Interaction- or Material-Centred Implementation of Teacher Professional Development: a Comparison of Teachers’ Competence Development and Potential Lesson Planning

Abstract Teacher professional development (TPD) is a crucial support mechanism for mathematics teachers. Strategies for implementing TPD include disseminating educative curriculum materials or conducting TPD courses. However, it remains unclear whether different implementations of the same TPD support mathematics teachers in distinct ways. This study investigated two implementations of the TPD EmMa-FS which focuses early mathematics education (EME) for German vocational school (VS) teachers who instruct prospective early childhood (EC) educators. One group of teachers received an in-person TPD course along with educative curriculum materials ( n PM = 26), whereas the other received only the educative curriculum materials ( n M = 15). The effects on VS teachers’ beliefs and knowledge concerning EME were examined using a t -test and repeated measures ANOVA. To assess how teachers in the different implementation groups made use of the TPD in their lesson planning, participants submitted hypothetical lesson sequences on early numeracy, which were analysed for instructional quality, covered content, and the visible implementation of the provided educative curriculum materials using qualitative content analysis. The results indicated that both TPD implementations positively affected VS teachers’ knowledge related to EME but not their beliefs. While the instructional quality of the lesson sequences varied across both groups, participants who received the TPD course appeared to use the educative curriculum materials more often and to cover more content.