How generative AI guided-professional development supports teachers’ engagement with mathematical creativity, content knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge

Abstract

This embedded case study examined how eight in-service teachers from rural and under-resourced districts engaged with mathematical creativity (MC), content knowledge (CK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) during an AI-guided professional development program, and how specific AI-mediated mechanisms shaped that engagement. Teachers completed ten interactive modules in which a generative AI system served as a cognitive and instructional partner by prompting problem solving, problem posing, representational reasoning, simulated student interpretation, and reflective instructional decision-making. Data sources included teacher-AI dialogue logs, teacher-generated mathematical artifacts, and interviews, which were analyzed through iterative thematic analysis. Findings showed that teachers engaged with MC, CK, and PCK as interconnected forms of reasoning rather than as isolated domains. Three cross-case themes characterized this engagement: creative mathematical exploration, conceptual deepening of proportional reasoning, and expansion of pedagogical reasoning. These trajectories were shaped by six core AI-mediated mechanisms: adaptive and personalized prompting, real-time feedback, progressive scaffold fading, simulated student reasoning, conversational nonjudgmental tone, and flexible pacing. Two cross-cutting mechanisms, representational nudges and cycles of creative challenge and reflection, further supported teachers’ movement between mathematical exploration, conceptual reasoning, and pedagogical decision-making. Teachers emphasized that these mechanisms enabled productive struggle within a psychologically safe environment and positioned AI as a thinking partner rather than a content-delivery tool. The study contributes to research on AI-supported teacher learning by showing how mathematical creativity-aligned AI scaffolding can support teachers’ integrated engagement with mathematics and pedagogy in rural professional learning contexts where access to sustained professional development is limited.