Ellis - The Fountain Fall 2002 issue

Photo by Karen Tam

Mark Ellis instructs education majors in Math 67, a course with activities and discussion on fundamental math concepts.

From the Source

Mark Ellis on Helping Teachers Teach

Former high school and middle school mathematics teacher Mark Ellis is now a doctoral student in the School of Education at UNC-Chapel Hill. A winner of the prestigious Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster, Jr. Fellowship, Ellis hopes to instruct other teachers to look at mathematics in a new way, a way that will encourage students to see mathematics as an exciting possibility, not a dead-end street. Deborah Makemson’s interview:

The Fountain: Why make the transition from teacher back to student?

Mark Ellis (ME): I’d always had an interest in working with teachers but felt I needed some more experience under my belt before I would get into teacher education. So after six years in the classroom, I felt like it was a good time for me to get back into graduate school.

Fountain: What is the focus of your research here at UNC?

ME: My focus is on mathematics education and mathematics and social foundations, the issues of classroom and student culture. Carolina has excellent mathematics education professionals. I worked with Dr. Susan Friel, who is the author of the textbook that I used in my classroom. I helped revise that textbook with Dr. Friel.

Last fall, I taught two sections of mathematics for teachers, and in January, I started a research project with three professors in the School of Education — Jill Hamm, Judith Meece and Carol Malloy. We received funding from the National Science Foundation — $1.1 million for a three-year study. We’re going to look at the way that teachers structure learning and how students gain identity development related to how they understand mathematics. Do they feel empowered to use mathematics, or is it something they don’t understand and feel overwhelmed by?

Fountain: How can your research help kids and teachers learn about math?

ME: The research I’m doing here is focused not only on curriculum, but also on pedagogy, that is, teaching methods. I want to learn how to work with teachers and pre-service teachers, those people studying to be teachers, so that they will have different experiences around mathematics, and in their minds start to think differently about mathematics. I also want to expose them to some different teaching strategies that they might be able to use in the classroom effectively with students. I’m really interested in how curricula are implemented and whether they are effective. So I hope to focus my research on helping teachers learn and develop effective teaching methods.

Fountain: You taught a math content course last fall for pre-service elementary teachers. How did you feel about getting back into the classroom?

ME: I was very excited to get back in the classroom. It’s a mathematics course — not a methods course, but actually a content course, focusing on basic numbers concepts. Those are very crucial ideas that teachers need to understand well themselves, so when they get into the position of teaching these things in mathematics they will have a lot to draw on from their own learning.

So even though it’s a course that a lot of people would read the syllabus and think, ‘Oh, that’s going to be easy,’ it really will be one of the more challenging courses they take. They’ll have to revisit something that they thought they understood, but really never had put together in a very deep way before.

Fountain: How has being a Royster Fellow affected your experience at Carolina?

ME: Quite honestly, if I didn’t have the Royster Fellowship, I wouldn’t be at Carolina; it just would not have been possible. I told my wife and myself that if I were going back to graduate school, I would do so in a way that would not put us into debt. So it was very fortunate that I was offered the Royster fellowship. I guess I can think about people in my program who aren’t so well-funded and think about the things they’ve had to do. Many of them work 20 hours a week or more. A couple of people will not be returning for their second year — they’ve taken full-time jobs because they found it too difficult to manage financially. So I would imagine that if I did not have the fellowship, my decision to attend graduate school would have turned out differently.

Fountain: How do you think your research will serve the University and the community at large?

ME: My biggest concern is for the children who are learning mathematics, particularly those kids who are not doing well and are struggling. I think that the way they are being presented and being allowed to experience mathematics really makes it difficult sometimes for them to make sense of it. So I hope to do research that allows teachers to present mathematics in a way that students, particularly students who have not traditionally been successful with it, really start to understand it, make sense of it and build confidence in themselves that they can do this. So that they have a more positive experience and so that more doors are open for them.

One of the primary reasons that led me to be a teacher was learning when I was an undergraduate that so many students never go to college because they simply did not have the opportunity — they had been turned off, especially in mathematics. Mathematics is always a part of college entrance exams or placement tests. So if what I do can help in some way to open doors of opportunity to more students, that would be great.

A Lesson in Teamwork

My first group of 6th graders was amazing. Students who had never learned to multiply or divide sat alongside others who were anxious to jump into algebra. Resisting the common strategy of ability grouping, I let the students know up front that some of the students needed to get caught up. I did not cast this as a condemnation but rather as a fact. I did not place blame but offered support in the form of supplemental materials and after-school tutoring. I also made it known that I expected everyone to do the same work in class — I did not want to further widen the gap between the kids.

During lessons we did a lot of cooperative work in which all students contributed and worked not just to get the answers but to really understand the math.Students shared their thinking with the class, and we talked about

By Mark Ellis

not only the “hows” but the “whys” of the concepts being studied. The students soon learned that it was the responsibility of all of us, as a class, to ensure that everyone learned. Much to their surprise, the kids who had been more advanced found that by listening well, they could learn a lot from classmates who had been labeled mathematical failures.

By the end of that school year, all the students had learned so much — about math and about one another. Every child made gains in her or his understanding of math and in the ability to use that new found knowledge. That’s the sort of learning environment I hope to encourage my students at Carolina to create in their own classrooms.

© 2002, The Graduate School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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