Including Curriculum Focus in Mathematics Professional Development for Middle‐School Mathematics Teachers

This paper examines professional development workshops focused on Connected Math, a particular curriculum utilized or being considered by the middle-school mathematics teachers involved in the study. The hope was that as teachers better understood the curriculum used in their classrooms, i.e., Connected Math, they would simultaneously deepen their own understanding of the corresponding mathematics content. By focusing on the curriculum materials and the student thought process, teachers would be better able to recognize and examine common student misunderstandings of mathematical content and develop pedagogically sound practices, thus improving their own pedagogical content knowledge. Pre- and post-mathematics content knowledge assessments indicated that engaging middle-school teachers in the curriculum materials using pedagogy that can be used with their middle-school students not only solidified teachers' familiarity with such strategies, but also contributed to their understanding of the mathematics content.