Online Communities and Professional Teacher Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Pachler ◽  
Caroline Daly
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Mixed Mode ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Professional Teacher ◽  
Asynchronous Online Discussions ◽  
Contemporary Context

This chapter examines online communities for professional teacher learning, in the context of a mixed-mode practice-based Masters degree, the Master of Teaching. It problematises key principles for designing collaborative learning online, aimed at developing teachers’ dispositions and values, as well as critical understandings that inform professional knowledge about practice. Data from teachers’ asynchronous online discussions are analysed, and the discussion is grounded in the learning activities of course participants. The authors establish the contemporary context for developing teachers’ professional learning through the affordances of new technologies, with a view to establishing what claims can be made about the potential of online communities to provide a counter to reductive models of professional development that have dominated teachers’ learning in England and Wales in recent years.

Improving professional development relationships that support teacher learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-381
Author(s):  
Danielle Lillge
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Literacy Reform ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Need Support ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Support Teacher

Purpose Current top-down literacy reform mandates have reenergized attention to professional development (PD) outcomes. Still, questions remain about why English teachers struggle to apply their learning. Refocusing attention on understanding the complex yet critical relationship between professional development (PD) facilitators and teachers offers one explanation. Design/methodology/approach Using a telling case from an interactional ethnography, this paper illustrates how through their language-in-use teachers and facilitators can productively resolve conflicts that, if left unaddressed, can prevent teachers from acting on their professional learning. Findings A set of discursive moves – flagging, naming, soliciting and processing – provide a toolkit for surfacing and successfully resolving conflict in PD interactions. Research limitations/implications These moves offer a way of prioritizing the importance of teacher–facilitator relationships in future research aimed at addressing the longstanding conundrum of how best to support English teachers’ ongoing professional learning. Practical implications Teaching facilitators and teachers how to collaboratively address inevitable conflicts offers a needed intervention in supporting both teacher and facilitator learning. Originality/value Previous research has affirmed that facilitators, like teachers, need support for navigating the complexity of professional learning interactions. This paper offers a language for uncovering why teacher–facilitator interactions can be so challenging for teachers and facilitators as well as ways of responding productively in-the-moment. It contributes to a more capacious understanding of how these relationships shape diverse English teacher learning.

scholarly journals An activity theory approach toward teacher professional development at scale (TPD@Scale): A case study of a teacher learning center in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-538
Author(s):  
Cher Ping Lim ◽  
Juliana ◽  
Min Liang
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Learning Center ◽  
Teacher Professional

AbstractContinuous teacher professional development (TPD) ensures that teachers have the capacity to continually plan and implement quality teaching and learning that supports students in achieving their expected program/course learning outcomes. However, teachers’ access to quality TPD is a challenge due to geographical limitations, gender, special needs, marginalized communities, and the government’s policies, or lack of policies, regarding teachers. There are tensions between quality and equity, and cost implications that may hinder the scaling up of quality TPD programs. This paper adopts an activity theory approach to examine how a teacher learning center (TLC) in a regency of Indonesia enhances teachers’ access to quality TPD. The findings reveal that teachers learn in the TLC through different TPD activities. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are found to mediate the professional learning activities, learning resources, learning support, and assessments in the TLC. Furthermore, three key stakeholders—the local government, teacher working groups, and school principals—play significant roles in supporting teachers’ professional learning in the TLC.

From Basic Participation to Transformation

2014 ◽  
pp. 446-473
Author(s):  
Diana Ayling ◽  
Hazel Owen ◽  
Edward Flagg
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Community Platforms ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

In a time of great change and challenge in education, teachers have an “urgency” with regard to their professional development. Many educators are choosing to move away from traditional modes to participation in online communities of practice. The aim of this research was to verify that online communities of practice can support transformative learning and positive professional development experiences for members. Two community platforms were observed and examined in terms of online activity. In addition to the formal research methods, the researchers monitored the activity of a selection of community members, tracking their engagement and participation in the communities. The research demonstrates that rich and transformative learning and professional development can occur in online communities of practice. The authors highlight some of the values and skills required by both the community and active members. They conclude that well designed and deftly supported online communities have a bright future for professional learning and development.

The Fourth Wall of Professional Learning and Cultures of Collaboration

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2110587
Author(s):  
Hala Ghousseini ◽  
Sarah Schneider Kavanagh ◽  
Elizabeth Dutro ◽  
Elham Kazemi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
The Invisible

Recent innovations in professional development are rife with a wide array of efforts focused on teacher collaboration. In this essay, we address some of the unexamined assumptions about the nature and significance of interactions in teacher professional collaboration, drawing on the concept of the “fourth wall” from theater and film studies. The fourth wall is a term used to describe the invisible wall that separates actors from their audience. We use this metaphor to interrogate the function of the fourth wall in professional learning and argue that it reflects a culture of professional learning that, despite innovations that tout teacher collaboration, upholds isolation in teaching and teacher learning and deep embedded norms of noninterference in one another’s practice. We also attend to the possibilities for supporting teacher learning that breaching the fourth wall affords when shared enactments of practice are used as a context for teachers’ sensemaking and collaboration.

scholarly journals Commentary: If Education Is the Key to Reconciliation, How Will Professional Development Contribute to Unlocking the Process?

