Implementation of Personalized Learning in a New Charter School

Personalized Learning (PL) is an educational approach that tailors instruction to the academic needs of each student. Most research on PL focuses on student achievement, technology, and implementation challenges. Little research has been conducted on the actual practices that teachers use to personalize instruction and on students’ and teachers’ feelings about being in a school that implements PL. I conducted a case study at a recently opened rural elementary charter school in the southern United States, which was implementing PL schoolwide. After attending a professional development workshop on PL hosted by the State Department of Education, I conducted classroom observations in a first-grade and a fifth/sixth-grade classroom. I interviewed the teachers of these classes, the school principal, and three students. Three themes emerged from my analysis of this material, relating to student engagement, teacher behaviors and dispositions, and student outcomes. Overall, I concluded that PL is not a quick or easy transition for a school to make, nor does it involve just changing the curriculum to individualize instruction for students. Personalized Learning requires an adaption of teacher and student mindsets and the development of a school culture that fosters both academic and social-emotional growth among the students.

Professional development workshop for new and aspiring educators at SIGCSE 2022

A successful career as an educator involves more than a deep understanding of a research area. Even so, many new CS educators experience relatively little training as educators - and face more questions than answers, e.g., How do I find a career path and institution that are right for me? What strategies can I use during the job search and interviewing process to achieve my goals? What tips could help me organize a course, scaffold engaging experiences, and build lasting relationships with students? What practical steps can I take to support equity, diversity, and inclusion in my work?

ENHANCING EFL TEACHERS’ TECHNOLOGICAL PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (TPACK) COMPETENCE THROUGH REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

This study examines how reflective practices can be an effective strategy in enhancing in-service teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). The participants were two English teachers in high schools in Indonesia who designed and implemented technology-integrated lessons after participating in a professional development workshop. Data collected from their reflective journals and interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings from the interviews and teacher’s reflective journal revealed three reflective practices: reflection in, on, and for action. Reflective practices helped the teachers to describe and articulate their own experiences in teaching, learn from enacted experiences in the classroom, and apply learned practices in subsequent teaching. This virtuous cycle indicates that reflective practice is an essential mechanism for EFL teachers to become proficient in integrating technology in their teaching practices.

Creating Culture Circles- A Case of Continuing Professional Development Workshop for Israeli Special Education Teachers

The focus of critical educational philosophy is not only on criticising traditional education (Banking education), but also on promoting a pedagogy for liberation, whereby education is a cultural action for freedom. The main strategy or tool of critical pedagogy is the culture circle, a dialogical problem-posing method of education. The current qualitative case study examined the use of culture circles in a continuing professional development workshop for Israeli special education teachers. Given the over-representation of culturally and economically oppressed populations in the special education system, it would be appropriate to raise the awareness of the SE teachers of this situation. Findings revealed that while developing culture circles during the workshop, most of the teachers moved from proposing hurried and shallow solutions, to offering carefully thought-out ideas for joint analysis, following an in-depth review and definition of the problem. Despite starting the process with an idealised perception of society and an over-inflated sense of self-efficacy, when group participants completed the workshop, they had acquired the ability to acknowledge and even contend with the unjust conditions and imperfections of the Special Education System. It seems that, participating in culture circles can help teachers to both understand their current realty fully and deeply and to set meaningful goals for the future.