The implications of policy mandated professional development on new scheme mathematics teachers and their practices: a position paper

![CDATA[In Australia and internationally, an area of concern in education is the diminishing numbers of high school students participating in mathematics subjects at senior levels, contributing to a reduced number of students moving into mathematics education and potentially a reduction in quality educators of mathematics in the future. Research suggests that this could be due to students disengaging with the subject and becoming de-motivated as a direct result of the pedagogical practice and the teacher‟s lack of content knowledge. Furthermore, the close link between student learning outcomes and quality mathematics teaching has resulted in the call for an increase in teacher accountability and quality assurance. Consequently, the educational discourse in recent years in Australia, and in particular NSW, has been on advancing the status of the teaching profession through the development of a framework of standards, and by supporting the nature of teachers‟ work in addition to improving student learning outcomes. This paper is a precursor to a proposed longitudinal qualitative study into the effects of policy mandated professional development on new scheme teachers and early career teachers of mathematics and their commitment to increasing their mathematical knowledge and pedagogical practices to support teaching and learning in the classroom. The purpose is to ascertain the positive or negative effects on student learning with regards to the choices of professional development made by teachers, given that they must participate in a set amount of professional development in a specified amount of time.]]