Online Learning Communities and Teacher Professional Development: Methods for Improved Education Delivery | Date: 28 April 2011, 06:49
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Online Learning Communities and Teacher Professional Development: Methods for Improved Education Delivery (Premier Reference Source)
By J. Ola Lindberg, Anders D. Olofsson
* Publisher: Information Science Reference
* Number Of Pages: 354
* Publication Date: 2009-08-17
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1605667803
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781605667805
Product Description:
In todays society, the professional development of teachers is urgent due to the constant change in working conditions and the impact that information and communication technologies have in teaching practices.
Online Learning Communities and Teacher Professional Development: Methods for Improved Education Delivery features innovative applications and solutions useful for teachers in developing knowledge and skills for the integration of technology into everyday teaching practices. This defining collection of field research discusses how technology itself can serve as an important resource in terms of providing arenas for professional development.
Table of Contents:
Section I: Theoretical and Technological Foundations
Chapter I: Theoretical Foundations of Teachers’ Professional Development
Throughout this chapter the author argues for a close connection between teachers and teacher educators as a prerequisite for ongoing professional development in education. Possibilities to communicate through online learning communities have made reflective activities through action research between distant educational environments easier to organize and facilitate.
Chapter II: The Theory and Practice Divide in Relation to Teacher Professional Development
This chapter explores the divide between theories of effective TPD and the realities of practice within educational contexts. Two case studies, one from Australia and the other from Canada are presented to illustrate the positives and negatives inherent within professional development approaches in these contexts. A number of key dimensions are identified, which when coalesced inform the establishment and sustainability of effective programmes. Online technologies present innovative ways to overcome the impediments to effective professional development. Online communities of practice utilising social networking technologies provide new opportunities for initiating “webs of enhanced practice’ (Scott, 2009), where individuals around the globe can engage in collegial collaborations that enhance the passion of teaching.
Section II: Methods and Models of Online Communities in TPD
Chapter III: Case Studies from the Inquiry Learning Forum: Stories Reaching Beyond the Edges
Two intense case studies were done of teachers using the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), an online space for professional development in inquiry pedagogies. Major findings included: The ILF initially conceived as an online professional development tool in the form of a Community of Practice (COP) was reconceived as an electronic tool within a larger space that included the online tool but also many co-present spaces pertinent to a teacher’s practice of inquiry pedagogy. These case studies also demonstrated the transformative nature of teachers engaging in a COP. Not only is the teacher changed but also the COP is changed by the practice. The cases demonstrated the need for teachers to feel disequilibrium in their practice before they are willing to engage in change of those practices. Lastly immersion in practice described as The Pedagogy of Poverty hampered one teacher’s progress in the ILF. These findings are based upon my empirical observations with the backdrop of John Dewey’s Theory of Inquiry and of Etienne Wenger’s concept of communities of Practice. Future trends in using online COPs for professional development need to look at practice in these terms where allowance for transaction, support outside the electronic space, and disequilibrium are considered.
Chapter IV: Changing the Metaphor: The Potential of Online Communities in Teacher Professional Development
This chapter will map data from a doctoral study to a recently-developed model of professional development to offer a new perspective of how online communities can add to a teacher’s personal and professional growth and, in so doing, add to the small number of studies in this field. This chapter will conclude with a call for a revision of the way we approach professional development in the 21st century and suggest that old models and metaphors are hindering the adoption of more effective means of professional development for teachers.
Chapter V: Teacher Professional Development Practices: The Case of the Haringey Transformation Teachers Programme
The authors present the current contexts affecting professional development in England and discuss the significance of the shift towards collaborative and community approaches to teachers’ learning. The authors argue that transformation is a key, though troublesome, concept in considering the aims of professional development for teachers’ use of technologies in their everyday practice. They explore these ideas by presenting the case of the Transformation Teachers Programme (TTP), a wide-scale teachers’ development project carried out in a London borough by Haringey City Learning Centre (CLC), and they examine how this project has implemented new approaches to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and teachers’ professional development, based on collaborative experimentation, enquiry and risk-taking within online and other community-based arrangements.
Chapter VI: Realising the Potential of Virtual Environments: A Challenge for Scottish Teachers
The chapter uses current research literature on teacher professionalism and professional learning in Scotland to establish the context in which Scottish teachers are currently working. It then draws on three vignettes drawn from research within AERS to argue that the development of virtual environments to support professional learning in Scotland requires further, significant collaborative working between the practitioner, policy and research communities.
Chapter VII: Challenges of Online Teacher Professional Development Communities: A Statewide Case Study in the United States
This chapter presents examples of success and challenges associated with a large-scale U.S. statewide online teacher professional development community. It also makes the case for implementing a systematic approach to investigating the effectiveness of online teacher professional development communities through ongoing assessment and responsive evaluation.
Chapter VIII: Teacher Professional Development through Knowledge Management in Educational Organisations
This chapter analyses the relationships between professional development, organisational development and the creation and management of collective knowledge. These three concepts can be interrelated and contribute to change when we place ourselves within the framework of autonomous organisations with collective projects focused on lifelong learning.
It also outlines the Accelera experience of knowledge creation and management in communities, describing the model and process used. This article examines some of the findings and future prospects of the methodology presented.
Chapter IX: Thinking Things Through: Collaborative Online Professional Development
One of the most powerful ways of changing our thinking about how we teach and learn is to experience for ourselves the power of collaborative project-based experiential learning. Few teachers have had the opportunity to learn in this way, and this creates barriers for those who want to change their pedagogy. The Oracle Education Foundation’s Project Learning Institute provides teachers with the experience of collaborative project-based learning, using ThinkQuest? to create their own curriculum project. By collaborating with their peers, tutors and mentors, te
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