MOOCs for Mathematics Teacher Education to Foster Professional Development: Design Principles and Assessment

In this chapter we report on an ongoing international research about MOOCs for in-service mathematics teacher professional development. We describe and analyse two different experiences of this kind: two seasons of the Italian Math MOOC UniTo (Geometria MOOC and Numeri MOOC) and two seasons of the French eFAN Maths MOOC. Both MOOCs aimed at supporting teachers’ professional development through a suitable mediation of technology. They also aimed at triggering as much as possible the teachers’ engagement in order to develop one or more teachers’ communities of practice. Starting from our theoretical and methodological choices, we propose some reflections about design principles of MOOCs for mathematics teacher education based on theoretical principles combining three main theoretical frameworks: the Meta-Didactical Transposition and the Communities of Practice. These reflections focus on professional development built on the ideas of fostering participation and collaboration among trainees and assessing efficiently this kind of engagement.