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Avril Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation

This text considers the urgency of teacher learning, given the recent culmination of Canada’s six-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and in light of the position taken by the TRC that, "Education holds the key to reconciliation." Beginning with a reflection on the author’s formative encounters as a practitioner, the text goes on to question how teachers will be prepared for the significant role they have been called on to play. The latter section takes into account that professional learning is emotional and cerebral, and points to the need for emotional readiness among teachers participating in reconciliation practices with students.

From Basic Participation to Transformation

2014 ◽  
pp. 47-74
Author(s):  
Diana Ayling ◽  
Hazel Owen ◽  
Edward Flagg
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Community Platforms ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

In a time of great change and challenge in education, teachers have an “urgency” with regard to their professional development. Many educators are choosing to move away from traditional modes to participation in online communities of practice. The aim of this research was to verify that online communities of practice can support transformative learning and positive professional development experiences for members. Two community platforms were observed and examined in terms of online activity. In addition to the formal research methods, the researchers monitored the activity of a selection of community members, tracking their engagement and participation in the communities. The research demonstrates that rich and transformative learning and professional development can occur in online communities of practice. The authors highlight some of the values and skills required by both the community and active members. They conclude that well designed and deftly supported online communities have a bright future for professional learning and development.

Managing and Cultivating Professional Online Learning Communities

2013 ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Anne L Scott ◽  
Helen Butler ◽  
Millie Olcay
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Tertiary Institution ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Managerial Styles ◽  
Community Based Learning ◽  
Asynchronous Online Discussions

Three cohorts of preservice teachers, about 300 altogether, studying at an Australian tertiary institution, engaged in various community-based learning activities for 70 hours over a ten-month period. During this time, they reflected on and shared their experiences with peers via asynchronous online discussions. The three lecturers linked to these cohorts reflected on their managerial styles and inspected the nature of participants’ postings for evidence of the development of professional learning communities. They found that preservice teachers in all three cohorts developed attributes of professional learning communities as they shared their experiences. Many acted as guides, mentors, and companions for each other. The tool and approaches used to guide preservice teachers’ reflections were helpful, yet suggestions are offered to extend practices in the future.

Teacher agency in a multiyear professional development collaborative

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-414
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Wagner ◽  
Marcela Ossa Parra ◽  
C. Patrick Proctor
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Classroom Teacher ◽  
Teacher Agency ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This paper aims to report on the decisions two teachers made about how to engage with a five-year school–university collaboration that used professional development (PD) to foster changes in language instruction for teachers of multilingual learners. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal case study was used to examine the experiences of two teachers to provide insights into classroom-level decisions and changes in instructional practices. Findings Changes in instructional practices occurred when teachers made active, engaged choices about their own learning and teaching in the classroom. Teacher learning did not follow a consistent trajectory of improvement and contained contradictions, and early decisions about how to engage with PD affected the pace and nature of teacher learning. Through personal decisions about how to engage with PD, teachers adopted new instructional practices to support multilingual learners. Positive changes required extended time for teachers to implement new practices successfully. Practical implications This collaboration points to a need for long-term PD partnerships that value teacher agency to produce instructional changes that support multilingual learners. Originality/value PD can play a key role in transforming literacy instruction for multilingual learners. Teacher agency, including the decisions teachers make about how to engage with professional learning opportunities and how to enact new instructional practices in the classroom, mediates the efficacy of PD initiatives. This longitudinal case study contributes to the understanding of effective PD by presenting two contrasting case studies of teacher agency and learning during long-term school–university collaboration.

An Affinity for Learning: Teacher Identity and Powerful Professional Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 526-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Noonan
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Research And Design ◽  
The Way

Drawing on interviews with a diverse sample of teachers, this study uses the frame of professional identity to interpret the heterogeneity among teachers’ perceptions of professional development. Specifically, it examines how teachers’ “anchoring beliefs” might be reflected in or refracted by their accounts of powerful professional learning. An analysis of three case studies of teacher identity and teacher learning reveals three distinct “learning affinities”: for the what (content), the who (facilitation), and the with whom (community). This learning affinity framework may better model teachers’ experiences of professional development and thus could point the way toward improved research and design.

Professional Development to Increase Teacher Capacity for the Use of New Technologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-118
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Love ◽  
Lisa A. Simpson ◽  
Andrea Golloher ◽  
Brian Gadus ◽  
Jennifer Dorwin
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Teacher Knowledge ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Referral System ◽  
Teacher Capacity ◽  
Knowledge And Skills

As technology continues to provide new instructional options in the classroom, opportunities to embed new tools in their pedagogy are critical for teachers. One avenue that could encourage teachers to adopt new technologies in their classroom is professional development. This column outlines how a comprehensive program can be implemented to build teacher capacity for implementing new tools in their classrooms. Suggestions include developing a referral system that connects teachers to necessary supports, developing ongoing trainings that build teacher knowledge and skills for using technology, and creating site-based leaders for technology use through professional development and the creation of professional learning communities.

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