Using Quantitative Text Analysis to Investigate Communication in Practice-based Professional Development

Practice-based professional development for mathematics teachers often aims at developing practice from traditional to non-traditional teaching. This development is challenging and time-consuming, but publications still tend to report more about success stories than about failed attempts. This study applies quantitative text analysis to understand why a professional development initiative failed to reach the desired results. We report from a project where we invited teachers into a collaborative space to collaboratively explore possibilities of developing reform-based teaching that emphasizes student engagement. Quantitative text analysis reveals that the teacher educators more often used the pronoun “we” as well as hedging when talking about students. Such communication might constrain professional development efforts in mathematics education, despite good intentions.