Investigating Impact of Different Types of Professional Development on What Aspects Mathematics Teachers Take Up And Use in Their Classroom

专业发展是当前教师在课堂上了解数学教与学的变化并改进其实践的重要途径。什么类型的专业发展（PD）支持教师的改进实践和学生的学习知之甚少。然而，联邦、州和地方政府将资源用于帮助教师改进教学实践和学生的学习。PD程序的意图各不相同，并且可以从高度自适应（在实施中具有很大的自由度）到高度指定（在实施过程中几乎没有能力调整程序）的连续体。该项目将研究支持教师发展和学生学习的PD的设计和开发，并提供积累的证据，以告知教师教育者，管理者，教师和决策者与成功的PD经验和教师之间的差异和PD类型相关的因素。该影响研究将扩展2015年美国国家科学基金会（NSF）资助的四个项目（两个适应性项目，两个指定项目）的承诺证据，以提供项目对教师教学实践影响的证据。虽然这四个项目在结构和设计元素方面有所不同，但它们都有一个共同的目标，即支持具有挑战性的数学内容，实践标准和区分技术，以支持文化和语言多样性，代表性不足的人群。了解专业发展的性质，包括结构和设计元素，并拆包教师在其教学实践中采取和使用的可能具有广泛的用途，以支持学生在不同的环境中学习，特别是那些服务于弱势和代表性不足的学生群体。该项目由Discovery Research PreK-12计划资助，该计划为STEM创新和方法的研究和开发提供资金。本研究将探讨教师对数学内容、教学法和不同类型专业发展材料的吸收情况，以了解和揭示与教师在原有专业发展经验之外的两三年内接受和使用的内容相关的因素：检查影响和基于上下文的适应（詹妮弗·雅各布斯，凯伦·科尔纳纳&·纳内特·西戈），2）视觉接触数学：英语学习者教师的专业发展（马克·德里尔，约翰娜·尼库拉，&帕梅拉·巴芬顿），两个自适应：3）用工具完善模型以发展数学PD领导者：实施研究（希尔达·博尔科&·珍妮特·卡尔森），4）TRUmath和课程研究：支持高中数学教学的基本和可持续改进（苏珊娜·多诺万，菲尔·图彻，&凯瑟琳·刘易斯）。该项目将采用多案例的方法，集中在一个共同的重点是什么内容，教学法和材料的教师从PD的经验。本计划将采用指定的抽样程序，从四个发展支援计划中各选出八名教师作为个案研究教师。随后，该项目将进行跨案例分析，重点是教师和不同类型的PD之间的差异。指导该项目影响研究的研究问题是：RQ 1：教师在参加专业发展讲习班后采取和使用的性质是什么？RQ 2：哪些因素影响教师采用和使用什么，以及如何影响？RQ 3：专业发展在特定适应连续体中的地位如何影响教师接受和使用什么？该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Professional development is a critical way in which teachers who are currently in classrooms learn about changes in mathematics teaching and learning and improve their practice. Little is known about what types of professional development (PD) support teachers' improved practice and student learning. However, federal, state, and local governments spend resources on helping teachers improve their teaching practice and students' learning. PD programs vary in their intent and can fall on a continuum from highly adaptive, with great latitude in the implementation, to highly specified, with little ability to adapt the program during implementation. The project will study the design and development of PD that supports teacher development and student learning, and provide accumulation of evidence to inform teacher educators, administrators, teachers, and policymakers of factors associated with successful PD experiences and variation across teachers and types of PDs. The impact study will expand on the evidence of promise from four 2015 National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded projects - two adaptive, two specified - to provide evidence of the impact of the projects on teachers' instructional practice over time. Although the four projects are different in terms of structure and design elements, they all share the goal to support challenging mathematics content, practice standards, and differentiation techniques to support culturally and linguistically diverse, underrepresented populations. Understanding the nature of the professional development including structure and design elements, and unpacking what teachers take up and use in their instructional practice potentially has widespread use to support student learning in diverse contexts, especially those serving disadvantaged and underrepresented student populations. This project is funded by the Discovery Research PreK-12 Program, which funds research and development on STEM innovations and approaches. This study will examine teachers' uptake of mathematics content, pedagogy and materials from different types of professional development in order to understand and unpack the factors that are associated with what teachers take up and use two-three years beyond their original PD experience: Two specified 1) An Efficacy Study of the Learning and Teaching Geometry PD Materials: Examining Impact and Context-Based Adaptations (Jennifer Jacobs, Karen Koellner & Nanette Seago), 2) Visual Access to Mathematics: Professional Development for Teachers of English Learners (Mark Driscoll, Johanna Nikula, & Pamela Buffington), two adaptive: 3) Refining a Model with Tools to Develop Math PD Leaders: An Implementation Study (Hilda Borko & Janet Carlson), 4), TRUmath and Lesson Study: Supporting Fundamental and Sustainable Improvement in High School Mathematics Teaching (Suzanne Donovan, Phil Tucher, & Catherine Lewis). The project will utilize a multi-case method which centers on a common focus of what content, pedagogy and materials teachers take up from PD experiences. Using a specified sampling procedure, the project will select 8 teachers from each of the four PD projects to serve as case study teachers. Subsequently, the project will conduct a cross case analysis focusing on variation among and between teachers and different types of PD. The research questions that guide the project's impact study are: RQ1: What is the nature of what teachers take up and use after participating in professional development workshops? RQ2: What factors influence what teachers take up and use and in what ways? RQ3: How does a professional development's position on the specified-adaptive continuum affect what teachers take up and use?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.