Using Software/Tech/Business language to take back the educational reform conversation for mathematics teachers.

1. MATHEMATICS TEACHING
AS LEAN THINKING
USING SOFTWARE/BIZ LANGUAGE TO TAKE BACK THE ED
REFORM CONVERSATION FOR TEACHERS
Theodore Chao, The Ohio State University
Eileen Murray, Montclair State University
PME-NA 2015
#PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007

2. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
A WARNING OF USING LANGUAGE FROM CORPORATE WORLD
Modern corporate education
reform is destroying public ed
We wary about models that view
students as “users”, “products”
Must be diligent against $$
through schools mentality
If we speak corporate speak, we
steer the ed reform conversation
Using the master’s tools

3. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
WHAT IS LEAN THINKING?
Principle from Start-Up/Biz
Culture
Coined from Toyota’s constantly
evolving production techniques
Heavy in software development:
quick response to change
collab with end users
short, frequent timescales for
delivery
Dominant software model:
Facebook
Dropbox

4. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN LOOP
Heart of Lean Thinking
Start with an idea about a feature
Quickly test it to see what happens.
Incredible speed:
Time for traditional company create new
version, beta tests, and collect feedback
data,
Lean Thinking blasts through dozens of
BML loops
Minimal Viable Product (MVP), a product with
only the features developers need to test
No more than screenshots
No waste in developing or building
additional features.
Developers focus on listening and
responding to users
Not predicting what user will want
Build
MeasureLearn

5. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
CONNECTING LEAN THINKING : MATH ED RESEARCH
Lean Thinking
1) Build, create a solution based on user
observation;
2) Measure, try out the solution, see how
users react;
3) Learn, notice what user did, how to
improve solution.
Lean Thinking position self as building services
for users as opposed to creating finished products
Math Ed Research
1) Before, teacher connects to a child’s prior
knowledge;
2) During, in which a student engages in a
mathematical tasks;
3) After, in which a teacher orchestrates a
discussion of the strategies that students
used to solve a task.
Mathematics ed research frames teachers as
building math thinkers, not creating standardized
memorizers
Before/Build: Listen and connect to prior knowledge.
During/Measure: child creates own strategies, teacher listens and notices
After/Learn: teacher takes up thinking to respond/orchestrate discussions. Being flexible to
the many strategies and ideas from students.

6. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
IT’S NOT NEW
Outsiders assume mathematics teachers use
a dated “I do, we do, you do” approach
(Hunter, 1982).
Eliciting and unpacking student thinking
leads to greater mathematical understanding
Traditional dev waste effort as developers
build features users will never use
Research-based teaching practices asks
teachers not to waste time creating lessons
that “tell” students,
but to be flexible of ways children think
and to respond to this thinking
appropriately
Lean Thinking is not necessarily a new way
of conceptualizing mathematics teaching
practice, but a way to connect research-based
mathematics teacher practices with the
vernacular of technology and development.

7. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
STOP LARGE SCALE TESTING/ASSESSMENT WASTE (FOCUS ON SMALL)
Forcing children to “beta test” unfinished products is
unethical.
Exactly what has been happening with large scale assessments
(e.g., PARCC and Smarter Balance) and federal-level
standards (e.g., CCSS)
A Lean Thinking approach focuses on small, quick
interventions rather than large scale implementation, causing
much less harm for our children’s intellectual development.
Lean Thinking helps corporate/technology world see how
wasteful, damaging, and non-research aligned large-scale
assessments are

8. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
EMPOWERING TEACHERS AS DEVELOPERS OF CHILDREN’S THINKING
Educational curriculum/tech is purchased at district level
While the primary users are children and teachers, the
decisions makers are administrators.
Wasteful. Why aren’t decisions made by user?
By using language that situates teachers as developers,
position:
educational technology must allow for teachers to
experiment and learn from their students
Empower mathematics teachers to see themselves as capable
of developing and sharing their own technology products.

9. #PMENA2015 @PROFESSORTEDS@EILEENMURRAY007
DISCUSSION
➤ Use of a Lean Thinking paradigm within mathematics
education is not new, we’re just connecting language from
two field to try to make something better together.