Back to School

The UNM Teachers’ Institute provides continuing education for K-12 teachers to develop content knowledge and improve classroom instruction.

by Carolyn Gonzales

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Photo courtesy of Matt Nyman.

The College of Arts and Sciences Teachers’ Institute has worked with teachers since 1999 to develop content knowledge needed to improve classroom teaching in public schools. Today, the Institute features workshops designed to enhance teachers’ understanding of subjects such as mathematics and science, and helps them understand what students need to know to write well at the college level, among other initiatives.

Under the direction of Wanda Martin, associate professor of English, and Matt Nyman, lecturer in earth and planetary sciences, the Institute has provided many teachers with instruction that counts toward credentialing, helping them move up the three-tiered system for New Mexico educators and meet No Child Left Behind standards.

“When teachers came under attack because students scored low on math achievement tests or because students couldn’t write for college level courses, we knew that we had a responsibility to address teachers’ content knowledge,” says Martin.

The La Meta (Mathematics Educators Targeting Achievement) program is geared toward teachers in grades 5 through 9.
“If we can help teachers learn more math and become better equipped to teach it, then they will help their students learn more math,” says Kristin Umland, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics.

“It is important for our teachers to practice talking math. They need to be able to explain how they solved problems, not just solve them,” she says

Starting in 2006, Arts and Sciences faculty participating in Teachers’ Institute programs have devised a series of one-day workshops on climate change. Sessions have included the down in the dirt perspective of soil morphologist Les McFadden, professor of earth and planetary sciences, and a consideration of how economic incentives can encourage environmental degradation with Kate Krause, professor of economics.

“The field-based workshops provided hands-on learning. The teachers got out of the classroom and saw things in action,” Martin says.

The teachers also grew to understand climate change as citizens. “A huge problem in education is the compartmentalization of knowledge. With these workshops, they understand it in social terms—its impact on societies and cultures. They can see how climate change affects economies and societal relationships,” she says.

“We also try to help teachers develop strategies for using reading and writing, which are important in every discipline,” Martin adds. “Scientists, for example, use reading and writing to articulate what they know—and what they don’t know.”

Since 2005, the Institute has offered a weekend workshop on creative writing held in conjunction with the English Department’s Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. Participants write poetry, stories, memoirs, and plays, and develop strategies for teaching these genres.

In 2007, two summer seminars focused on teaching engaged literacy, helping teachers prepare students for college. “College success demands that students be able to apply their skills in reading and writing to a variety of problem-solving tasks across the disciplines,” says Martin.

Martin taught a course for high school teachers on strategies for teaching critical reading and analytic writing skills, the basis for learning across the disciplines. Krause, working with middle school teachers, worked on strategies for reading, evaluating and writing editorials, letters to the editor, online commentary, and other arguments to join and influence civic debate.

For teaching science, the SEIS (Science Education Institute of the Southwest) program is focused on improving science education at all levels, offering summer field courses and one-day science workshops for teachers.

A collaboration between UNM, Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and the Albuquerque Public School (APS) district, the program was able to bring three APS science teachers to work as Science Research Fellows through funding from Sandia.

“They worked with UNM researchers in the lab, taking that knowledge back to their classrooms. A similar program, Museum Teaching Fellows, funded by the Albert I. Pierce Foundation, allows teachers to work with and learn from the educators at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science,” says Nyman.

Thus far, the Institute staff have seen a number of improvements including enhanced teachers’ writing skills, more enthusiasm, increased content knowledge in science, and better relationships between UNM and K-12 teachers.

Says Nyman, “We want to bridge the cultural divide between K-12 and higher education. We view the teachers as our colleagues.” Martin adds, “The Teachers’ Institute closes the loop between educating teachers and educating our kids. We can teach them now, or teach them later.”