TPACK In Situ: A Design-Based Approach Supporting Professional Development in Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1186-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Pareto ◽  
Sara Willermark
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
School Context ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
Action Context ◽  
Context Specific

Technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) is a well-known conceptual framework for what knowledge teachers need in order to teach successfully using technology. Most recent TPACK studies address assessment of teacher TPACK by quantitative self-reporting surveys. Such an approach provides little guidance for teachers in how to develop their everyday teaching practice. We argue for a revival of the original TPACK design-based approach and propose a design-based, operationalization of the framework that is situated in action, context specific, and integrated in practical teaching. The approach has been developed, evaluated, and validated in a school development project in a Nordic Elementary School context using design-based research. The project engaged more than 100 professionals: in-service elementary teachers, school administrators and researchers, and more than 1,000 students during 3 years. The theoretical development evolved from rich descriptions of 38 didactic design as delimited units of teaching including planning, implementation, and evaluation of specified learning tasks acted out in practice. Contributions include framing teaching practice as design activity and a TPACK in situ model and methods targeting reflective practitioners. Our proposed approach addresses current limitations of TPACK and is aligned with advocated professional development methods.

scholarly journals Critical Factors that Enhance the Effectiveness of Online Communities of Practice: EFL Coordinators’ Patterns of Involvement - The Greek EL Teachers Cops Professional Development Paradigm

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Katerina Kourkouli
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

The paper examines Greek EFL Coordinators’ involvement in online Communities of Practice (CoPs) in terms of its impact on participating teachers’ professional development. The study focuses on four online CoPs hosting 49 Greek EFL teachers as participants and four Greek EFL Coordinators, using an online platform named 2gather developed by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in the context of a national in-service professional development project in Greece. The study involves investigating the Coordinators’ patterns of involvement and their trainees’ response using a mixed-methods approach which combines quantitative and qualitative research as collective case studies of the four groups. Differentiations between the four Coordinators’ reported patterns of involvement and teachers’ reported effectiveness of their CoP training experience enables us to identify critical factors that contribute to the enhancement of effectiveness. A comparison of the Coordinators’ and their trainees’ responses per online CoP highlights the factors that have supported teachers’ reported reconstruction of knowledge and practices and the reported effectiveness of the CoP training experience regarding their everyday teaching practice. The findings contribute to furthering our understanding of effective online CoPs implementation in the context of continuing professional development.

Critical Factors that Enhance the Effectiveness of Online Communities of Practice: EFL Coordinators’ Patterns of Involvement - The Greek EL Teachers Cops Professional Development Paradigm

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Katerina Kourkouli
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

The paper examines Greek EFL Coordinators’ involvement in online Communities of Practice (CoPs) in terms of its impact on participating teachers’ professional development. The study focuses on four online CoPs hosting 49 Greek EFL teachers as participants and four Greek EFL Coordinators, using an online platform named 2gather developed by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in the context of a national in-service professional development project in Greece. The study involves investigating the Coordinators’ patterns of involvement and their trainees’ response using a mixed-methods approach which combines quantitative and qualitative research as collective case studies of the four groups. Differentiations between the four Coordinators’ reported patterns of involvement and teachers’ reported effectiveness of their CoP training experience enables us to identify critical factors that contribute to the enhancement of effectiveness. A comparison of the Coordinators’ and their trainees’ responses per online CoP highlights the factors that have supported teachers’ reported reconstruction of knowledge and practices and the reported effectiveness of the CoP training experience regarding their everyday teaching practice. The findings contribute to furthering our understanding of effective online CoPs implementation in the context of continuing professional development.

The Influence of Professional Development on Primary Teachers' TPACK and Use of Formative Assessment

2018 ◽  
pp. 1737-1760
Author(s):  
Drew Polly ◽  
Christie Martin ◽  
Chuang Wang ◽  
Richard G. Lambert ◽  
David K. Pugalee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Primary Grades ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Assessment Skills

Formative assessment continues to be heralded as a high-leverage teaching practice that has empirical links to student achievement. This chapter describes the design and influences of a year-long professional development project focused on supporting primary grades teachers' with formative assessment skills in mathematics. The professional development was a blended format that included face-to-face workshops as well as classroom-based activities that were presented and facilitated through an online asynchronous format. Findings from the study indicated that teachers' enacted evidence of various aspects of TPACK, but there was variance in terms of how teachers implemented pedagogies. Implications for the design of professional development focused on formative assessment include the need to situate teachers' learning in their classroom, and provide ongoing multiple modes of support to help teachers enact formative assessment practices.

scholarly journals COURSERA ONLINE COURSE: A PLATFORM FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS’ MEANINGFUL AND VIBRANT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnis Silvia
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Development Program ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Learning Platform ◽  
Online Platforms

This article reports on English teachers‘ attitudes towards a professional development program run by Coursera (coursera.org). Theseteachers were participants of Foundation of Teaching for Learning 1: Introduction online course. Using a survey case study, the findings reveal that most of the participants perceive the course as a well-organized and effective platform to engage in professional learning. Coursera is an online learning platform offering various courses for teacher educators which are meaningful (closely related to their daily teaching practice) and vibrant (involves active collaboration among peer participants to review and assess their projects). Albeit this nature, another finding shows that the participants lament that their institutions do not provide professional development (PD) support. In fact, PD programs are not constrained to face-to-face encounters, since it can be designed using online platforms such as Coursera, a massive open online course (MOOC). Accordingly, the contribution of the article is to show how online platforms make meaningful and vibrant teacher professional development (TPD) possible. The implication of the study is that school administrators and policy makers should provide support for their teachers to take online PD programs. This professional learning should contribute to the best teaching practice and student learning attainment.

