Research

Tony Wagner, in his book, “The Global Achievement Gap,” outlines several “Survival” skills for the 21st century. The targeted skills include Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence, Agility and Adaptability, Initiative and Entrepreneurship, Assessing and Analyzing Information, Effective Oral and Written Communication, and Curiosity and Imagination. As Wagner points out, it is essential that we, as teachers, foster these skills within our students. We often struggle, however, to provide meaningful learning opportunities that allow students to develop these skills and obtain deep understanding of mathematical concepts and fluency with skills. In order for teachers to meet this challenge they must engage in discussions around theory and practice in an effort to further develop their profession.

Toward that end, the goal of the Complex Instruction Consortium is to create a collaborative professional community of educators dedicated to improving practice in mathematics education. Member schools and teachers will participate and contribute to the community in a variety of ways. Members will participate in online discussions, help create an online curriculum resource library, observe one another teach, and participate in a full day introductory workshop.

About Us

The Complex Instruction Consortium is a network of math educators dedicated to improving math education through ongoing collaboration, online discussions, sharing resources, and in-person workshops. With a focus on groupwork, rich mathematical problems and tasks, and the social aspects of the classroom, members of the Complex Instruction Consortium learn how to create effective classroom environments that support learning for all students.

CIC workshops are open to all educators interested in joining a collaborative professional network. The workshop is free of charge with the commitment of contributing to online discussions and sharing group tasks.

CIC workshops also give all of our participants an opportunity to see some of the mathematical tasks that are created in action. For instance, our Spring 2015 workshop took some of the tasks written at the workshop into classrooms at Mundelein High School and delivered them to students. This opportunity will provide all of you the chance to see, first hand, what these tasks look like in an actual classroom.

Many of the current CIC members have shared the benefits of having multiple colleagues from their schools involved with the Consortium. Improving classroom practice is best done collaboratively! Discuss this workshop at department meetings and/or on email lists to get more people from your school committed to attending. Feel free to forward this website to other interested educators.