Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-8395-6109
Document Type
Article
Rights
Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence
Disciplines
5.3 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Abstract
Research shows that teachers influence students’ attitudes towards; performance in; and perceptions of a subject. Hence, the need to improve the teaching and learning of many curricular subjects has been well documented for many years. This paper focusses on efforts made to develop competence among out-of-field teachers of mathematics and evaluates the impact of one component of a continuous professional development (CPD) programme on teachers’ selfefficacy and self-reported teaching styles. As part of this CPD programme, teachers engaged in a series of subject-specific pedagogy workshops and while classroom observations were not feasible they did complete pre- and postworkshop questionnaires to determine the impact that these workshops had on their mathematics teaching efficacy and their reported approach to teaching, both of which researchers consider to be key to effective teaching. Analysis of the quantitative data showed that the workshops led to statistically significant improvements in mathematics teaching efficacy among participants, while analysis of the qualitative data highlighted a shift from procedural or teacherled approaches to more student-centred approaches that focussed on developing understanding. As such the programme was deemed to have a positive effect on the effectiveness of these teachers.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2021.1899026
Recommended Citation
O'Meara, N., & Faulkner, F. (2021). Professional development for out-of-field post-primary teachers of mathematics: an analysis of the impact of mathematics specific pedagogy training. Irish Educational Studies, 1-20. DOI: 10.1080/03323315.2021.1899026