“She was probing me to see if I knew”: Becoming a credible and confident PD facilitator

Implementation support strategies such as professional development (PD) are pivotal in guaranteeing the assistance that teachers need to enact mathematics teaching innovations and to secure lasting change. Within large-scale efforts an important issue for researchers is to understand how to design and put into effect these implementation support strategies. Although some work has been done to examine the challenges of implementing PD to advance the enactment of mathematics teaching innovations in new school settings, little is known about the multiple challenges novice facilitators face when providing PD for fellow teachers in their local districts and communities. In this paper we report on a 3-year long study that examined how a novice facilitator learned to deal with these challenges and become confident in his new role. Drawing on Graven’s (Educational Studies in Mathematics 57(2), 177–211, 2004) expanded model of learning, a case study and an interpretative approach are used to investigate a novice facilitator’s process of becoming confident. The findings provide evidence that becoming confident is part of an ongoing process of learning through (1) experiencing or constructing new meanings for problem solving as an instructional approach; (2) doing or enacting the instructional approach; and (3) engaging in the core PD practices. Recommendations for the education of PD facilitators in large-scale initiatives are provided.