A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Teacher Professional Development in STEM Education: What Have We Done, and Where Are We Going?

This study includes meta-analytic evidence from 118 studies published 2010–2022 demonstrating that professional development (PD) programs for science, engineering, technology, and math teachers effectively support teacher content knowledge and pedagogical quality and improve student academic performance. We explored the overarching impact of PD programs and analyzed how various characteristics contribute to the observed effects of these programs. To identify relevant studies, we searched four databases and focused on peer-reviewed English language journal articles available in full text. A selection of articles was made that used quantitative research designs and provided adequate data to estimate effect sizes. Subsequently, we assessed the potential risk of bias to evaluate the quality of the selected studies. The significant effect size (0.739, 95%CI [0.637, 0.842]) of PD programs found in our meta-analysis aligns with that of previous meta-analyses and systematic reviews that have synthesized findings on the impact of PD at the teacher and student levels. Substantial heterogeneity of the effect sizes was moderated by PD dosage hours and grade levels. The results indicated that the pooled effect size was much larger when the program length was greater than 80 hours. Additionally, if a study focused on a specific grade level, the magnitude of the effectiveness of PD was larger than that in a combination of different grade-level groups. By using aggregations of research findings across various studies, the present overview will aid educators and education policy communities in better understanding PD research and how it can be designed and implemented most effectively.