The results of my research

A big thank you

I would like to thank all of the mathematics teachers who took part in my survey.  Without them this project would not have been possible.  I would especially like to thank those teachers who formed my pilot group and those who gave up more of their time to take part in a follow-up interview.

 I am also grateful to the many people who helped to distribute my questionnaire and would particularly like to thank colleagues from Mathematics in Education and Industry, The Mathematical Association, The Association for Teachers of Mathematics, The National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and King’s College London for their support and help with distribution.

The aims of my research

Aim 1
Find out what CPD activities are most successful in providing secondary mathematics teachers in England with new knowledge, but do not necessarily affect their teaching practice.
Aim 2
Discover the reasons, both real and perceived, why some secondary mathematics teachers in England do not engage with CPD.
Aim 3
Find out what CPD experiences might be effective in overcoming the most common barriers which stop secondary mathematics teachers in England accessing CPD.

A summary of my research and findings

I set out to discover what experiences might support more secondary mathematics teachers to engage with CPD.  My research consisted of an online questionnaire and some follow-up interviews.  In order to reach teachers who did not engage with CPD I distributed the questionnaire through online forums, Twitter and email.  I probed answers further through email and telephone interviews.  I found that there appears to be no one clear activity that provides new knowledge more efficiently than the others (although normal teaching activities seem to slightly have the edge), but the amount of new knowledge gained and the amount of that knowledge which is applied to practice increases as the amount of CPD undertaken increases. I found that the same barriers to CPD seem to exist no matter how much CPD teachers take part in, but the magnitude of the barriers are reduced as engagement increases.  The main barriers appeared to be lack of time, lack of energy, lack of school funds, heavy workloads, lack of relevant CPD and a belief that practice did not need changing.   Preferred methods of accessing CPD were not dependent on the amount of CPD that teachers had engaged with.  Online access and face-to-face methods both in school and outside during the school day stood out as the preferred methods of accessing CPD.  However, there is an issue here with the key barriers which can be solved by using online methods.

 I suggest that CPD has two roles to play.  The first is an information-giving role, the second is support for changing practice.  The first of these is more important for those that do not currently engage with CPD.  If more information were readily available, teachers would become less satisfied with their own practice and available CPD activities might better fit their own priorities.  Online curricula materials could be used to provide this, overcoming the perceived and real barriers of lack of time, lack of energy, lack of school funds and a heavy workload.  By accessing new knowledge through normal teaching practice, teachers would become aware of how they could change their practice.  I suggest that face-to-face online activities such as webinars will overcome the main barriers and provide opportunities for teachers in school to collaborate together with the added advantage of external expertise.  In this way, support could be provided for changing practice.  This two-stage approach to CPD might help overcome the perceived barrier that CPD never covers what teachers want, since teachers might have a better knowledge on which to choose their second stage of CPD.