Overview
TSG 4.3 aims to provide a platform for Congress participants to share research, policy, design or practice that focuses on in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary school level.
TSG 4.3 Focus and themes
The focus of TSG 4.3 is a discussion of research related to in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level. In-service mathematics teacher education and professional development are integral parts of teachers life-long learning process, and take many different formal or informal formats with various focuses and requirements within and across education systems. The situation becomes especially complex at primary school level, where in many education systems teachers can be generalists, but content specialists in some other systems. Understanding and researching in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level, therefore, calls for special attention to policy, design and practice situated in special system and sociocultural contexts. For example, it is not difficult to notice contrasting practices in which mathematics teachers work and learn in different ways through various forms of collaborations in the East versus in the West. Efforts to understand what in-service teachers may do to improve their teaching and expertise have led to ever-increasing interest in examining different programs, activities, and the nature of collaborations and processes through which primary school teachers are engaged to learn. Consistently, new theoretical perspectives have also been developed and proposed about the mathematics teacher working and learning in collaborative groups as lesson study, as practice-based professional education of teachers or as teacher learning in communities (see the ICMI Study, Borko & Potari, 2020); communities of teachers working in contact with communities of researchers and evolving in their professional practices (see Arzarello et al., 2014). It is important to understand through research the nature of different programs and activities, the focus and process of various teachers learning and professional development, the extent of teachers learning effects, the roles of policy and administrative support, and specific system and sociocultural factors associated with different programs and activities.
With this focus, TSG 4.3 intends to provide an international platform for all interested parties (e.g., mathematics educators, teacher educators, school teachers, educational researchers, policy makers, etc.) to disseminate findings from their research on in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level, with the use of various theoretical perspectives and methodologies, and to exchange ideas in research, development, and evaluation of in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level.
Areas of interest
Possible themes of TSG 4.3 include the following:
- Theoretical perspectives and methodological advances in research on in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level;
- Research on the design and/or implementation process of specific programs, approaches, and practices, such as the use of video and IT, for in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level;
- Research on documenting the effectiveness of specific programs, approaches, and practices for in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level;
- Research on comparing and documenting system and sociocultural factors contributing to in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level; and
- Various issues concerning possible (dis)connections between research and practice in in-service mathematical teacher education and mathematical teacher professional development at primary level.
How to make a submission to TSG 4.3
Submissions for Topic Study Group Papers and proposals for Posters open soon – check the Key Dates table for specific dates relating to this activity.
Contact email addresses for team Co-Chairs are provided in the TSG 4.3 downloadable PDF Description Paper should you wish to contact them with questions before you make a submission.
