It Works

The essential elements of the organization of this program are as follows:

Location:

  • PLC for MathemaTIC is developed in Luxembourg to answer your specific training needs
  • PLC for MathemaTIC is offered in your school, so you don’t have to go to another location

Length:

  • a total of up to 9 hours of training recognized by IFEN
  • up to 1 hour and 30 minutes of training every month, from January until June 2020
  • you can choose the date for the training session every month, together with your colleagues

Target group:

  • provisionally, the program is proposed to the teachers in Cycle 3 and Cycle 4
  • the program focuses on every teacher, who uses MathemaTIC as well as everybody, who is interested in working with MathemaTIC in class
  • you will need to sign-in as a group, with as many colleagues as possible from your cycle or beyond the cycles

Organization:

  • the trainers will share the training material with you through videotaped conversations and online theoretical sessions
  • the activities will be through online interactive sessions and practical applications with your colleagues
  • the training material will always be accessible online, you can login individually and as a group
  • the practical applications will contain examples from MathemaTIC, so an interest in using MathemaTIC is necessary
  • the content-related videos from the training are also applicable to other topics of interest from your daily practice

Conditions:

  • the output of the group work needs to be submitted online at the end of each session, in return for group-adjusted feedback from the trainers
  • a small individual task needs to be completed online at the end of each training session, to receive the hours credited by IFEN it is compulsory to attend all six training sessions to receive the credited program by IFEN
The structure and schedule of the training is summarized in this video:

Please read here more detailed information about the content of each session:

Session 1 (January) - Introduction

Goals:

  • Get familiar with what is a “Professional Learning Community (PLC)”
  • Grasp how and why PLC could be useful for your work in your school
  • Understand how the training program will be organized in your school

Content:

  • Introduction of the trainers and of the training materials
  • Introduction of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) concept and how it applies to your work
  • First interactive activities with your colleagues to identify how to work as a team at this moment in your cycle (using examples from MathemaTIC)

Skills acquired:

  • Initial knowledge of how PLC works
  • Initial understanding of how you work together with your colleagues
  • Basic practice with online learning tools and activities

Session 2 (February) – Shared Purpose

Goals:

  • Identify individual and group’s goal for this learning program
  • Practice how to formulate and agree on a shared purpose for your group
  • Agree on the steps necessary to achieve the shared purpose as a group during this training

Content:

  • Principles and knowledge on how to identify and set a shared purpose for this learning group
  • Practical applications on what a shared purpose could be and how to agree as a group (e.g. for the use of MathemaTIC)
  • Examples of best practices and experiences of other colleagues from other schools, on how the defined shared purpose can be put in practice and achieved

Skills acquired:

  • How to express your individual purpose for learning and professional development
  • How to discuss and negotiate a shared sense of purpose for your learning group
  • How to apply your skills in setting a shared purpose to other activities as a group

Session 3 (March) - Collective Responsibility for student learning

Goals:

  • Identify your individual understanding of responsibility for student learning
  • Discuss and agree as a group on your collective responsibility for student learning
  • Understand how to use data on student learning to enhance student learning

Content:

  • Video material and interactive sessions on the collective responsibility for student learning
  • Practical applications on how student learning can be enhanced collectively (e.g. the use of MathemaTIC in your classroom)
  • Group discussions on data on student success provided by the trainers

Skills acquired:

  • How to formulate your collective responsibility for student learning as a group
  • How to use data on student learning to adapt your learning and student practice
  • How to use data (e.g. MathemaTIC data) in your classroom to support student learning

Session 4 (April) - Shared Practice

Goals:

  • Learn how to enrich your practice by observing other practices (of your colleagues or examples provided by the trainers)
  • Practice how to provide feedback on specific teaching practices
  • Understand the value of learning by observing other practices in your school

Content:

  • Observe teaching practices of your colleagues or material provided by the trainers (e.g. use of MathemaTIC)
  • Provide individual and group feedback on the teaching practices presented
  • Select practices exemplified that you could apply in your own classroom

Skills acquired:

  • How to enrich your practice by observing other teaching practices
  • How to provide constructive feedback on teaching practices
  • How to discuss observed practices as a group, in an environment of trust and respect

Session 5 (May) – Collaborative Activity

Goals:

  • Practice how to develop concrete teaching activities as a group
  • Design together an activity that could be implemented in your daily classroom practice
  • Develop an instructional plan as a group, which answers a stringent need in your school

Content:

  • Use collaboratively the materials provided by the trainers in designing a concrete activity for your classrooms (e.g. use of MathemaTIC)
  • Practical cooperative work for developing concrete instructional plans
  • Explore examples of best practices from other schools in developing activities through collaborative practice

Skills acquired:

  • How to actively collaborate in designing learning activities answering to your students’ learning needs
  • How to collectively develop instructional programs and activities
  • How to work together in developing concrete and applicable output

Session 6 (June) – Reflective Dialogue

Goals:

  • Practice as a group how to share your individual professional reflections on teaching and learning
  • Learn how to have constructive dialogues around interpretations of practice
  • Reflect as a group on the shared practices and the shared purpose of this training

Content:

  • Use the practices of this training to have a group reflective dialogue
  • Share your individual professional reflections on the process and outcomes of this training (e.g. the use of MathemaTIC)
  • Group reflective dialogue on the and future practices and applications

Skills acquired:

  • How to share your individual professional reflections on practice with your group
  • How to sustain a constructive reflective dialogue around teaching and learning
  • How to reflect and exchange on what will improve student learning

Sign Up

It is important that you sign-in with as many colleagues as possible from your cycle or beyond/across the cycles.

If you are interested to participate as a group in your school, please complete the following Registration Form.

After you have sent us this Registration Form completed, IFEN will open the sign-in procedure for your school, where you will need to sign-in individually. We will send you an email with all the information to the address indicated in the registration form.

We look forward to working together with you!

Registration Form

All emails sent to info@plc.mathematic.lu