A traditional faculty member's job function involves both teaching and research. However, unlike in K-12 education, the majority of faculty members have little to no formal training on teaching methods prior to entering the classroom. This study focuses on implementing Lesson Study as a form of professional development in higher education to…

Background: When New York City's (NYC) Division of Early Childhood Education (DECE) enacted their historic expansion of free programming for four-year-olds under Pre-K for All, they designed a complex system of professional learning (PL) to support teachers and high-quality programming. This study, developed in partnership between NYU and DECE,…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe teachers' professional development in Lesson Study (LS) as processes situated in Semiosphere and generated by the unevenness due to different cultural traditions. The authors characterise teachers' professional development in two LS experiments as processes generating new knowledge to point out their…

Acknowledging that our professional development (or methods course) was not going as well as we had hoped was difficult. However, knowing what to do and correcting the problem was even more challenging. This article explains how we engaged teachers in helping us rethink our video club by listening to and acting on their ideas. Through "coffee…

Designing professional development (PD) that helps teachers enact more ambitious math instruction that is responsive to emergent student thinking is challenging work. Two approaches to this sort of PD, practice-based professional development and lesson study, have different mechanisms for fostering change and choose different focus points for…

Equitable and accessible classrooms should engage all learners with mathematics content in meaningful ways. However, practicing teachers need support from professional development (PD) to learn to teach with this ambitious vision. Informed by sociocultural theory, we employed an evaluative case study methodology to describe, explain, and assess…

Since policy changes in 2014 about who studies mathematics post-16 in England, the mathematics teaching workforce in further education (FE) colleges has grown and diversified. The question of how best to develop the professional practice of this changing workforce is, however, unresolved. Teachers in a recent national study report the benefits of…

Despite the complexity of facilitating professional development (PD) and growing attention to supporting facilitators, few tools exist for facilitators to engage in ongoing inquiry into their practice. In this article, we offer a practical measure, the Collaborative Professional Development Survey (CPDS), designed to provide facilitators with…

This study was designed to explore the impact of professional development in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) of secondary mathematics teachers using The DuFour PLC model in one Southeast Texas School District. Descriptive statistics were compiled based on survey data from 19 participants. Internal consistency reliability was analyzed…

This study reports on a professional learning (PL) initiative aimed at establishing a community of practice, through teacher working groups in which teachers can explore and develop their algebraic pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Here we report on teachers' solutions to three differently represented algebraic problems and explore what the…

Purpose: The authors investigate the use and potential of a theoretical combination of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) and the Theory of Didactic Situation (TDS) to support Lesson Study (LS) in upper secondary mathematics. Design/methodology/approach: Case study performed by university researchers, based on theoretical analysis and case…

In this dissertation, I aimed to improve elementary teachers' mathematical instruction by enhancing their content knowledge and skills through the implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) and professional development. The research design consisted of multiple evaluation steps conducted over time with a collaborative action plan…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to illuminate the perceptions of the essential factors for sustaining Learning Study of the curriculum leaders who have led Learning Study in schools over a sustained period. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a case study research approach to explore the perspectives of the curriculum leaders…

Lesson study is a model of effective professional development that originated in Japan and has become popular among math teachers worldwide in recent decades. Idaho math teachers have engaged in lesson study as a method of professional development for the past six years. Research is needed to determine the impact of lesson study on the…

The purpose of this applied research study was to strengthen Tier I instruction within seventh and eighth-grade mathematics classrooms. This applied research study uses three elements; professional learning communities, consistent content-specific professional development, and increased student achievement to strengthen Tier I instruction in…