Promoting teachers’ scaffolding of students’ mathematical language in a professional development programme

Abstract

To promote students’ acquisition of language required for mathematical learning, the employment of language-supporting scaffolding strategies (Smit, 2013) has proven to be effective. So far, little is known about how this teaching approach can be upscaled in educational practice. This study investigates the features of a professional development programme focused on teachers’ scaffolding of students’ mathematical language. In design-based implementation research seven professional development sessions for two professional learning communities in different parts of the Netherlands (consisting of 5 and 10 teachers) were shaped and enacted by four researchers-educators. Over time, all participants (researchers, educator, and teachers) collaboratively identified both process and product features of the professional development programme. Besides insights into these features, this study also yielded professionalized language-oriented primary teachers and a course programme that these teachers and others can employ to further upscale the language-oriented approach in primary mathematics classrooms.