Professional development (PD) is a direct attempt to improve the quality of instruction for teachers already in the classroom. Traditional PD tends to be delivered as a one-size-fits-all approach that overlooks the specific needs of individual teachers. In contrast, the Practice-Driven PD Study project seeks to develop a personalized, scalable PD approach that centers on and builds from algebra teachers’ practices and individual strengths.
This project seeks to understand not only how teachers’ participation in PD might impact their practice and their students’ learning, but also the extent to which this impact is sustained. Through the use of video and other multimedia, our goal is to nudge on teachers’ existing instructional practice by offering small, bite-sized instructional actions that that are tailored to teachers’ existing practice, can be readily adopted, and are easily accessible. We term these instructional actions, high-uptake practices.
This work is led by three principal investigators (Dr. Zandra de Araujo, Dr. Samuel Otten, Dr. Amber G. Candela) across three higher education institutions.
Read more about our views on practice-driven PD for math teachers
The Practice-Driven PD Goals
Designing and implementing high-quality, practice-driven professional development
- Honor teachers’ current practice
- Focus on instructional nudges that are high-uptake
- Provide teachers flexibility and choice
- Design for implementation at scale
Carrying out a rigorous research program
- Understand the impact of the PD on teachers’ instructional practice
- Understand the impact of teachers’ participation in the PD on student learning outcomes and engagement
Dissemination
- The general public
- K-12 mathematics teachers, schools, administrators
- Teacher educators and professional developers
- Mathematics education researchers
Contact Us
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (award #2206774). Opinions expressed here or by members of the PDPD team do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
Practice-Driven PD 