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.

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.

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 Do Pre-service Teachers Dance with Wolves? Subject-Specific Teacher Professional Development in A Recent Biodiversity Conservation Issue

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Büssing ◽  
Maike Schleper ◽  
Susanne Menzel
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Subject Specific ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Affective Components ◽  
Affective Dimensions

Biodiversity conservation issues are adequate topics of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), as they involve ecological, economic and social aspects. But teaching about these topics often challenges teachers due to high factual complexity but also because of additional affective dimensions. As a consequence, teacher professional development in ESD should address these affective components, to better qualify and motivate teachers to integrate conservation issues into their teaching. To investigate behaviourally relevant factors, we selected the context of natural remigration and conservation of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) in Germany and surveyed 120 pre-service biology teachers (M = 23.2 years, SD = 3.3 years) about contextual factors and their motivation to teach about the issue. Participants reported more positive attitudes, higher enjoyment and an increased perceived behavioural control towards teaching the issue in future teachers when they perceived a smaller psychological distance to the issue and an overall higher motivation to protect the species. As this motivation was grounded in more fundamental personality characteristics like wildlife values and attitudes towards wolves, we discuss the central role of these traits as a basis for transformative learning processes and the necessity of a holistic and subject-specific teacher professional development in ESD.

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 Engaging High School Students in an Engineering Thermodynamics Project

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Paulino Preciado Babb ◽  
Candace Saar ◽  
Jim Brandon ◽  
Sharon Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
School Level ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Mathematics And Science

Efforts for recruiting and retaining students in engineering programs are evident in many postsecondary institutions around the world. These efforts include outreach programs at both elementary and secondary school level, as well as projects that develop capacities beyond technical content—often taught as declarative and procedural knowledge. The mandate of the Galileo Education Network Association includes the design of rich learning environments engaging K – 12 students in authentic tasks: tasks that resemble the real work of professionals such as engineers. We describe the experience of enacting a seven-session engineering project in thermodynamics with Grade Ten students. Special attention is paid to formative assessment as an essential support for students' learning along the project. The initial project resulted from the collaboration—as a means for teacher professional development—between this network association and the mathematics and science teachers in a western Canadian high school. We propose that programs for teacher professional development in mathematics and science should include a focus on tasks that resemble the work of engineering in order to design authentic, engaging learning tasks, and assessing strategies that support and enhance student learning.

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