Impact of Teacher Professional Development on Students’ Mathematics Productivity: A Convergent Parallel Study

Abstract

This paper sought to understand lived experience and insights of mathematics teacher education students in as far as teacher professional development is concerned and its impact on their productivity. A parallel convergent approach mixed-methods design was used. Qualitative phase had 14 purposefully selected students (seven were included in the focus group discussions and seven in the in-depth interviews) and quantitative phase encompassed 130 randomly chosen students. Quantitative results confirmed that there were high scores on student productivity and professional development of the teachers where the correlation was moderately positive and significant (r = 0.609, p < .001). The qualitative findings showed that teachers’ teaching strategies, extra efforts done outside the classroom and flexibility in the teaching modalities were appreciated by the students contributing more in student engagement and learning. The combined results established that professional development is an essential aspect in enhancing mathematics productivity amongst the learners. At the end of the study, the degree of improving the effectiveness and productive mathematics education by investing in the teacher professional development is concluded