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1 – 10 of over 16000The study aims to explore the experiences of new school-based mentors in Norway of an online teacher professional development (OTPD) programme in mentoring. The focus was on how…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore the experiences of new school-based mentors in Norway of an online teacher professional development (OTPD) programme in mentoring. The focus was on how the OTPD programme worked out as a boundary artefact to strengthen the coherence between a university and partner schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Constant comparative analysis was used to examine 21 school-based mentors' experiences and how the programme worked out as an artefact to strengthen the coherence between the teacher and education arenas. The findings were interpreted considering the literature and OTPD and boundary-crossing theories.
Findings
The findings revealed that the OTPD programme served as a boundary artefact. By participating, the new school-based mentors felt part of a community, identifying as teacher educators. Thus, the programme mediated their understanding of their new role as a teacher educator. Two main tensions were found: first, resistance towards online collaboration with school-based mentors across schools and participants that preferred to work locally with their own colleagues and, second, different technologies at the schools and the university disrupting the participants' experiences. Overall, this study emphasised the value of a facilitator from the university supporting the participants' development in the OTPD programme.
Originality/value
This study provides an understanding of teachers' OTPD when at the boundary of becoming school-based mentors and may contribute to enhancing universities' quality of teacher education. This study also highlights the importance of stronger connections between school-based mentors and their university campuses.
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Thierry Karsenti and Simon Collin
One of the major challenges in teacher training programs is the gap between the theory that is presented to pre‐service teachers and actual classroom practice. Many researchers…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the major challenges in teacher training programs is the gap between the theory that is presented to pre‐service teachers and actual classroom practice. Many researchers, educators, and pre‐service teachers have emphasized the difficulty of linking theory and practice in teacher education programs. The purpose of this study is to better understand the impact of online teaching videos on the development of self‐efficacy beliefs in pre‐service teachers.
Design/methodology/approach
Over 400 student teachers participated in this study. Statistical analyses of questionnaires were conducted to assess the impact of online teaching videos. The results reveal that online videos did affect the self‐efficacy beliefs of pre‐service teachers.
Findings
Online videos of teaching practices appear to contribute positively to feelings of self‐efficacy in pre‐service teachers.
Practical implications
Given the importance of self‐efficacy for teachers' professional development, online videos could prove highly useful to this end. Apart from the impact of the videos themselves, self‐directed learning has the benefit of flexibility in terms of time and space, which is typical of open and distance learning in general. Furthermore, online videos can be readily adapted to individual professional development plans, according to the teacher's needs, in contrast to more formal training programs (either initial or continuing) with their relatively rigid, predetermined contents.
Originality/value
This study presents an original self‐training online video device that could easily be integrated in teacher training to support effectively their professional development.
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Opportunities for professional development in online teaching are abundant. However, when the online teacher is geographically and professionally isolated from others with an…
Abstract
Opportunities for professional development in online teaching are abundant. However, when the online teacher is geographically and professionally isolated from others with an interest in online teaching, use of insider research to identify areas of good online teaching practice, and those areas that require further development, affords an opportunity for self-directed professional development. Despite a plethora of methodological interpretations of autoethnography, autonetnography has until now remained no more than a methodological ideal. With my background as a registered nurse and teacher of health and social care, shifting from face-to-face teaching towards teaching online, I claim value in developing autonetnography as an insider researcher self-study, to inform my online teacher professional development needs. This chapter has two main aims: (1) to share my theoretical development of analytic autonetnography as an emerging e-research methodology and (2) to evaluate my experience of employing analytic autonetnography to research my recent online teaching practice. I will claim that whilst I have found analytic autonetnography methodologically beneficial to research my online teaching practice, I was also the author who laid the foundations, constructed and evaluated an analytic autonetnography model to test its value. Therefore, the relevance of my findings in the context of the value of analytic autonetnography as an emerging e-research methodology will remain open to debate until other researchers in the digitally mediated field experience, critique, challenge and enhance analytic autonetnography theoretically.
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Noa Shapira and Meital Amzalag
The current research presents findings from an innovative online Teachers Professional Development (TPD) program entitled – The Israeli Society is Meeting Online. This study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The current research presents findings from an innovative online Teachers Professional Development (TPD) program entitled – The Israeli Society is Meeting Online. This study aims to examine to what extent does online contact promote meaningful acquaintance among teachers from different cultures in Israeli society, and how did the online TPD program influence the way teachers perceive their roles in the Israeli education system.
