Capturing Teachers’ Generative Change: A Follow-Up Study of Professional Development in Mathematics

Abstract

This study documents how teachers who participated in a professional development program on understanding the development of students’ mathematical thinking continued to implement the principles of the program 4 years after it ended. Twenty-two teachers participated in follow-up interviews and classroom observations. All 22 teachers maintained some use of children’s thinking and 10 teachers continued learning in noticeable ways. The 10 teachers engaged in generative growth (a) viewed children’s thinking as central, (b)possessed detailed knowledge about children’s thinking, (c) discussed frameworks for characterizing the development of children’s mathematical thinking, (d) perceived themselves as creating and elaborating their own knowledge about children’s thinking, and (e) sought colleagues who also possessed knowledge about children’s thinking for support. The follow-up revealed insights about generative growth, sustainability of changed practice and professional development.

Introducing Dialogic Teaching to Science Student Teachers

“…Furthermore the inductive and practical approach to sociocultural theory of teaching and learning introduced in this paper could be continued as a part in-service practice. The threat does exist that real school culture could lead to regression; however, some teachers working independently in their classes have demonstrated the ability to continue professional development when well-prepared for reform (Franke, Carpenter, Levi, & Fennema, 2001). In Franke et al's study, teachers kept pupil thinking in the center when it came to their beliefs and practice about teaching and learning.…”

Using Social Network Analysis to Study How Collegial Interactions Can Augment Teacher Learning from External Professional Development

“…For example, a follow-up study of the successful Cognitively Guided Instruction professional program for elementary mathematics teachers found that in schools where teachers continued to talk together about student thinking in mathematics, as part of teacher teams in their schools, they were able to sustain improvements to their practices (Franke et al 2001). In a different context, in which policy shifts reduced the availability of professional development available to teachers, some schools were able to sustain ongoing teacher learning opportunities when there were high numbers of content-focused teachers in a school and when teachers share a common vision for instructional practice (Kaufman and Stein 2010).…”

La videoeducazione per la formazione degli insegnanti: sviluppi e prospettive nel Web 2.0

“…Diversi studi attestano l'efficacia di interventi video-based nella formazione degli insegnanti (Santagata, Zannoni, & Stigler, 2007). Il video è stato riconosciuto come (i) valido all'interno di pratiche di modellamento, in quanto non soltanto fornisce un'esemplificazione della pratica, ma impegna gli studenti in un processo di analisi complesso e riflessivo (Santagata & Guarino, 2011); (ii) utile promotore di una riflessione generale e personale -nel caso di auto-analisi -sulla didattica (ad esempio nella pratica del microteaching) (van Es & Sherin, 2002); (iii) efficace strumento in grado di far focalizzare l'attenzione sugli studenti (ad esempio nel video club) (Franke et al, 2001;Santagata et al, 2007;van Es & Sherin, 2008).…”