scholarly journals Taking Away Excuses to Quit: The Role of Structural Supports in Completion and Learning within Online Professional Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rutherford-Quach ◽  
Karen Thompson ◽  
Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica ◽  
Diego Román
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Massive Online Open Course ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Variable Bias ◽  
Course Format

Online courses, particularly in the MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) format, have a mixed reputation due to their potential to democratize access to educational opportunities and their markedly low completion rates. Yet educators continue to enroll in online courses, including MOOCs, in high numbers. For teachers at under-resourced schools or of under-served populations, free online courses may be their only professional development option. It thus remains important to understand if and how online courses, in their various formats, can serve as vehicles for supporting teacher learning and whether this can happen on a large-scale. This mixed-method study examines completion and learning outcomes in a MOOC designed for teachers of English Learners (ELs). In particular, the study identifies and examines face-to-face, structural supports that were simultaneously available to some course participants and investigates whether these were significantly related to completion and learning within the course. Findings indicate that participants who received more structural supports were significantly more likely to complete the course. While participants, on average, showed evidence of learning within the course, participants receiving structural supports did not show evidence of learning more than other participants did. This is potentially due to omitted variable bias that suggests participants who completed the course without structural supports may differ from participants who completed the course with structural supports in important, unaccounted for ways. This study contributes to research on blended learning within the context of teacher professional development, suggesting that blended learning may be useful in supporting MOOC completion, particularly for certain teacher populations.

scholarly journals Facilitating Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Online Courses and Coaching

2022 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-52
Author(s):  
Trish Lopez ◽  
Janet Penner-Williams ◽  
Rebecca Carpenter de Cortina
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Culturally Responsive Teaching ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Responsive Teaching ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Teacher Professional

Teacher professional development and education programs are enhancing job-embedded experiences to address the disparity between theory and implementation. Simultaneously, higher education is now offering online courses to attract geographically distant educators, especially in high-needs fields such as teaching English Learners and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students. There is a need to investigate what online teacher professional development and education programs can do to promote teachers’ application of what they learn. This pilot study utilized the Inventory of Situationally and Culturally Responsive Teaching (ISCRT) to investigate 23 in-service teachers’ culturally responsive teaching (CRT) practices before and after receiving online coursework and coaching. When compared to the control group, treatment teachers’ scores on four of the five ISCRT standards—Joint Productive Activity, Language and Literacy Development, Challenging Activities, and Instructional Conversations—as well as the composite were statistically significant. Findings suggest online CRT coursework with complementary instructional coaching supports teachers’ implementation of new knowledge and pedagogy.

scholarly journals Designing teacher professional development programs to support a rapid shift to digital

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Heap ◽  
Ruthanne Thompson ◽  
Adam Fein
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
The Impact

AbstractFrom a design perspective, this paper offers a response to the impact, value, and application of a manuscript published by Philipsen et al. (Improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: A systematic meta-aggregative review. Educational Technology and Research Development, 67, 1145–1174. 10.1007/s11423-019-09645-8, 2019). Philipsen et al. (2019) reviewed what constitutes an effective teacher professional development program (TPD) for online and blended learning (OBL), with our response focusing on its value and application in light of an emergency shift to digital to address a global pandemic. This paper also proceeds to examine limitations in previous research into the subject and future research opportunities to investigate important components that inform the design of a resilient and scalable TPD for OBL.

Blended Learning and Professional Development in the K-12 Sector

2011 ◽  
pp. 182-202
Author(s):  
Suzanne Riverin
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Support Teacher ◽  
Education Network ◽  
K 12

This chapter examines the use of blended learning in an online community which supported teacher professional development in the province of Ontario, Canada for ten years. The online network which was called The Education Network of Ontario/ Le Réseau éducatif de l’Ontario (ENO/REO) used a blend of tools and some face-to-face opportunities to support teacher professional development across the province. Teachers were encouraged to use the ENO/REO environment to join in discussions, create and maintain online projects and share research and curriculum resources. The chapter will focus on a study which examined the effect of long term participation in such a community in order to provide insight into the use of blended learning in online communities for professional development.

scholarly journals Addressing the challenges of a new digital technologies curriculum: MOOCs as a scalable solution for teacher professional development

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Vivian ◽  
Katrina Falkner ◽  
Nickolas Falkner
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Participant Engagement ◽  
Teacher Needs ◽  
Teacher Professional

