Dominican math education professors strengthen their skills with help from CCNY

Sixteen mathematics education professors from the Dominican Republic recently completed a two-week program, co-sponsored by the City College of New York’s School of Education and the Study Abroad and International Programs, designed to improve the D.R.’s educational system. 

The visiting professors, accompanied by two administrators, were from Instituto Superior de Formación Docente Salomé Ureña (Salome Urena Higher Teacher Training Institute), known informally as Isfodosu. The professors came to City College to strengthen their content knowledge and to learn new teaching strategies. Over the course of the two weeks, they were led through a series of structured sessions that addressed topics such as planning, assessment and pedagogy, with time for hands-on project work in math. At the program’s conclusion, the participants discussed the lessons learned.

Improving math education in the D.R. is a goal of the country’s Ministry of Education, which has dedicated four percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product -- or $3.7 billion U.S., according to the World Bank’s latest data -- to the task. That figure is more than twice the amount of per capita GDP devoted to education in the U.S., which has 30 times the population of the D.R.

This program is the first one resulting from an agreement reached between CCNY and Isfodosu this past January. The agreement calls for continuing collaborations in areas that include research and scientific activities, cultural and educational exchanges, and student study abroad programs.

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Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.