Models of Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers

数学教师专业发展模式项目正在对为K-12年级数学教师设计的专业发展模式进行全面研究。研究小组将确定专业发展计划中的关键结构和框架，并确定专业发展模式的类型。该项目的目标是鼓励研究人员和专业开发人员重新定义数学专业发展的概念，发展一种共同的语言，并重新讨论数学教师有效的专业发展。该项目团队包括北卡罗来纳州立大学的教职员工和学生，以及美国研究所的一名研究科学家。项目团队正在编码和分析从研究数学教师教育研究文献中收集的关于数学专业发展(MPD)的描述性数据。他们还在对他们确定的研究报告的作者进行采访。该项目正在调查一个普遍的问题：数学教师教育工作者在设计和实施数学专业发展时使用的各种模式是什么？具体地说，他们在问：1.提供给K-12教师的MPD设计在目标、理论框架、背景和结构上有什么相似之处和不同之处？2.领域如何命名和定义MPD的各种特征？3.如何将各种MPD设计的特征归类为有意义的模型？定义这些模型的主要元素是什么？研究人员希望，他们描述职业发展模型的努力将帮助教育工作者摆脱围绕几个显著特征设计的职业发展，转向包含理论框架和协调一致的共同作用的职业发展模型。他们希望专业的开发人员和研究人员使用一种共同语言来研究和评估专业发展。他们对现有数学教学专业发展项目的分析将提供以下结果：1.对数学发展的特征和模式进行实证定义，并解释构成这些模式的各种要素。一种编码协议，用于对MPD模型进行分类和组织有关现有MPD.3的最新信息。组织有关MPD的知识的理论框架，可以在为教师设计创新型MPD时促进对这些模式的新的思考。一系列与研究相关的创新，如研究MPD的新假设，测试专业发展各种特征的解释性和预测性有效性的新方法，以及在MPD.5中描述最新技术状况的新格式。能够支持修订MPD.6最佳做法或有效特点的概念。这是一个开放源码的、基于网络的、可搜索的数据库，其中描述了各种MPD。这一探索性项目将为数学教育界提供一个机会，让他们更多地了解专业发展和开展专业发展研究的方法。

The Models of Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers project is conducting a comprehensive study of professional development models designed for mathematics teachers in grades K-12. The research team will identify key constructs and frameworks within professional development programs and identify types of professional development models. The goals of the project are to encourage researchers and professional developers to reconceptualize mathematics professional development, develop a shared language, and renew discussions on effective professional development for teachers of mathematics. The project team includes faculty and students at North Carolina State University and a research scientist at American Institutes for Research. The project team is coding and analyzing descriptive data on mathematics professional development (MPD) gathered from studying mathematics teacher education research literature. They are also conducting interviews with authors of the studies they have identified. The project is investigating the general question: What are the various models used by mathematics teacher educators when designing and implementing mathematics professional development? Specifically, they are asking:1. What are similarities and differences across goals, theoretical frameworks, contexts and structures that exist in the design of MPD offered to K-12 teachers?2. How does the field name and define various characteristics of MPD? 3. How can the characteristics of the various MPD designs be grouped into meaningful models? What are the main elements that define these models?The researchers hope that their efforts to describe models of professional development will help educators to move away from professional development designed around a few salient features and move toward professional development models that contain a theoretical framework and coherent features that work together. They want professional developers and researchers to use a common language to study and assess professional development. Their analysis of existing professional development projects in mathematics teaching will offer the following outcomes:1. An empirically established definition of characteristics and models of MPD, with explanations of the various elements that comprise these models.2. A coding protocol for use in the classification of MPD models and the organization of current information about existing MPD.3. A theoretical framework for organizing knowledge about MPD that can foster new ways to think about these models in the design of innovative MPD for teachers.4. A set of research-related innovations such as new hypotheses for studying MPD, new approaches to testing the explanatory and predictive validity of various features of professional development, and new formats for describing the state of the art in MPD.5. Concepts that can support a revision of what is meant by best practices or effective features of MPD.6. An open-source, web-based, searchable database with descriptions of various MPD.This exploratory project will provide an opportunity for the mathematics education field to learn more about professional development and approaches to conducting research on professional development.