Influence of the teaching experience of facilitators on the effectiveness of professional development program for early mathematics childhood teachers

Abstract

Teachers expect facilitators to have own teaching experience as a teacher in order to be able to carry out effective teacher professional development programs. As part of the project EmMaM, it is investigated, to which extent the teaching experience of facilitators influences the development of early childhood teachers’ (n = 83) mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) and early childhood teachers’ enjoyment of mathematics in the context of a teacher professional development program. It turns out that the teaching experience of the facilitators has no influence on the development of early childhood teachers’ MPCK, but favors the development of early childhood teachers’ enjoyment of mathematics. Controlling for this increased enjoyment an influence of teaching experience on the development of early childhood teachers’ MPCK emerges, but in favor of the participating facilitators who have no teaching experience but have a university degree.