When Does Reform Succeed?

I have been thinking lately of a problem considered back when we started the AMATYC New Life project (about 2008).  The problem is not mathematical in nature, which perhaps explains why we have not solved it before.  Now, I am not saying that we found the only solution; I’m not even sure that our solution is sufficient.  I can report that our reform has grown way (way!) past any prior reform of developmental mathematics.

The problem is this:

What properties or methods enable a curriculum reform to succeed over a period of years and across regions?

Prior to our New Life work, many intelligent people had created valid reform ideas or models.  None of them survived time and space; they resulted in temporary changes (in general) and were limited to a few locations (at most).

For those interested in such things, here are my thoughts on strategies the result in successful reforms.

1. Professional organizations need to be deeply involved.

The New Life project was born in the AMATYC Developmental Mathematics committee, which had a large group of faculty willing to work on the project.  In addition, several members of the AMATYC Executive Board both supported and contributed to the work.  The involvement of the national leaders of a group enable that reform effort to connect with similar reform efforts by other groups (see below).

2. Content in the reform math curriculum created by faculty in a collaborative process, based on professional references.

If you look at the material over in the New Life ‘wiki’ (dm-live.wikispaces.com) you will notice that the learning outcomes were drawn from multiple professional sources (MAA, AMATYC, NADE, Numeracy Network, etc).  Both parts of the process were important — collaboration resulted in content that was widely accepted by math faculty, and professional resources helped create content that had external validity.

3. Avoid a focus on one issue.

In general, a reform effort built on one issue is very unlikely to succeed.  That one issue will not appeal to the general math faculty population.   For example, the NCAT redesign work tends to deal (in the curriculum) primarily with technology; as in prior calculator-based reforms, people find that this is a weak motivation for reform.   Addressing multiple issues in the reform means that most faculty will see something they like, which is a critical property for getting the reform adopted.  In the case of New Life, we addressed several content issues, classroom pedagogy, and professional development.

4. Plan for, and support, long-term conversations with faculty.

For some reform efforts, advocates did not sustain conversations with faculty over a period of time.  Only a few faculty will accept any reform when they first hear about it; one could argue that these faculty are actually not good test cases for a reform.  For the New Life project, we sustained conversations online (email, wiki) and at many conferences, for over 4 years now; in addition, we have had people travel to put on local workshops.  In our case, these conversations often result in faculty concluding that teaching our reform course is just more fun than what they have been doing; this is a powerful force for reform.

5. Create or support multiple solutions sharing basic properties.

No matter how good one particular reform model is, some faculty will not be comfortable with it; some institutions or states involve conditions that conflict with a given solution.  Our New Life project is one of three closely related solutions:  Carnegie Foundation Pathways (Statway, Quantway), Dana Center New Mathways, and AMATYC New Life.  The three projects have collaborated, shared resources and talent, and provide faculty & institutions with choices.    The New Life project itself supported multiple solutions — we depend upon commercial textbooks, and each major publisher is creating a solution.

6. Do not depend upon “one good book”.

Prior reforms, at all levels, often involved the creation of one set of materials.  New books face several challenges both in publishing and in getting adoptions.  A single book is just not going to be good enough to result in reform long-term.  The current reform in developmental mathematics involves commercial texts, foundation developed materials, and self-published materials.

I think other areas of college mathematics need basic reform, some perhaps even more needed than developmental.  I want reforms to succeed in ‘college algebra’, pre-calculus, finite math & modeling, calculus, quantitative reasoning, and statistics.  These courses impact hundreds of thousands of students every year; the impact is not uniformly positive.

As  you look at the points above, I am hoping you reach the single biggest conclusion:  Reform is something we do together, with each other, over a period of time.

 
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2 Comments

• 

  By schremmer, March 6, 2015 @ 8:41 pm

  Whatever happened to the Calculus Reform of circa 1990? NSF support to the tune of millions of dollars, Publishers involvement, etc …

  Regards
  –schremmer

• 

  By Jack Rotman, March 6, 2015 @ 8:51 pm

  I believe that that reform is still active — but mostly at the fringes; sometimes used as an applied calculus text.

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