09 February 2018
What makes for effective continuing professional development (CPD) in mathematics teaching?
- Effective maths teacher CPD, like teaching, is complex
- More research is needed on impact as well as teacher satisfaction with CPD
- CPD can take a variety of forms - not just face-to-face – and can be informal or formal
- Effective CPD should be based on participants’ needs and goals and teachers should have enough time to engage with, reflect on and embed the CPD
- Long-term, teacher-driven CPD, such as lesson study, mentoring, and teacher research (developing learning communities) can be effective
- Important features of effective CPD for maths teachers include a practical focus, time to reflect and opportunities for networking
- Some features appear critical, for example; one possible set of critical features for effective maths teacher CPD are: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation
- CPD that is subject-specific and considers how pupils makes sense of mathematics is considered valuable by maths teachers
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