Virtual Learning and Real Communities

2011 ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Mackey
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Contextual Learning ◽  
Online Professional Development ◽  
School Communities ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
Practice Framework ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

Blended learning is examined via the experiences of teachers participating in qualification-bearing online professional development courses while simultaneously engaging in everyday professional practice in the classroom. A “communities of practice” framework guides the interpretation of teachers’ perspectives of their membership, identity, activities and experiences in the online and school communities. While online courses tend to emphasise participation as a vital component of socially constructed learning in the virtual environment, the evidence from this study suggests that online courses can also promote the contextual learning opportunities which exist in the everyday experiences of teachers in their local communities of practice.

Engaging Teachers in Science Practices and Discourse Through Online Professional Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 413-435
Author(s):  
Mary V. Mawn ◽  
Kathleen S. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Online Professional Development ◽  
Science Practices ◽  
Time Distance ◽  
Elementary And Middle School

Online professional development courses and programs provide science teachers with ongoing and relevant professional development opportunities that overcome time, distance, and budget pressures. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, this chapter presents a case study of elementary and middle school teachers enrolled in two online courses in chemistry and science education. Based on this work, three themes emerged: the ability to incorporate inquiry-based teaching and learning in online environments, the importance of online discourse and reflection, and the role of linking theory with practice. Specifically, teacher participants reported increased experience exploring content via inquiry, felt actively engaged with their peers as they constructed their knowledge, and expected to adapt inquiry-based activities in their classrooms as a result of these online courses.

Case Studies from the Inquiry Learning Forum

2010 ◽  
pp. 42-59
Author(s):  
Rebecca Scheckler
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Inquiry Learning ◽  
Online Professional Development ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Online Tool ◽  
Development Tool ◽  
Electronic Tool

Two intense case studies were done of teachers using the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), an online space for professional development in inquiry pedagogies. Major findings included: The ILF initially conceived as an online professional development tool in the form of a Community of Practice (COP) was reconceived as an electronic tool within a larger space that included the online tool but also many co-present spaces pertinent to a teacher’s practice of inquiry pedagogy. These case studies also demonstrated the transformative nature of teachers engaging in a COP. Not only is the teacher changed but also the COP is changed by the practice. The cases demonstrated the need for teachers to feel disequilibrium in their practice before they are willing to engage in change of those practices. Lastly immersion in practice described as The Pedagogy of Poverty hampered one teacher’s progress in the ILF. These findings are based upon my empirical observations with the backdrop of John Dewey’s Theory of Inquiry and of Etienne Wenger’s concept of communities of Practice. Future trends in using online COPs for professional development need to look at practice in these terms where allowance for transaction, support outside the electronic space, and disequilibrium are considered.

Bringing the Everyday into the Culture/ Creativity Discourse

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Ettlinger
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Alternative Conceptualization

This article critiques and offers an alternative conceptualization of ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’ using an actor-based and relational epistemology. ‘Culture’ and ‘creativity’ have been socially constructed in scale-specific terms that overlook everyday practices that can diverge from dominant patterns and suggest hopeful possibilities, which ironically are lost in many Left-leaning narratives. Hopeful possibilities are traceable analytically to circuits of material and discursive value, which are inextricably related but can entail different trajectories across scales. Tracing these trajectories requires analytical attention to microscale activity, that is, to individual actors’ material practices, which produce mutable, discursive and material value at multiple scales.

Apprenticeship and empowerment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Gaunt
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Creative Performance ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Collaborative Process ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
One To One ◽  
Classical Musicians

This chapter considers ways in which pathways to creative performance are supported through one-to-one lessons between a student and a specialist teacher. One-to-one interactions are generally considered central to the development of western classical musicians and traditionally have been conceived in terms of apprenticeship. More recently, however, understanding of the socially constructed nature of learning, including the essential parts played by peer interactions and engagement in communities of practice, has increased. In addition, the importance of collaboration in facilitating and channelling creativity in many fields has become apparent. Taken together, these suggest a need to develop a multifaceted and more nuanced conceptual framework for understanding one-to-one lessons and their relationship to performance. The chapter explores relevant research literature alongside perspectives provided by expert performer–teachers, and it concludes by setting out a provisional model for understanding both the collaborative process between student and teacher in one-to-one lessons and the potential for this context to underpin transformative processes of development for performers.

