Is Presence of Community of Practice Dimensions Sufficient for Community-Based Teacher Professional Development?

2014 ◽  
pp. 1816-1830
Author(s):  
Puvaneswary Murugaiah ◽  
Thang Siew Ming ◽  
Hazita Azman ◽  
Radha Nambiar
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice ◽  
And Control

Professional development programmes that include teacher collaboration can help teachers meet their professional needs and control their professional lives. They can voice their needs and expectations to peers who share similar experiences. Moreover, teachers can discover new teaching roles and opportunities, develop new skills and find motivation in being a member of a group (Burbank & Kauchak, 2003; Hawkes, 2000). With the affordances provided by Web technologies, the potentiality of online communities of practice (CoPs) as a means of improving teacher professional development has become a reality and is gaining popularity. The Online Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (e-CPDelT) project aimed to develop three online CoPs; that is, English, Mathematics and Science communities among twenty Malaysian Smart school teachers. This paper examined the key CoP dimensions, as expounded in Wenger's (1998) framework, and investigated whether their presence is sufficient for successful CoP among teachers in the English cohort. The findings revealed that although the key CoP dimensions were present, there were several factors inhibiting their participation in the community-based cohort. It can be implied that it is crucial to consider these factors in developing teacher online CoPs in Malaysia.

Is Presence of Community of Practice Dimensions Sufficient for Community-Based Teacher Professional Development?

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puvaneswary Murugaiah ◽  
Thang Siew Ming ◽  
Hazita Azman ◽  
Radha Nambiar
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice ◽  
And Control

Professional development programmes that include teacher collaboration can help teachers meet their professional needs and control their professional lives. They can voice their needs and expectations to peers who share similar experiences. Moreover, teachers can discover new teaching roles and opportunities, develop new skills and find motivation in being a member of a group (Burbank & Kauchak, 2003; Hawkes, 2000). With the affordances provided by Web technologies, the potentiality of online communities of practice (CoPs) as a means of improving teacher professional development has become a reality and is gaining popularity. The Online Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (e-CPDelT) project aimed to develop three online CoPs; that is, English, Mathematics and Science communities among twenty Malaysian Smart school teachers. This paper examined the key CoP dimensions, as expounded in Wenger’s (1998) framework, and investigated whether their presence is sufficient for successful CoP among teachers in the English cohort. The findings revealed that although the key CoP dimensions were present, there were several factors inhibiting their participation in the community-based cohort. It can be implied that it is crucial to consider these factors in developing teacher online CoPs in Malaysia.

Use of Community of Practice Dimensions in Community-Based Teacher Professional Development

2016 ◽  
pp. 92-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puvaneswary Murugaiah ◽  
Siew Ming Thang ◽  
Hazita Azman ◽  
Radha Nambiar
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Mathematics And Science

The role of communities of practice (CoPs) in teacher professional development (TPD) is increasingly recognized. CoPs help teachers in a cohort to reflect on their practices, develop new skills and find motivation through mutual collaboration. With the affordances provided by Web technologies, the potentiality of online CoPs as a means of improving (TPD) has become a reality and is gaining popularity as the flexibility provided help teachers improve their instructional practices. The Online Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (e-CPDelT) project aimed to develop three online CoPs; that is, English, Mathematics and Science communities among twenty Malaysian Smart school teachers. This paper examined the key CoP dimensions, as expounded in Wenger's (1998) framework, and investigated their use in the English cohort's TPD. The findings revealed that although key CoP dimensions were present, several factors inhibited teachers' participation in the community. It can be implied that it is crucial to consider these factors in developing online CoPs for teachers in Malaysia.

Use of Community of Practice Dimensions in Community-Based Teacher Professional Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 668-686
Author(s):  
Puvaneswary Murugaiah ◽  
Siew Ming Thang ◽  
Hazita Azman ◽  
Radha Nambiar
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Mathematics And Science

The role of communities of practice (CoPs) in teacher professional development (TPD) is increasingly recognized. CoPs help teachers in a cohort to reflect on their practices, develop new skills and find motivation through mutual collaboration. With the affordances provided by Web technologies, the potentiality of online CoPs as a means of improving (TPD) has become a reality and is gaining popularity as the flexibility provided help teachers improve their instructional practices. The Online Continuing Professional Development for Teachers (e-CPDelT) project aimed to develop three online CoPs; that is, English, Mathematics and Science communities among twenty Malaysian Smart school teachers. This paper examined the key CoP dimensions, as expounded in Wenger's (1998) framework, and investigated their use in the English cohort's TPD. The findings revealed that although key CoP dimensions were present, several factors inhibited teachers' participation in the community. It can be implied that it is crucial to consider these factors in developing online CoPs for teachers in Malaysia.

