Enhancing mathematics teacher professional learning through a contextualized professional development program

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the impact of a year-long professional development (PD) program on mathematics teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practice. The PD program of the study was designed to connect mathematics teachers’ learning and teaching practice through integrating situated aspects of the teaching profession and teachers’ reflections. Data was collected from three cohorts of teachers across three program years. Results from repeated-measures ANCOVA show changes in self-efficacy, epistemological beliefs, and math pedagogical knowledge. Teachers’ content knowledge decreased in the first-year group but increased for teachers in Year 2 and 3 cohorts. Teaching practice improved about one standard deviation along the indices measured. Multiple regression results show that teachers’ self-efficacy and epistemological beliefs influenced their practice. The discussion includes assessing links between PD design and its effectiveness in influencing knowledge, belief, and practice change, as well as making the case for future PD programs to consider targeting multiple interconnected teacher outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematics teacher education
• teacher competencies
• contextualized professional development program

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ohio Board of Regents [09-31,10-35,11-33].

Notes on contributors

Hea-Jin Lee

Hea-Jin Lee is a Professor of Mathematics Education at the Ohio State University at Lima. Lee’s research areas are related to mathematics teacher education, including designing and evaluating professional development programs; assessing teacher growth; teaching mathematics with digital resources; teaching mathematics equitably; culturally responsive mathematics teaching.

Vanessa W. Vongkulluksn

Vanessa W. Vongkulluksn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She earned her PhD in Education with a concentration in Educational Psychology and Quantitative Methods from Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. Dr Vongkulluksn’s research utilizes a variety of statistical methods to examine factors associated with student motivation and engagement, especially in technology-integrated contexts.