Professional development in action research methods can increase educators’ dispositions toward the adoption of evidence-based practices and data-based decision making. However, an in-depth review of the literature revealed that extant forms of action research professional development (ARPD) may not be accessible to all educators as they are often relegated to full-semester undergraduate and/or graduate courses, internships, and teacher education programs. To address this issue, we designed, implemented, and assessed a scalable active-learning module on action research to strengthen the cognitive and affective outcomes of prospective and in-service STEM teachers (N = 26) enrolled in a cross-listed Scientific Teaching course, all of whom had not previously conducted action research. This three-session module integrated case studies, collaborative practice, group discussions, and instruction on action research theory and data collection methodologies. Analysis of pre-/post-intervention survey responses revealed that participants expressed greater self-efficacy related to their ability to design and conduct action research, strengthened knowledge of the process of action research, and greater awareness of the utility of data to inform research and teaching. When asked about the benefits of engaging in action research, participants suggested it could enhance their pedagogical content knowledge and reflectivity. However, participants identified logistical issues such as time constraints and resource availability, lack of institutional support, and possible student resistance to data collection as potential barriers to future action research practice. Overall, our module provides a scaffold to enculturate in-service educators to inquiry dispositions while offering a scalable approach to help prospective teachers in their transition to in-service practice.

Teacher productive disposition is considered as one of the key strands of mathematical proficiency. Teacher<i> </i>disposition and positioning (disposition in action) toward mathematics influence student learning. However, teachers’ productive disposition does not always translate into productive positioning in the mathematics classroom, and vice versa. In this study, we selected teacher dis/position as the unit of analysis to explore the phenomenon of two middle school mathematics teachers’ self-reported affective disposition and observed positioning-by-others. Grounded in positioning theory the relationship between teacher disposition and positioning-by-others was examined utilizing a cross-case analysis. Results of the study indicate that dispositional characteristics such as attitude, self-concept, and nature of mathematics were significantly different between the cases. The study findings also suggest that interconnectedness between teacher core disposition and positional situatedness could potentially contribute to understanding and addressing the complexity of teaching and learning in the mathematics classroom.