Journal of Education & Social Policy

Investigating the Effectiveness of an Intensive Professional Development Program in Math Education
Xiaobo She, Timothy Harrington, Sue Rasher, Sarah Rasher

Abstract
The present study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a yearlong, content-based professional development (PD) program on teachers’ teaching efficacy and student achievement in math. Participants were 22 K-3 elementary school teachers in a high-need school district. A mixed-methods approach was employed to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data focused on teachers’ teaching efficacy beliefs and student performance on standardized tests prior to and after the implementation of this PD program. The results indicated that the PD program had positive impacts on teachers’ confidence in teaching math to young learners and their pedagogical content knowledge in math, which resulted in positive impacts on student learning and performance on the standardized tests.

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