scholarly journals Conceptual connections between science and engineering in elementary teachers’ unit plans

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Pleasants ◽  
Kristina M. Tank ◽  
Joanne K. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Science Instruction ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Curriculum Materials ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Science Concepts ◽  
Unit Plans

Abstract Background Around the world, efforts are underway to include engineering design as part of elementary science instruction. A common rationale for those efforts is that Engineering Design-based Science Teaching (EDST) is a productive pedagogical approach for developing students’ understanding of core science concepts. Effectively utilizing EDST requires that teachers develop design activities that are highly connected to science content so that students can apply and expand their understanding of relevant concepts. In this study, we examine how a group of elementary (grades 3–5) pre-service and in-service teachers incorporated EDST into their planned science instruction. Those teachers were participants in a professional development project aimed at supporting EDST. We examine the ways that participants used EDST, the extent to which engineering design activities were connected to science concepts, and factors associated with those connections. Results Most of the participants in the study developed science units in which an engineering design activity was placed at the end of the unit. Approximately half of those design activities lacked connections to the science concepts in the unit; they were typically related to the topic of the science unit, but did not require the use or development of key science ideas. Eleven percent of participants developed engineering activities with deep connections to science concepts, and 35% developed activities with shallow connections. No differences were found between life science, physical science, and earth/space science units in terms of the extent of conceptual connections. However, we did find that participants who utilized and adapted published engineering curriculum materials rather than make them from scratch were more likely to have unit plans with higher levels of conceptual connections. Conclusions Our findings suggest that elementary teachers need additional support in order to effectively utilize EDST in their classrooms. Even within the context of a supportive professional development project, most of the engineering activities developed by our participants lacked substantial connections to the science concepts in their unit plans. Our findings highlight the value of high-quality curriculum materials to support EDST as well as the need to further expand the curriculum resources that are available to elementary teachers.

The Influence of Professional Development on Primary Teachers' TPACK and Use of Formative Assessment

2016 ◽  
pp. 382-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Polly ◽  
Christie Martin ◽  
Chuang Wang ◽  
Richard Lambert ◽  
David K. Pugalee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Primary Grades ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Assessment Skills

Formative assessment continues to be heralded as a high-leverage teaching practice that has empirical links to student achievement. This chapter describes the design and influences of a year-long professional development project focused on supporting primary grades teachers' with formative assessment skills in mathematics. The professional development was a blended format that included face-to-face workshops as well as classroom-based activities that were presented and facilitated through an online asynchronous format. Findings from the study indicated that teachers' enacted evidence of various aspects of TPACK, but there was variance in terms of how teachers implemented pedagogies. Implications for the design of professional development focused on formative assessment include the need to situate teachers' learning in their classroom, and provide ongoing multiple modes of support to help teachers enact formative assessment practices.

scholarly journals Conclusion: What We Learned and Next Steps

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 53-54
Author(s):  
Trace Haythorn
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Professional Preparation ◽  
Theoretical Development

In the previous articles, my colleagues have presented analyses of the survey data that have implications for professional preparation, practice and ongoing professional development. I will conclude this volume highlighting six areas that require further investigation, theoretical development and practical integration.

scholarly journals Implementation of a developmental model of teachers' and didacticians’ learning through inquiry: design, operationalisation and outcomes

ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 1073-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Jaworski ◽  
Despina Potari
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Mathematical Tasks ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Theory Analysis ◽  
Project Proposal ◽  
Trace Learning

AbstractThis paper addresses implementation with respect to the professional development (PD) of teachers of mathematics and the educators/didacticians who work with them, through an inquiry-based developmental model. In contrast with a PD model in which educators show, guide or instruct teachers in classroom approaches and mathematical tasks, we present a developmental model in which teachers and educators collaborate to inquire into and develop their own teaching practice. The project, Learning Communities in Mathematics (LCM: e.g., Goodchild, Fuglestad and Jaworski, 2013) exemplifies this developmental model. Here we focus on a project Teaching Better Mathematics (TBM) which extends LCM and implements its developmental model at larger scale. We trace the implementation process through analysis of data gathered during and after the extended project, including written reflections of key didacticians, minutes from leadership meetings and two versions of the project proposal. Particularly, we trace learning and development through an activity theory analysis of the issues, tensions and contradictions experienced by participation in TBM.

scholarly journals STEM Faculty Instructional Data-Use Practices: Informing Teaching Practice and Students’ Reflection on Students’ Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 291
Author(s):  
Cindy Lenhart ◽  
Jana Bouwma-Gearhart
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Technology ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Stem Faculty ◽  
Standardized Curriculum ◽  
Learning Data

This paper explores the affordances and constraints of STEM faculty members’ instructional data-use practices and how they engage students (or not) in reflection around their own learning data. We found faculty used a wide variety of instructional data-use practices. We also found several constraints that influenced their instructional data-use practices, including perceived lack of time, standardized curriculum and assessments predetermined in scope and sequence, and a perceived lack of confidence and competence in their instructional data-use practices. Novel findings include faculty descriptions of instructional technology that afforded them access to immediate and nuanced instructional data. However, faculty described limited use of instructional data that engaged students in reflecting on their own learning data. We consider implications for faculty’s instructional data-use practices on departmental and institutional policies and procedures, professional development experts, and for faculty themselves.

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