A Study On The Critical Thinking Disposition Of High School Mathematics Teachers In A HPM Online Teacher Professional Development Program

This is an exploratory empirical study conducted in an online environment in a field built by university teachers and voluntarily participated by in-service high school teachers.In this field,57 high school teachers participated in a year-long online teacher professional development program on the integration of the mathematics history into the mathematics teaching(HPM)on top of their regular work.The program’s participants and events were combined in a special space and time to form a professional learning community.The study focused on the changes in critical thinking disposition of high school teachers in this professional learning community,exploring two main questions:(1)Did high school mathematics teachers’ critical thinking disposition change after participating in the HPM online learning community? If yes,what were the specific changes?(2)What are the elements of the HPM online learning community that induce changes in high school mathematics teachers’ critical thinking disposition?To address these two questions,this study employed mixed methods research,conducting both quantitative and qualitative research in parallel during the data collection and analysis process,and only converged in answering the research questions.The quantitative study utilized the designed secondary school mathematics teachers’ critical thinking disposition questionnaire to survey teachers who participated in the entire community before and after the community to present the overall changes in teachers’ critical thinking disposition.The qualitative study included reflective reports,fieldwork,in-depth interviews,stimulated recall,and observation to obtain data.The data were analyzed from both the holistic and individual levels,using a theoretical framework of critical thinking dispositions of mathematics teachers that was validated by experts: the holistic level analysis presented the overall change trends in teachers’ critical thinking dispositions in this field and the factors that influenced them;the individual level analysis meticulously and thoroughly showed the details of the individual changes and their causes through embedded case studies of three case teachers.The study found that teachers’ critical thinking dispositions changed after participating in the learning community.The quantitative data revealed an increase in critical thinking dispositions on seven dimensions.Of these,open-mindedness and confidence in reasoning received statistically significant increases,as did the overall increase.The qualitative information showed various degrees of change in each dimension.Further analysis into the reasons for the changes revealed that the content(history of mathematics),culture(HPM teaching concept),and specific events experienced by the teachers(expert instruction,seminar observation,HPM teaching practice,and overall learning experience)in the HPM online learning community,as well as the three environments(human,academic,and organizational)created simultaneously in the online learning community,all resulted in changes in teachers’ critical thinking dispositions.Based on these findings,the researcher offers insights and suggestions regarding both the development of mathematics teachers’ critical thinking dispositions and the construction of a professional learning community for teachers in online environment.Finally,the shortcomings of this study are reflected upon,and several prospects for future related research are offered.