International Approaches to Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers

Chapter 18: Researching Effective Continuing Professional Development in Mathematics Education

223 Chapter 18 Researching Effective Continuing Professional Development in Mathematics Education Els De Geest, Marie Joubert, Rosamund Sutherland, Jenni Back, and Christine Hirst Introduction This chapter reports on the Researching Effective Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Mathematics Education (RECME) project set up under the umbrella of the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics in the United Kingdom (NCETM). The NCETM was launched in 2006 with the broad aim of enhancing mathematics teaching and learning in schools, colleges, universities, and other organizations through high-quality continuing professional development . The NCETM is a major initiative funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (formerly the Department for Education and Skills) to enhance professional development for mathematics teachers in all education sectors in England. The NCETM was established in response to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) and those made in the 2004 report of Professor Adrian Smith. The NCETM works with teachers of mathematics in two main ways: through a virtual presence on the Internet in the form of a portal (see http://www.ncetm.org.uk), and through a team of people working directly with schools, colleges, organizations, networks, the government , and everyone involved in mathematics education. All teachers and lecturers of mathematics, together with national and international 224 || Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers organizations concerned with mathematics education, are considered stakeholders of the NCETM. The philosophy of the NCETM is based on the notion that understanding and knowledge growth concerning the CPD of mathematics teachers are most valuable when they are co-constructed by teachers, researchers, and other stakeholders. This notion is described in detail by Triggs and John (2004), who use a model of multi-layered communities in which knowledge flow is omni-directional. They suggest that this approach can overcome the identified “gap” between research and practice (Weiss, 1998). The NCETM is committed to research on professional development for teachers of mathematics and commissioned both the RECME project and a number of small-scale research projects. Its vision is that the findings of these projects will feed into the ongoing development of the NCETM to meet its aim of providing excellent advice, resources, and professional development for teachers. The RECME project is ongoing and currently in the third of the four main phases. In this chapter, we describe in detail how the project was set up and developed and discuss the progress to date. Laying the Foundations Edwards, Sebba, & Rickinson (2007) observed that research design that builds on the co-constructing of knowledge in practice can be of several types. The RECME project bases its philosophical approach on that of the NCETM and extends toward a model of distributed leadership, which moves away from a “top down delivery” model of working: Taking this view [of distributed leadership], leadership is about learning together and constructing meaning and knowledge collectively and collaboratively. It involves opportunities to surface and mediate perceptions , values, beliefs, information and assumptions through continuing conversations. It means generating ideas together, seeking to reflect upon and make sense of work in the light of shared beliefs and new information ; and creating actions that grow out of these new understandings. It implies that leadership is socially constructed and culturally sensitive. It does not imply a leader/follower divide, neither does it point towards the leadership potential of just one person. (Harris, 2003, p. 314) Researching Effective Continuing Professional Development || 225 The notion of distributed leadership implied calling on the knowledge and expertise of mathematics educators in research, policy, and practice. In the early stages, a Research Advisory Group (RAG) was formed, whose members (about twenty) were selected on the basis of their research reputations and on the educational sectors in which they conduct their work. The RAG designed the project in outline, first by discussing how they conceptualized the notion of professional development for teachers of mathematics, indicating the sorts of questions that they hoped the research would address, and then developing a set of aims. They put together a design for the project and appointed the project director, who joined their group. A review of the literature concerning professional development for teachers of mathematics was commissioned, and the RAG played an active consultative and advisory role in the development of this review. Research Questions and Aims The first and possibly most important question that the RAG addressed was putting together a “definition” of CPD for teachers of mathematics . It was...