Mathematics Teacher Development in South Africa Through Professional Learning Communities

As a form of mathematics teacher professional development, the Data-Informed Practice Improvement Project (DIPIP) set up and collaborated with school-based professional learning communities among high school mathematics teachers for five years. The professional learning communities aim to promote sustained teacher learning and inquiry, and teacher agency in their learning. The professional learning communities met regularly, supported by facilitators, to work on a set of developmental activities, in which teachers analysed learners’ errors in different teaching contexts. These activities developed the teachers’ knowledge of the reasoning behind learner errors and supported them to notice and take account of learner reasoning when they planned and taught mathematics lessons.

HSRC Press

Product Information

Format:

229x152mm

Pages:

220pp

ISBN-13:

978-0-7969-2706-4

Publish Year:

January 2026

Rights:

World Rights

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Chapter 1: The DIPIP Project: Key dimensions
Chapter 2: Leading Professional Learning Communities
Chapter 3: Establishing and Sustaining School-based Professional Learning Communities
Chapter 4: Teachers’ Changing Practices
Chapter 5: Teacher Conversations
Chapter 6: Working with Teachers’ Errors
Chapter 7: Facilitating Professional Learning Communities
Chapter 8: Teacher Agency in Professional Learning Communities
Chapter 9: Pre-service Teachers’ Inquiry into Learners’ Mathematical Errors
Chapter 10: Conclusions
About the authors
Index

Karin Brodie’s research interest range through mathematics teacher development, professional learning communities in mathematics, mathematics clubs and learners’ mathematical identities. Her pioneering work on professional learning communities with high school mathematics teachers in South Africa explores how teachers work with knowledge and accountability, and how their teaching practices shift. Her work on mathematics clubs shows that they can be a forum for developing learners’ mathematical achievement and identities. She has published two books: Teaching Mathematical Reasoning in Secondary Schools, and Professional Learning Communities in South African Schools and Teacher Education, the latter co-edited with Prof Hilda Borko of Stanford University. She was President of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE) and a founding Executive member of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa (AMESA).

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