Situated cognition in implementation : what teacher professional development looks like from a socio-psychological perspective

Much has been documented regarding the characteristics of effective professional development, but there is a conspicuous lack of research that attends to the ways that situational factors influence its implementation. Identifying and interpreting these factors can have important implications for designers and evaluators of professional development programs, especially if we are to understand knowledge construction as being culturally mediated, agentic, and situated within local contexts. This study seeks to uncover the social and psychological factors that mediate the way local actors implement professional development by analyzing how facilitators and teachers enact a large-scale professional development program in the absence of strict fidelity expectations.