Mathematics Teacher Professional Development: An Asian Perspective

Abstract

This introductory chapter sets the context for the book. It also provides an overview of the chapters in the two parts of the book. The first part comprises eight chapters on policies, structures, frameworks, and contexts. The chapters provide us with some ideas about the professional development (PD) of mathematics teachers in eight Asian countries, namely China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is evident from these eight chapters that the countries are at different phases of development of teacher professionalism. In some countries there are mandatory acts and regulations governing the continuous teacher PD while in others the situation is lax, and in such cases PD would greatly depend on a teacher’s own motivation and also the availability of resources. The second part comprises eight chapters that showcase innovative approaches to mathematics teacher PD in Asian countries, namely India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is apparent that all of these PD programs have similar characteristics and exemplify a critical development in teacher PD in Asia. This development reflects a gradual shift in the center of gravity away from the university-based, supply-side, off-line forms of knowledge production conducted by university researchers for teachers toward emergent school-based, demand-side, on-line, in situ forms of knowledge production by teachers with support from university scholars.