scholarly journals Redesigning professional development: reconceptualising teaching using social learning technologies

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cochrane ◽  
Vickel Narayan
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Practice Model ◽  
Mobile Web ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Development Course

This article evaluates the use of a community of practice model for redesigning a lecturer professional development course investigating the impact of mobile web 2.0 technologies in higher education. The results show a significant change in lecturer conceptions of pedagogy were achieved by this approach. Drawing on our experience of two iterations of implementing the new course model we propose a mobile social media framework for enabling pedagogical transformation as part of lecturer professional development.Keywords: communities of practice; Web 2.0; pedagogy; heutagogy; teaching and learning(Published: 20 June 2013)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2013, 21: 19226 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.19226

scholarly journals Editorial -Time for an experiment

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gráìnne Conole
Keyword(s):  
Staff Development ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Small Group Teaching ◽  
Virtual University ◽  
National Initiative ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Resources

This issue of the journal contains six very different papers exploring the issues around the use of learning technologies, which reflect the growing diversity of research interests and activities in this area. Oliver, Bradley and Boyle describe a project that is concerned with the development of online courses as part of a pan-European virtual university. The issues raised by the paper are timely given the current national initiative to develop a UK euniversity. McSporran and Young consider the impact of gender issues on online learning and contend that there is evidence to suggest that women achieve better results than men and that it is the loner male that is disadvantaged by distance learning. Condron reports on a TLTP (Teaching and Learning Technology Programme) 3 project and in particular on the use of electronic resources to support dialogue in small-group teaching. Campbell, Littlejohn and Duncan also look at resources but from the perspective of encouraging the reuse of academic resources as part of an initiative to develop a Scottish electronic staff development library. Shaikh and Macaulay report on a study of the use of groupware to support collaborative learning. Finally, Davies and Denning identify six conceptual areas which they suggest are of relevance and significance for online behaviour.DOI:10.1080/0968776010090201 

scholarly journals Hastening slowly: insights about teacher development from an evaluation of courses at the WCED’s Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Meyer ◽  
Lydia Abel
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Level ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Leadership Institute ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Education Administrators ◽  
The Impact

In the area of teacher professional development, South African education administrators face the challenge of reconciling two imperatives that have entirely different implications for programme time frames and budgets. On the one hand, there is an urgent need to improve the pedagogic content knowledge of many teachers to improve the overall standard of teaching and learning in the public school system. Considering the scale and urgency of the matter, centralised course-based in-service training seems to be the only affordable alternative. On the other hand, researchers have long warned that once-off course-based training on its own has limited impact on teachers’ practice, and has to be accompanied by further professional support in the school and classroom, or be abandoned in favour of more enduring professional learning communities. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has grappled with this dilemma in the Department’s various professional development initiatives for teachers, a mainstay of which is the training offered by the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute (CTLI). This paper presents some of the data and findings from an external evaluation that ORT SA CAPE conducted in 2011–2012 of courses offered by the WCED at the CTLI. The hierarchy of INSET outcomes proposed by Harland and Kinder (1997) was applied to record changes in the practice of 18 teachers at eight schools. The progress of five of the teachers is discussed to illustrate the interplay between school-level factors and the experiences of individual teachers which influenced the impact of CTLI training on their teaching.

scholarly journals Creative Networks of Practice Using Web 2.0 Tools

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Jukka Orava ◽  
Pete Worrall
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Learning ◽  
Networks Of Practice ◽  
Learning Event

This paper examines the professional implications for teachers and managers in new and evolving forms of professional development using Web 2.0 tools in a European context. Research findings are presented from the “Creative Use of Media” learning event developed through a European eTwinning Learning Lab initiative in spring of 2009. The Creative use of the Media online learning event supported a series of initiatives celebrating the European Year of Creativity and Innovation and involved 135 participants from 27 countries. The key objective was to introduce a range of learning themes constructed around a phenomenon-based inquiry model, which supported interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative online learning methodologies to stimulate new teaching and learning rationales. Digital Web 2.0 technology was used as an independent creative medium and as a powerful facilitating tool to enhance and blend with the more traditional forms of visual, audiovisual and multimedia inquiry. In developing models encapsulating risk taking and experimentation this online learning project supported a general principle that future education models and professional development would be based on social learning and “customer-driven collaborative knowledge building” in relation to open source materials.

scholarly journals Developing Faculty Communities of Practice to Expand the Use of Effective Pedagogical Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hoyert ◽  
Cynthia O'Dell
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
First Year ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Techniques ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Faculty Group

The scholarship of teaching and learning literature is replete with examples of pedagogical techniques that have been demonstrated to be effective in improving learning, motivation, and student success. The extension of these techniques beyond the original context has tended to be slow, difficult, and incomplete. The following paper examines an intervention designed to encourage the exploration and use of a variety of pedagogical techniques by faculty in a traditional, four-year college faculty within the context of the AASCU Re-imagining the First Year Initiative. Small groups of six to eight faculty, joined and created communities of practice. The groups were known as Pedagogical Interest Groups, or PIGs for short. The faculty read about and analyzed a series of pedagogical techniques and committed to introducing at least one technique into their courses to further explore the techniques. When the techniques were successful, the faculty members redesigned entire classes to expand the impact. The communities of practice were successful in encouraging faculty to explore a wide variety of techniques. The average faculty group explored eight different pedagogical techniques. Faculty were able to use the opportunity to experiment with techniques with the support from their colleagues in their PIG. A dozen techniques were explored across the PIGs and dozens of class sections have been completely redesigned. To date, over 2000 students have experienced redesigned courses. Measures of student success, satisfaction, and interest in those sections have increased. The effort has been accompanied by a robust increase in the campus-wide retention rates. ​

Implementing Web 2.0 tools in organisations

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin James Baxter
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Work Place ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Web 2.0 Technologies ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organisational Factors ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This special issue aims to increase the awareness of the organisational factors that enterprises must reflect on and address when introducing Web 2.0 technologies into their organisations. In contrast to empirical studies that review the impact of Web 2.0 technologies in organisations in terms of how they might support knowledge sharing or communities of practice, this special issue intends to identify the salient criteria that management practitioners must address to assist in the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in the work place. Design/methodology/approach – This special issue aims to increase the awareness of the organisational factors that enterprises must reflect on and address when introducing Web 2.0 technologies into their organisations. In contrast to empirical studies that review the impact of Web 2.0 technologies in organisations in terms of how they might support knowledge sharing or communities of practice, this special issue intends to identify the salient criteria that management practitioners must address to assist in the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in the work place. Findings – One of the principal findings that have emerged from this special issue is that it indicates the importance of reviewing social and cultural factors in organisations when introducing Web 2.0 technologies in the work place. In addition to assessing technical issues that might impact on the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in organisations this special issue also explores subject matters such as the dilemma of whether a top-down or a bottom-up approach is more effective towards engaging staff in the adoption of Web 2.0 tools at work. Originality/value – The research presented in this special issue provides an important academic contribution towards an area that is, at present, under researched namely, whether there is a structured approach that can be universally applied by organisations when internally implementing Web 2.0 technologies into their work place.

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