Investing in Teacher Effectiveness to Improve Educational Quality in Developing Countries: does in-service education for primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka make a difference to teaching and learning?

The article reports the findings of a study into the efficacy of an in-service professional development programme aimed at changing the teaching strategies of primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka. It highlights some of the methodological dilemmas inherent in conducting large-scale experimental research in developing countries but also demonstrates important methodological techniques in collecting 'fine-grained' observational data of teacher professional behaviour. The analysis attempts to answer the question whether curriculum policy renewal, accompanied by materials development and training eventually translates into desired pedagogy. It shows that most primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka are easily sensitised to some 'new' teaching strategies but find others more difficult to use routinely. Further studies are needed to clarify whether those elements of pedagogy stressed as important during training and emphasised in the teaching guides, but which have not become part of the teachers' repertoire, are resistant to cross- cultural transfer or simply unachievable due to the structural constraints of schooling in the developing world.