Design/methodology/approach
This study implemented a qualitative phenomenological approach to learn about the teachers’ experiences (through the TPD program.
Findings
The findings indicate that teachers who live and study in a diverse and divided society can improve intergroup relations using online contact with teachers from other groups. This contact may lead to a significant acquaintance, which, in turn, prepares teachers as agents of change in the field of multicultural education.
Originality/value
Israeli society is diverse and divided and these divisions are reflected in the educational system, which is characterized by high degrees of prejudice, stereotyping and racism between groups. The findings highlight the educative potential of online contact in a diverse society and the importance of improving intergroup relations between teachers from different cultures prior to their attempts to promote multicultural education.
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Susan A. Yoon, Katherine Miller, Thomas Richman, Daniel Wendel, Ilana Schoenfeld, Emma Anderson, Jooeun Shim and Amin Marei
The overarching goal of the research is to understand strategies that can support utility and access to high-quality teacher professional development (PD). This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The overarching goal of the research is to understand strategies that can support utility and access to high-quality teacher professional development (PD). This study aims to examine the design and delivery of an online asynchronous course for science teachers using the edX massively online open course (MOOC) platform. The conceptual framework considers three areas of research: high-quality PD characteristics for K12 teachers, the development of social capital and known challenges in MOOC and computer-supported collaborative learning and participation.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an empirical mixed-methods study that details the design of the PD course and implementation strategies that instantiate the conceptual framework. The authors collected three data sources from 41 teachers who completed the course. These included post course satisfaction surveys, teacher semi structured interviews and discussion board contributions.
Findings
Survey findings revealed high satisfaction among teachers in the areas of overall course design, module construction and delivery and usability of materials in teaching. Interview findings showed positive perceptions of the social capital framing in developing tie quality, trust, depth of interactions and access to expertise. Analyses of discussion board contributions also demonstrated high degrees of information exchange resulting from prompts intentionally constructed to foster collaboration.
Practical implications
This study offers a set of strategies to build networked teacher PD communities in asynchronous online PD platforms and shows promising evidence of addressing quality and access issues.
Social implications
Designing experiences to build teachers’ social capital shows promising potential to support high quality PD that may, in turn, raise the quality of science education for students and classrooms both locally in the US and globally.
Originality/value
The conceptual framework provides a novel approach to theorizing and operationalizing best practices for teacher PD and online participation.
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Natalia Ward, Jennifer Lubke and Anne McGill-Franzen
This study explored the impact of integrating digital tools on professional preparation in literacy, specifically an online digital video portal for teachers’ self-observation of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explored the impact of integrating digital tools on professional preparation in literacy, specifically an online digital video portal for teachers’ self-observation of instructional practice.
Methodology/approach
As a design experiment (Bradley & Reinking, 2011), a graduate-level Reading Education course was revisioned for blended learning to accommodate the professional development of practicing teachers in a rural, remote context. This chapter focuses on understanding how teachers experience video as a platform for reflection on and improvement of practice, with implications for those who seek to incorporate digital video into literacy professional development.
Findings
Through video analysis mediated by the use of a self-evaluation guide and a collaborative, online community, teacher-learners reflected on their own and their peers’ pedagogy and language interactions with students. After overcoming initial struggle with watching themselves on the video, the close analysis of clips became a powerful catalyst for professional growth. Teachers’ reflections shifted from outward-directed to inner-directed.
Practical implications
To successfully integrate video analysis in Reading Education practicums and professional development for in-service teachers, consideration should be given to technical as well as pedagogical components. Purposefully building in various scaffolds, for example, technical tutorials, prompts to focus video analysis, and safe platforms for sharing and collaboration, proved to be beneficial for teacher-learners in our courses.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of community of practice in sustaining teachers' participation in a blended (face‐to‐face and online) professional development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of community of practice in sustaining teachers' participation in a blended (face‐to‐face and online) professional development course.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal multiple‐case study methodology was used in researching groups of five teachers in Australia and four teachers in the UK. The two groups independently participated in an initial face‐to‐face training day and then completed the professional development course via an online learning environment (Blackboard). The course was designed to facilitate community of practice cohesion. Data collection included surveys, data mining of online activity, discussion forums and e‐mails, and semi‐structured interviews.
Findings
The paper finds that the participants of both case studies demonstrated sustained engagement for more than twice the minimum requirement. While the Australian case study was sustained through a community‐defined regime of participation, the UK case study increasingly relied on the course facilitator to broker both practices and a community rhythm by which they could participate. Sustained participation in the Australian case study was supported by mutuality as seen in reciprocity of interaction and social engagement.
