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

专业发展是目前在课堂上的教师了解数学教与学的变化和改进实践的关键途径。关于哪种类型的专业发展(PD)有助于教师改进实践和学生学习，人们知之甚少。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计划的目的各不相同，从高度适应性、在实施中有很大的自由度，到高度专门化，在实施过程中几乎没有适应计划的能力，这是一个连续体。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，并提供证据积累，让教师教育工作者、行政人员、教师和政策制定者了解与成功的PD经验相关的因素以及教师和PD类型的差异。这项影响研究将扩展2015年国家科学基金会(NSF)资助的四个项目-两个适应性项目，两个具体项目-的承诺证据，以提供这些项目随着时间的推移对教师教学实践的影响的证据。尽管这四个项目在结构和设计元素方面有所不同，但它们的共同目标都是支持具有挑战性的数学内容、练习标准和差异化技术，以支持文化和语言多样化、代表性不足的人群。了解专业发展的本质，包括结构和设计元素，并揭示教师在教学实践中所采取和使用的内容，可能会广泛用于支持学生在不同背景下的学习，特别是那些为弱势和代表性不足的学生群体服务的学生。该项目由探索研究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。这项研究将考察教师对不同专业发展类型的数学内容、教学方法和材料的吸收，以了解和解开与教师在最初的PD经验之外2-3年所吸收和使用的相关因素：2)1)学与教几何PD材料的功效研究：检验影响和基于背景的适应(Jennifer Jacobs，Karen Koellner&Amp；Nanette Seago)；2)视觉接触数学：英语学习者教师的专业发展(Mark Driscoll，Johanna Nikula，&amp；Pamela Buffington)，两个适应性：3)Refining a Model with Tool to Development Math PD Leaders：A Implementation Study(Hilda Borko和Janet Carlson)，4)TRUath and Lesson Study：Support Basic and可持续性Improval in High School of数学(Suzanne Donovan，Phil Tucher，&Amp；Catherine Lewis)。该项目将利用多案例方法，集中于教师从PD经验中获得的内容、教学方法和材料的共同重点。采用指定的抽样程序，该计划将从四个PD项目中每一个项目中挑选8名教师作为个案研究教师。随后，该项目将进行交叉案例分析，重点是教师之间和不同类型的PD之间的差异。指导该项目影响研究的研究问题是：RQ1：教师在参加专业发展研讨会后所从事和使用的东西的性质是什么？RQ2：哪些因素影响教师接受和使用什么？以什么方式影响？RQ3：专业发展在特定适应性连续体上的地位如何影响教师接受和使用的内容？这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.