Teacher Professional Development Practices

2010 ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Pachler ◽  
Caroline Daly ◽  
Anne Turvey
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Communications Technology ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Teachers Professional Development

This chapter discusses the need for new models of teachers’ professional development in the context of established and emerging technologies and socio-constructivist theories of teacher learning within online and other communities. 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.

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.

Systemic Constraints Facing Teacher Professional Development in a Middle-Income Country: Indonesia’s Experience Over Four Decades

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shintia Revina ◽  
Rezanti Putri Pramana ◽  
Rizki Fillaili ◽  
Daniel Suryadarma
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Quality ◽  
Education System ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
System Level ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Teacher Professional

Despite government efforts to reform teacher professional development (TPD) in the past four decades, Indonesian teacher quality remains low. Why have the improvement efforts failed? In the present study we investigate what caused these reforms to fail from two angles. First, we examine the efficacy of the latest teacher professional development (TPD) initiative in Indonesia, Pengembangan Keprofesian Berkelanjutan or PKB (Continuing Professional Development), and identify the factors affecting its efficacy. We found that some essential features of effective TPD are missing in PKB. The PKB programme has not targeted teachers based on years of experience, has not followed up teachers with post-training activities, has not incorporated teaching practice through lesson enactment, and has not built upon teacher existing practice. Second, our analysis demonstrates that PKB's weaknesses have existed in Indonesia's previous TPD initiatives as far back as four decades ago. This indicates that the long-term problem of TPD’s ineffectiveness is driven by different elements of the education system beyond the TPD’s technical and operational aspects. Our system-level analysis points out that merely improving the technical aspects of TPD would be insufficient given the Indonesian education system’s lack of coherence surrounding teacher quality. The problems surrounding the provision of effective TPD is more complex than simply a matter of replacing the “old” with the “new” initiative. The change requires a reorientation of the education system to produce high-quality teachers.

Visiting Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK)

2018 ◽  
pp. 1091-1102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien Yu ◽  
Dana Pomykal Franz
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Professional Development For Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Quality Professional Development

The TPACK framework has been widely discussed for effective technology integration, and the literature has also indicated TPACK has significant implications for teacher education and professional development. The purpose of this chapter is to examine interconnectedness of TPACK and teacher professional development. This chapter reviews the research on TPACK and the extensive literature on quality professional development for teachers. In addition, the chapter highlights how various content areas have addressed pedagogical content knowledge and implications for practice in technology and teacher development. The chapter seeks to contribute knowledge about the structure of professional development initiatives that involve instructional technology and integration into various content knowledge disciplines.

Curriculum Innovation in Language Teacher Education: Reflections on the PGDELT Program’s Contributions to EFL Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-450
Author(s):  
Lawrence Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Postgraduate Diploma

Abstract Initial teacher preparation and teachers’ continuing professional development are two significant pillars of the teacher education enterprise. The former encompasses a wide range of teacher-education initiatives at the levels of diploma, bachelor’s degree, postgraduate diploma, and even master’s degree for teacher licensure purposes. These are widely documented in the literature. What is important is how teacher professional development contributes to bolstering the teacher-educator force, which is relatively insufficiently documented due to the very fact that different educational systems have somewhat different expectations of such programs in relation to the ideologies and theories underpinning the teacher professional development program design and curriculum offering. Taking stock of a postgraduate diploma program in English language teaching (PGDELT) for teachers’ continuing professional development with a 31-year history housed at a premier teacher education institution in Singapore, which has successfully graduated over 1, 000 English language teachers for colleges and universities in China, I intend to highlight some of its key features, as a former student and then a lecturer on the program, in order to draw implications for sustainable growth of language teacher education programs, especially those whose main purposes are to prepare teachers of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) and provide continuing professional development opportunities for such inservice teachers.

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