Originality/value
Transformative professional development is dependent on a number of design principles, including that it needs to be sustained over time. The literature reveals that neither face‐to‐face nor online professional development, per se, sustains engagement. This research demonstrates that teacher participation can be sustained by designing for community of practice cohesion, in a blended mode of delivery with small groups of participants.
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Global focus on reforming teachers has resulted in the inclusion of multiple survey questions about teachers’ professional learning activities in large-scale international…
Abstract
Global focus on reforming teachers has resulted in the inclusion of multiple survey questions about teachers’ professional learning activities in large-scale international studies. A cross-national analysis of these survey data will likely enhance our understanding and inform the future direction regarding teacher professional development policy and practice. Yet we do not know whether these surveys measure the key features and their contextual factors of teachers’ professional learning activities to allow a systematic cross-national analysis. Based on international and U.S. literature, I develop a conceptual model of teachers’ professional learning activities in global context and analyze relevant survey items used in three major international studies – TIMSS, PIRLS, and TALIS. I conclude the chapter with a discussion of the coverage of these survey items and a direction for improving data collections of teachers’ professional learning activities in large-scale international studies.
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Yumiko Murai and Hiroyuki Muramatsu
While it is particularly important that professional programs help teachers become members of a community of practice, especially in crisis situations such as the COVID-19…
Abstract
Purpose
While it is particularly important that professional programs help teachers become members of a community of practice, especially in crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a lack of research about strategies to effectively encourage the development of a community of practice and to support teachers’ transformation of their way of teaching. Thus, this paper aims to report on lessons learned from a blended professional development (PD) program for elementary and middle school teachers in Japan focused on computer programming education. In particular, the authors explored how application of the creative learning principles in the blended teacher PD may have helped to nurture a community of practice among teachers in Japan, and how the creative learning principles may be a valuable framework for designing online or blended teacher PD to support teachers’ transition into emergency remote education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on the lessons learned from two iterations of blended teacher PD situated within a larger design-based research project on applying creative learning pedagogy in teacher PD. Creative learning is a learning approach focused on engagement in personally meaningful projects by tinkering with materials and learning from peers. A total of 26 teachers and coaches participated, all of whom work in elementary or middle schools across Nagano prefecture in Japan. Participant experiences were evaluated based on a pre-survey and a post-survey conducted before and after the in-person kick-off camp; observation notes taken; a final report submitted by each teacher; a debrief meeting at the end of the program; and semi-structured interviews with three selected participants after the program concluded. For this paper, the authors focus on two participants who fully and actively engaged in the program, and they introduce their stories to highlight the outcomes from the PD.
Findings
The results highlight how a blended PD designed to support creative learning of teachers provided teachers with opportunities to gain help from other teachers and cultivate their expertise. The results also illustrated that how a community of practice emerged from the PD program, providing teachers with moral support when they tried new lesson designs. This paper offers several recommendations for designing professional learning experiences for instructional designers and professional developers that incorporate remote learning technologies.
Originality/value
While an increased number of studies have shown the values of online and blended communities of practice for teacher PD, there are still limited insights on different strategies to support teachers in transforming their teaching practices. They generally do not provide teachers with opportunities to continue learning with and from one another beyond the program itself. This study examined the teachers’ experiences in a unique PD that implemented a creative learning approach into a blended learning environment for teachers.
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This article aims to describe and discuss four major innovations to improve the quality of teacher education including preparation programs and professional development programs…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to describe and discuss four major innovations to improve the quality of teacher education including preparation programs and professional development programs in recent years in China. The four major innovations include establishing the National Curriculum Standards for Teacher Education (NCSTE) and the National Teacher Certification Examination; implementing the “double development plan” to reform clinical practice; launching the “National Training Plan” to develop in‐service teachers; and consolidating the career ladder for teachers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of a review of the government documents and current literature.
Findings
The author argues that the four major innovations reflect the central trends to reform teacher education both in China and the USA – increased standards and accreditation, more clinical experiences in preparation, increased use of technology in teacher professional development, and more accountability and incentive for teachers.
Originality/value
When the world is faced with the globalized economy, cultural exchange and social equity issues, discussions about the recent innovations of China's teacher education will shed light on our understanding of better approaches to improve teacher quality that no doubt connect tradition and local practices with global convergence.
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