Professional Development Programs as Drivers of Improvement in Implemented Mathematics Curricula: Do They Work?

Curriculum implementations in mathematics education around the world are aimed at supporting students’ attainment of increasingly rigorous learning goals, and teachers play a key role in establishing and acting within such instructional practices. Therefore, teachers’ learning and how to support it are pressing issues, and research on the professional development of teachers is a growing field within mathematics education. Within this dynamic and developing research field, there are different perspectives, conceptualizations, and critical discussions. In this chapter, we will elaborate on challenges within making professional programs drivers of improvement in implemented curricula by focusing on research on the establishment of professional development programs in diverse contexts and at large scale. We elaborate on recent developments within strands of research regarding aspects of how to adapt professional development programs to contexts and at large scale, and conclude by pointing out important directions for future research.