Two University of Pittsburgh mathematics department faculty members, Beverly Michael and Paul Gartside will be involved in the ESP Project. The project represents a partnership between the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh and established university-school collaborations within those entities. The goal of the proposed project is to address the challenges currently faced in mathematics teacher education through a three-pronged approach:

1. Creating two additional mathematics courses that are specifically targeted at making connections between the formal mathematics courses that currently comprise an undergraduate degree in mathematics and the mathematics that is at the heart of the secondary mathematics curriculum. These courses are intended to deepen teachers' understanding of the mathematics needed for teaching.
2. Revising existing methods courses so that they are grounded in the practice of teaching. These courses will use the everyday work of teaching as the object of ongoing investigation and thoughtful inquiry. Through this approach, teachers will develop an understanding of subject matter, of pedagogy, and of students as learners by investigating tasks that are central to teaching. Rather than learning theories and applying them to the practice of teaching, theories or general principles are seen as emerging from the close examination of the particularities of practice.
3. Developing a cadre of mentor teachers who can enact, support, and promote mathematics education reform efforts in the school environments in which they work and who can provide support to pre-service teachers during their student internship experiences.

Drs. Michael and Gartside will create the following two courses:

• An Historical Perspective on the Big Ideas of Mathematics
  This will be an undergraduate capstone course for mathematics education majors. This course will take an historical look at the `big ideas' of mathematics, which are also found in the high school curriculum, emphasizing that the `big ideas' can be introduced and studied at levels appropriate to the student audience.
• The Unifying Role of Functions in Mathematics
  This course will take a reflective look at the concept of function and its unifying role in mathematics in general, and in the school curriculum in particular. The concept of function develops across the curriculum (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, discrete mathematics) and is of particular importance in modeling real-world phenomenon. By revisiting elementary functions from an advanced perspective, and linking the role of computers as graphical and computational tools, students will experience real-world, complex problem solving.