England and Australia have introduced new learning areas, teaching computer science to children from the first year of school. This is a significant milestone that also raises a number of big challenges: the preparation of teachers and the development of resources at a national scale. Curriculum change is not easy for teachers, in any context, and to ensure teachers are supported, scaled solutions are required. One educational approach that has gained traction for delivering content to large-scale audiences are massively open online courses (MOOCs); however, little is known about what constitutes effective MOOC design, particularly within professional development contexts. To prepare teachers in Australia, we decided to ride the wave of MOOCs, developing a MOOC to deliver free computing content and pedagogy to teachers with the integration of social media to support knowledge exchange and resource building. The MOOC was designed to meet teacher needs, allowing for flexibility, ad-hoc interactions, support and the open sharing of resources. In this paper, we describe the process of developing our initiative, participant engagement and experiences, so that others encountering similar changes and reforms may learn from our experience.Keywords: scaling up; MOOCs; open access; professional development; online course; computer science education(Published: 28 August 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 24691 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.24691

Written Speech

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
Pamela Moen ◽  
Kelley Walters
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Knowledge Building ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Professional Development Program ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Written Speech

Data collected within this qualitative, multiple-case study included teachers' knowledge building preferences for written speech in a virtual community of practice (VCoP), blended learning, teacher professional development program. This data was analyzed using the theoretical tenets of Vygotsky's social constructivist learning theory. Through heterogeneous sampling, six sites were selected from 11 program participating schools, with 11 participating teachers purposively selected from these sites. Following semi-structured participant interviews, data were coded and analyzed, where the findings indicated that participants preferred the audiovisual learning content to the written activity format in the blended learning, VCoP teacher professional development program. Program developers may use the research findings to guide the development of VCoP content alternatives to singularly text based online professional development delivery models. Recommendations for future research include studies that address the impact of audiovisual VCoP content on knowledge building.

scholarly journals Teacher Professional Development in Mathematics and Science: A Blended Learning Approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Sinclair ◽  
Ron Owston
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
School Level ◽  
Online Groups ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mathematics And Science

Blended learning is a promis- ing model for supporting teacher professional development that combines the advantages of tradi- tional face-to-face interaction with the flexibility of online learning. In this study, we examine the impact of two one-year blended learning programs on teachers’ attitudes, knowledge, and classroom practices. These professional development programs were designed to enhance middle school teachers’ subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills in mathematics and science/ technology. Our results indicate that the programs positively affected teacher attitudes and content knowledge in these curricular areas and motivated many teachers to transform their classroom practices. Increased teacher collaboration and involvement at the school level sug- gest that the experiences contrib- uted to the emergence of fledgling communities of practice. At the same time, the lack of cohesion in online groups and the drop off in participation suggest the need to rethink some aspects of the design of blended learning environments.

scholarly journals Teacher Professional Development Using Mobile Technologies in a Large-Scale Project

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prithvi Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
English Language ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Mp3 Players ◽  
Teacher Professional

Mobile technologies have been influencing the field of education including language learning for almost a decade. The literature on mobile technologies for education reports a number of case studies that examine various aspects of mobile learning. However, the use of mobile technologies for teacher professional development, particularly in developing economies, is rarely reported. This paper presents a case study of the English in Action (EIA) project, a UK government funded English language development project in Bangladesh, and its use of mobile technologies which not only provides teachers with the ‘trainer in the pocket’ that helps them achieve pedagogical changes in the classroom but also serves as a tool for improving their own English language competence. The paper, in particular, reports on the design and implementation of audio and video teacher professional development materials for MP3 players and mobile phones. It also highlights implications for similar projects intending to deploy mobile technologies.

Improving Young English Learners’ Language and Literacy Skills Through Teacher Professional Development: A Randomized Controlled Trial

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie M. Babinski ◽  
Steven J. Amendum ◽  
Steven E. Knotek ◽  
Marta Sánchez ◽  
Patrick Malone
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
School Year ◽  
Teacher Professional

Using a randomized controlled trial, we tested a new teacher professional development program for increasing the language and literacy skills of young Latino English learners with 45 teachers and 105 students in 12 elementary schools. School-based teams randomly assigned to the intervention received professional development focused on cultural wealth, high-impact instructional strategies, and a framework for collaboration. We observed each teacher three times during the school year and assessed students individually at the beginning and end of the school year using the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS). Using an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis, we found effects for the intervention on teachers’ implementation of high-impact instructional strategies and students’ language and literacy skills.

scholarly journals Who Participates in Content-Focused Teacher Professional Development? Evidence From a Large Scale Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Richter ◽  
Mareike Kunter ◽  
Alexandra Marx ◽  
Dirk Richter
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Quality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
High Participation ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigates the relationship between teacher quality and teachers’ engagement in professional development (PD) activities using data on 229 German secondary school mathematics teachers. We assessed different aspects of teacher quality (e.g. professional knowledge, instructional quality) using a variety of measures, including standardised tests of teachers’ content knowledge, to determine what characteristics are associated with high participation in PD. The results show that teachers with higher scores for teacher quality variables take part in more content-focused PD than teachers with lower scores for these variables. This suggests that teacher learning may be subject to a Matthew effect, whereby more proficient teachers benefit more from PD than less proficient teachers.

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