Conceptualising self-generating online teacher professional development

In 2012, a research project was implemented to investigate the possibility and effectiveness of instituting a personalised and virtually networked mode of professional development to promote teacher confidence and competence with information and communications technology and its use as a key component of teachers’ pedagogy. The aim of the project was to examine an online mode of professional development where a network of teachers was built without any face-to-face contact and where the approach for professional development was personalised and self-directed. Six geographically dispersed schools in Queensland were involved, with 12 teachers participating over the school year supported by a mentor. Findings reveal that teachers operated in an independent manner, acknowledging community but taking from rather than contributing to the generation of co-created knowledge. Implications drawn from the case studies suggest that greater milestone-setting, multiple levels of leadership and special interest groups are required to support interaction between users and content while still maintaining an agile approach.     

Towards a constructivist perspective: An intervention study of mathematics teacher development

A constructivist perspective provided the basis for a four stage intervention with teachers. The intervention which combined intensive summer courses with ongoing support in the classroom was designed to stimulate teachers' development of a constructivist view of learning to serve as a basis for their instructional decision-making. Impact of the intervention was studied through analysis of teachers' writings and the use of an interview-based instrument developed by the researchers. The results indicated that this intervention had an important effect on teachers' beliefs about learning which in turn affected the decisions that they made in the classroom.     

Teacher voices from an online elementary mathematics community: examining perceptions of professional learning

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education - This study compares web usage data with interviews from 41 participants, who are members of an online professional development site called the Everyday...     

Building teacher capacity for implementing curricular coherence: mathematics teacher professional development tasks

Improving mathematics education in the United States has taken many forms. Our work has focused on two aspects: the content knowledge of teachers and a well-articulated coherent curriculum. Our aim was teacher “capacity building” that is enabling teachers to teach to coherent and significant mathematical curricular goals and describe the implementation in a large-scale project based at Michigan State University. We highlight the design, structure and use of mathematics teacher learning tasks that were intended to improve teachers’ capacity to teach to these goals and note how the teachers’ perceptions of the structure and sequencing of mathematics itself affect the ways they organize mathematics in their teaching and the ways they teach.     

Supporting online collaborative design for teacher professional development

ABSTRACT

This article describes a study of online collaborative design in the context of teacher professional development. Twenty-five teachers from different Spanish universities participated in the online course. The aim was to understand how to support teachers in interuniversity teams to collaborate fully online throughout the learning design process of a scenario based on their discipline integrating information and communications technology (ICT), an issue scarcely tackled in the literature. The described interpretive study, using mixed methods, explores the support of online co-design provided by a novel ICT community platform named ILDE (Integrated Learning Design Environment). Lessons drawn from the results can contribute to the improvement of online collaborative design processes in the context of teacher professional development.     

Identifying success in online teacher education and professional development

The rapid pace of technological innovation, along with the global fascination with the Internet, continue to result in a dominating call to integrate Internet technologies into higher education. As this practice has evolved in recent years, the field has learned much. However, pressing questions remain as to how online and hybrid (online and face-to-face) classes may support quality and success in professional development, teacher education, and professional schools' programs. This paper presents case study research that explores the dynamics and experience offered for a professor and learners participating in a hybrid-modeled classroom in teacher education. The conceptual discussion includes potentials and limitations to be considered in further dialogue, development, and research in this area.     

Design of online teacher professional development in a statewide Reading First professional development system

This study examined the pedagogy of three online teacher professional development (oTPD) modules. Evidence of design features oriented to the how people learn framework was the primary research objective. An analytic framework was devised to code knowledge types, levels of cognitive demand, levels of interaction, and sensory details in the learning architecture of each module. All three online modules showed a didactic pedagogy (show and tell) rather than a constructivist one (teaching for understanding). Module content emphasized declarative types of knowledge (facts and concepts), and lower levels of cognitive demand (remember and understanding). The interaction pattern of two modules was largely passive, reflecting a limited level of learner participation, control, productivity, and creativity of experience. A third module, developed after research on the other two, provided learners with more guided and self-initiated interaction. Sensory design of the modules was the most well-developed and supportive of learner engagement. The study confirmed the need for more research on design principles and strategies to support constructivist principles in oTPD modules.     

A design framework for online teacher professional development communities

This paper provides a design framework for building online teacher professional development communities for preservice and inservice teachers. The framework is based on a comprehensive literature review on the latest technology and epistemology of online community and teacher professional development, comprising four major design factors and three contextual factors. The design factors include learning goals, communication tools, participant structures, and member responsibilities; the contextual factors are culture, politics, and economics. Finally, the role of universities and implications of the design framework for teacher professional development in the new culture of learning are discussed.     

浅析专科院校中青年数学教师专业发展

由于多年的普通高校教育的积累和沉淀,数学教学观念较为陈旧。在专科院校,大部分学生缺乏良好的学习习惯和较强的逻辑思维能力。这就要求青年教师在享受学校为之创造的良好的政策环境的基础上在专业思想、专业知识、专业能力等方面不断发展和完善,即教师的专业化发展。     

Building an online community to support the professional development of casual teachers

Abstract

With the burgeoning casualisation of the higher education workforce, the precarious nature of casual teaching has become increasingly well documented. Universities are recognising that enhancing quality learning and teaching must include attention to the provision of services, support, and professional development for teachers employed on a sessional or casual basis. This paper presents a study investigating an online course for supporting and connecting dispersed and diverse casual teachers at an Australian university. The study explores the role of community and the impact of professional development for casual teachers across discipline boundaries in an institution-wide online course.     