scholarly journals Interconnecting networks of practice for professional learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Mackey ◽  
Terry Evans
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Networked Learning ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Online Pedagogies ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Networks Of Practice

The article explores the complementary connections between communities of practice and the ways in which individuals orchestrate their engagement with others to further their professional learning. It does so by reporting on part of a research project conducted in New Zealand on teachers’ online professional learning in a university graduate diploma program on ICT education. Evolving from social constructivist pedagogy for online professional development, the research describes how teachers create their own networks of practice as they blend online and offline interactions with fellow learners and workplace colleagues. Teachers’ perspectives of their professional learning activities challenge the way universities design formal online learning communities and highlight the potential for networked learning in the zones and intersections between professional practice and study. The article extends the concepts of Lave and Wenger’s (1991) communities of practice social theory of learning by considering the role participants play in determining their engagement and connections in and across boundaries between online learning communities and professional practice. It provides insights into the applicability of connectivist concepts for developing online pedagogies to promote socially networked learning and emphasising the role of the learner in defining their learning pathways.

scholarly journals Pronouns, Address Forms and Politeness Strategies in Odia

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46
Author(s):  
Kalyanamalini SAHOO
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Address Forms ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Linguistic Usage

This study discusses how various politeness strategies are implemented linguistically and how linguistic usage is related to social and contextual factors in the Indic language Odia. The study extends the validity of politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1978) with reference to Odia speech-patterns and shows that Odia usage of politeness would be more differentiated according to the social relationship and gender than the content of the message.  In Brown and Levinson’s model, individual speech acts are considered to be inherently polite or impolite.  However, in Odia, it is found that communities of practice, rather than individuals, determine whether speech acts are considered polite or impolite. Thus, politeness should be considered as a set of strategies or practices set by particular groups or communities of practice as a socially constructed norm for themselves.

scholarly journals Teacher Demoralization, Disempowerment and School Administration

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwok Kuen Tsang ◽  
Dian Liu
Keyword(s):  
School Administration ◽  
Working Condition ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Labor Process ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Social Causes

Teacher demoralization is a concept describing the negative emotional experiences affecting teachers’ well-being and quality of teaching. However, since the dominant discourse about teacher demoralization is influenced by psychological perspectives, especially the theory of burnout, most of effort to promote teachers’ well-being and quality of teaching reply on psychological approaches. Nevertheless, teacher demoralization is more socially constructed other than psychologically constructed. Thus, this study aims to identify the potential social causes instead of psychological roots of teacher demoralization. Using in-depth interview data, the study illustrates that school administration may, from teachers’ perspectives, structurally demoralize teachers by disempowering teachers to control over labor process of teaching and to appreciate the instructional values of work and working condition. Thus, school reformers are recommended to empower teachers to exercise control over labor process of teaching and to appreciate the instructional values of their work and working conditions.

Eating to become ‘good’ citizens: exploring the visceral biopolitics of eating in Singapore

2021 ◽  
pp. 147447402110650
Author(s):  
Siew Ying Shee
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Body ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Consumer Agency ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
A Site ◽  
Self Formation ◽  
Embodied Agency

This paper develops a more-than-representational approach to consumer agency in food biopolitics that is sensitive to people’s everyday eating experiences. In recent years, studies of food biopolitics have engaged with questions of agency by examining how socially constructed ideas of ‘good’ eating and citizenship are engaged on the ground. Yet, there remain opportunities to depart from the evaluative mind as a dominant site of ethical self-formation, and engage with the body as a site of political action and agency. In this paper, I argue that people’s sense of citizen selves has long been, and continue to be, organised across the interplay of material, discursive, and visceral spaces of eating. I develop this argument by drawing on a critical analysis of historical and contemporary news forums related to public eating in Singapore. For many consumers, their disdain for certain food—ranging from the erstwhile state-vaunted meal plans to leftover food on public dining tables—express an embodied agency in negotiating the technocratic designs of citizenship. In developing a visceral biopolitics of eating, this paper aims to expand understandings of consumers’ capacity in negotiating the ethical tensions between hegemonic imaginings of ‘good’ citizens and the everyday pleasures of eating. Approaching consumer agency this way orientates critical yet oft-overlooked attention to the body’s capacity to act, and possibly effect change, within the broader workings of dietary bio-power.

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