The development of mathematics teacher professional competencies through social media

Abstract

One of the competencies for mathematics teachers that needs to be developed continuously is professional competence. However, even if efforts for developing teachers’ competencies have been made formally by the government, it seems still lacking. This study, therefore, aims to develop mathematics teacher professional competencies through an informal development model using social media. This research used a qualitative method, a case study design, involving 19 mathematics teachers from various regions in Indonesia in the informal development process in the range of 2019-2021. The informal approach was carried out using question-and-answer techniques and guided discussions on mathematical problems. From the teacher development processes, 30 mathematics problems and their solutions were collected. As an illustration of this development process, this article presents five problems and their solutions, including solutions for two mathematics problems on conceptual understanding and three mathematics problems on problem-solving. We conclude that this informal approach is fruitful in helping mathematics teachers solve mathematics problems. This study implies that the teacher development process carried out in this study can be used as a model for informal teacher development by other higher education academics in their respective places.

Keywords

• conceptual understanding
• informal teacher development model
• problem solving in mathematics
• professional development of mathematics teachers