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In-service program documentation
Planning and implementing a new inquiry unit (D7.5)
Logistics and scheduling information (by Raffaella Borasi)

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Expectations about the design and implementation of a new inquiry unit as part of the participants' field experience
Summary of the kind of support provided to participants for this component of the field experience
Additional information about the following kinds of support provided to the participants: (Note: these sections repeat some of the information already included in the "Logistics and scheduling information" documents written for Section D6 of the materials, but have been reproduced and/or adapted here for the readers' convenience)
	Support provided for planning of a new inquiry unit
	In-class support provided during the implementation of a new inquiry unit
	Opportunities for sharing and reflection provided with respect to new inquiry units
	Support provided for monitoring and reporting on a new inquiry unit

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Expectations about the design and implementation of a new inquiry unit as part of the participants' field experience

Participants in all implementations of our in-service program were expected to adapt and implement one of our illustrative units as their first field experience -- as described in detail in Section D6. In addition, participants in Implementation A were expected to design and implement an inquiry unit of their own design as the third and final component of their field experience -- after they had adapted and implemented yet another of our illustrative units. Participants in other implementation of the same program, instead, had only one additional field experience requirement, that could be fulfilled by either of the following options: (a) designing and implementing a new inquiry unit of their own design, or (b) adapting and implementing one of our illustrative units or another existing innovative units. Thus, not all participants in Implementations B/C and D actually engaged in the design and implementation of their own inquiry unit.

Although the scheduling of this last field experience was left to individual participants, in most cases it took place between December and April.

Only participants in Implementation A were required to keep a documentation of their unit and prepare a written report on their experience -- which would include: written record of initial plan; written daily accounts of each lesson; a written reflection on each major "component" of the unit when concluded; a final written reflection on the experience; a portfolio for each LD student as well as a few regular students in the class, containing all the student's written work as well as the record of specific observations throughout the year. These participants were offered a stipend for completing this demanding task.

It is important to note that the decision of reducing the field experience requirements in later implementations of our program was due to financial constraints only, and we would still recommend the options chosen in Implementation A whenever possible.

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Summary of the kind of support provided to participants for this component of the field experience

As it was the case for their "experiences as taechers" in our in-service program, participants benefited from the following support as they planned and implemented a unit of their own design:

• School facilitators were expected to extensively support the planning of this unit -- especially considering that this was the first time that these participants would engage in the process of planning a "new" inquiry unit.
• School facilitators were still available to provide in-class support if needed, although they tried at this point to limit this support so as to empower the participants to conduct inquiry experiences in their classes independently.
• Participants continued to be offered multiple opportunity for sharing and reflection with peers -- including: individual meetings with the school facilitator and/or a few close colleagues, meetings with a peer support group, shared journals, and a final sharing that took place in the last follow-up meeting scheduled at the end of the field experiences.
• Implementation A participants were also expected to monitor the implementation of this unit and prepare a final report, as an additional way to encourage reflection and evaluation. School facilitators supported this task in a variety of ways as well.

In what follows, we provide further detail about the support provided for each of the categories identified above. Since in most cases this was essentially the same as what already described in Section D6 with respect to the participants' first "experience as teachers", in the following sections we have often reproduced (with adaptations when appropriate) relevant excerpts from the "Logistics and scheduling information" documents included in that section of the materials.

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Further information on the kind of support provided for planning of a new inquiry unit

School facilitators were expected to support the participants in their planning of a new inquiry unit of their own design by a combination of the following activities:

• acting as collaborators, participating in discussions and explorations in an attempt to identify the essence of what is important about the mathematical topic to be taught;
• acting as sounding boards for participants as they tested out ideas for activities which would foster and support appropriate inquiries;
• helping the participants identify and include the key components of an inquiry cycle in their units;
• making the process they were engaging in explicit so that participants could reflect on it an use it in the future.

Note that this kind of support needs first of all to take place prior to the beginning of the unit. However, it should not stop here. Rather, participants can considerably benefit from discussing and refining their initial tentative plans with their school facilitator during their implementation of the unit, when they can do so in light of students' reactions and input -- as further discussed below in the context of "providing in-class support".

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Further information on the kind of "in-class support" provided during the implementation of a new inquiry unit

Even if at this point in the program we are trying to "wean" participants from the help that can be provided by another experienced adult in their classroom, in-class support is still critical during the implementation of an inquiry unit of the participants' own design. In these cases, because the unit is new to everyone, it is much more likely that, despite extensive support in planning the unit, there will be many unanticipated opportunities and needs. The facilitator's primary role thus becomes one of helping the teacher to "see" and seize opportunities and to address the unexpected needs that have arisen. The plans for these units will generally require more day to day revisions than did the illustrative unit plans and, because of the incredible demands on their time, teachers need help locating materials and planning these changes in such short notice. Facilitators should take care to schedule enough time to provide this kind of support during the implementations of these "new" inquiry units.

