#121: Connecting Teacher Sensemaking to Instructional Practice

A large body of research has identified core features of effective professional development (PD). Recently, scholars called for moving beyond core features to understand the mechanisms that support teacher learning. This study contributes to this aim by tracing teachers’ sensemaking of PD to their classroom implementation. In the context of a two-year PD initiative in mathematics, this study investigates the relationship between seven teachers’ perceptions of the PD and their instructional practice. Emerging findings suggest three profiles of teachers’ conceptualizations of the PD approach to teaching and learning. How teachers conceptualized the PD was tightly aligned with what was observed in their practice. These findings have implications for theories of action to support teacher learning during PD.