The multimedia case as a tool for professional development: an analysis of online and face-to-face interaction among mathematics pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, mathematicians, and mathematics teacher educators

In this study, we consider the potential of multimedia cases as tools for teacher professional development. Specifically, we examined online and face-to-face discussions that occurred within groups composed of pre-service mathematics teachers, in-service mathematics teachers, mathematicians, and mathematics teacher educators. Discussions within these heterogeneous groups tended to focus on issues of classroom implementation of the tasks shown in the multimedia case. Secondary foci of discussion included task characteristics and appropriateness of tasks for engaging students in thinking about mathematical concepts and processes. Analysis of contributions to discussions across group member type revealed differences that suggest that the variety of backgrounds and experiences of group members can blend in ways that support rich and critical discussions of mathematics, teaching, and learning.     

Competing priorities in professional development: an Australian study of teacher professional development policy and practice

This paper argues that neoliberal and managerial pressures external to the teaching profession, as well as more progressive and democratic approaches internal to the profession, have simultaneously influenced professional development policy and practice in Australia. In making this case, the paper reviews the nature of the teacher professional development that is supported in federal Australian policies associated with the recently defeated Liberal/National Coalition government (1996–2007) and research into how professional development has been enacted in practice in Australia, during this government's tenure. While acknowledging the significant impact of more neoliberal and managerial approaches and how such policy emphases contribute to the continuation of traditional, systemic/employer provided workshops, the paper also provides evidence of competing, more teacher‐centred approaches.     

Supporting teacher professional development through online video case study discussions: An assemblage of preservice and inservice teachers and the case teacher

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential value of online video case discussions among preservice and inservice teachers, and the video case teacher as a tool for the professional development of teachers. Participants included a total of 26 preservice and inservice mathematics teachers and a veteran teacher who appeared on the video case. Using content analysis techniques, we provided a thematic analysis of the teacher discourse and demonstrated the exchanges between the participating teachers and video case teacher. We also assessed the overall effectiveness of our online forum set up for the professional development of teachers. Results indicated that participant teachers were able to make theory–practice connections by articulating specific frameworks that guided our study. The inclusion of the video case teacher was beneficial for the other teachers in several ways. We contend that online forum discussions of video cases in which collective engagement of preservice and inservice teachers, and the case teacher have a great potential to support teacher professional development.     

Stress on campus: An interactional perspective

Faculty stress was investigated with the use of an interactional model of stress including roles, personal characteristics, coping strategies, and environmental characteristics. A random sample of 191 faculty members and 67 student-affairs staff members completed standardized measures of stress, strain, and coping resources and open-ended questions regarding sources of stress. Significant differences were found among faculty from different academic disciplines, between genders, and across semester time periods. Major stressors included time pressures, work overload, and interpersonal relationships. Body signals and poor interpersonal relationships were primary indicators of stress, and taking specific action and exercising were frequent coping behaviors. These findings have implications for administrative policy and faculty development programs.     

Improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: a systematic meta-aggregative review

Educational technology research and development - In order to fully realise the potential of online and blended learning (OBL), teacher professional development (TPD) strategies on how to teach in...     

The role of subject-matter content in teacher preparation: an international perspective for mathematics

International comparative studies in education provide a fresh perspective on K-12 education policy by enabling countries to learn from each other’s approaches. The recently conducted Teacher Education and Development Study—Mathematics provides a worldwide lens by which to examine the role of subject-matter in the preparation of US teachers of mathematics for primary and lower secondary students. More specifically, a previous study looking at the international top-performing teacher preparation programmes identified a common set of learning experiences (topics/content) related to mathematics. This empirically derived international benchmark is used in this paper to examine the quality of the mathematics preparation of future US teachers in various university and college programmes.     

教师专业发展视野中的高师课程改革

从教师专业发展出发,高师课程应从三个方面进行改革:第一,从专业的角度出发,重视知识和技能的提高,重视学科与教育的整合;第二,从人生命的完整性出发,注重反思和探究精神的培养,注重对实践智慧的追寻;第三,从社会文化的角度出发,注重专业道德意识、专业身份认知的培养。     

Informal online communities and networks as a source of teacher professional development: A review

Informal online communities and networks offer teachers the possibility of voluntarily engaging in shared learning, reflecting about teaching practice and receiving emotional support. Bottom-up online communities and networks are an important source of professional development, although research around these social learning structures mainly consists in describing particular cases using a wide diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches. This review analyses the existing theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches, the main characteristics and practices of online communities and networks, as well as their principal repercussions in teacher professional development. A critical analysis of the emergent themes in the revised articles sheds light on eligible perspectives for further research.     

Establishing and sustaining teacher educator professional development in a self-study community of practice: Pre-tenure teacher educators developing professionally

This paper outlines the professional development of pre-tenure teacher educators through the establishment of a self-study group. Through reflecting on three significant events, a discussion is offered as to how members contributed to the self-study of teacher education practices and experienced enhancement as a community of scholars. Evidence is presented as to how pre-tenure faculty can work together to build a culture that links teaching practice to scholarship within an organizational framework for group interactions. This work contributes to research on the induction of new professors by providing a model of professional development that is self-directed, collaborative, and empowering.