Mathematics Teachers Professional Development in Taiwan

In this chapter, we present the current status of mathematics teachersMathematics teachers ’ professional developmentProfessional development in Taiwan. We first elaborate three policy directions to outline a holistic view on three types of teachers’ professional developmentProfessional development . The three policy directions are aimed to (1) encourage teachers to take academic degree program, especially master degree of teaching, to afford benefits for teaching; (2) provide one-shot or semester-based workshops for teachers’ lifelong learning for them to catch up on contemporary educational issues and reforms; and (3) incorporate teachers’ professional, evaluation, and growth into one system for the convenience of teachers’ learning, herein the network platform. We summarize the three types with a framework to show the structure of professional development programsProfessional development programs involving teachers, their facilitators and contexts. Next, to enhance mathematics teachersMathematics teachers ’ motivation and professions in learning from the workshops, we give two examples of ongoing professional development programProfessional development program , conducted nationally, which assist mathematics teachersMathematics teachers in designing tasks and teaching practice, while cultivating their active thinking and learning. Finally, we make a concluding remark on the three types of teachers professional programs in Taiwan.