In addition to these considerations, which are specific to the in-class support to be provided for units of the participants' own design, we would like to remind the readers here of some general points about what can make in-class support effective:

• It is critical that the participants understand that the facilitator is in the classroom to support the teacher NOT evaluate -- hopefully, however, this expectation will have already been developed at this point as a result of the previous field experiences.
• We have learned some strategies for putting such a collaborative problem solving model in to practice. First, it is very important that the participant begin the discussions by sharing thoughts/reactions to the lesson, questions/concerns s/he identified, or new ideas. We have found that participants frequently identify the same issues that we would have identified, thus helping us find the fine line between telling too much and not telling enough as well as eliminating some potentially uncomfortable situations. However, for this sharing to be useful the facilitator must make sure that the debriefing meetings include time for both reflection and planning in light of the reflections. With respect to the planning, even if they may not be the best possible choices, it is critical that the facilitator accepts and supports some of the teacher's ideas as well as offering suggestions for materials and activities. The point is to remember that there is no "absolute right way" and we can learn a lot from both successes and failures. The collaboration can be further supported if the facilitator occasionally accepts some of the responsibility for finding the resources or planning the activity.
• Finally, we would like to share some of the things participants have said were helpful:
  • discussing with the facilitator, in advance of a series of classroom visits, what the participant would like to get from the collaboration;
  • receiving a facilitator prepared "script" of the lesson as it actually played out; participants indicate that they "missed" some of the comments, or have forgotten that something took place, or just like having the record to reflect on;
  • hearing what the facilitator found powerful - valuable - interesting - problematic in the students' interpretations, understandings, or processes;
  • hearing a report of the discussions of small groups or individuals with whom the facilitator worked;
  • hearing about the strategies other teachers have used to accomplish particular tasks;
  • grappling with mathematical issues / content together but leaving the final instructional decisions - what to do, when, how - to the participant.

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Further information on the opportunities for sharing and reflection provided with respect to new inquiry units

As discussed at more length in Section D6.5, sharing what was happening during the field experiences, and reflecting on these experiences, was an important component of our in-service program. In what follows, we will briefly summarize the complementary opportunities for such sharing and reflections offered to our participants with respect to the experience of planning and implementing a unit of their own design:

• The planning and classroom support sessions involving individual teachers (or at most pairs of teachers) and the school facilitator -- as described in the previous subsection.
• The weekly "support team" meetings, which involved all of the participants in a particular school or geographic location (from previous as well as the current implementation of the program) and their school facilitator. Remember that these meetings were designed for the sole purpose of providing participants with a forum for sharing and reflecting on their on-going classroom experiences, and in fact participants often used these meetings to share some of their tentative plans and get feedback, as well as to share their impressions after implementing their units.
• The shared journals participants were expected to write and share with the other members of their "support team" -- although unfortunately only a few participants used this opportunity.
• The final follow-up meeting, which was scheduled after the implementation of participants' own inquiry units, and invited participants to share the essence of their units and reflect on their successes and failures (as well as engage in an overall reflection and planning for the future). As it was the case for the sharing that took place in all of these project-wide meetings concurrent with the field experiences, participants were asked in advance to focus their reflections and sharing in a particular way so as to make their sharing most powerful. Though the goal for this meeting was to celebrate the group's accomplishments and look to the future, we also wanted to provide an opportunity for participants to share their experiences and the essence of their units with each other. By this time the group had become quite comfortable with sharing their successes and their failures and we felt it was important for them to know that they all had both and that we all still have a lot to learn.

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Further information on the support provided for monitoring and reporting on a new inquiry unit

School facilitators often supported the participants in the creation of the written reports on their units -- expecially in the case of "new" inquiry units that could then also be used by other participants interested in developing similar instructional experiences in their classes. Depending of each individual situation, this support could include:

• providing suggestions about the possible contents and formats of this report;
• helping the teacher collect some of the materials (sometimes this role was played by student teachers or other participant observers in the teacher's class, rather than the school facilitator);
• providing feedback on early drafts;
• suggesting revisions and/or personally revising drafts created by the teacher;
• working together to construct one such report so as to provide a "model" for this process.

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