Immersion,Reflection, Failure: Teaching Graduate Students to Teach Writing Online

ABSTRACT

A common challenge facing those who prepare graduate students to teach writing online is the need to help those students connect online writing instruction (OWI) theory with their classroom practice. The authors present how graduate students are prepared to teach writing online at three universities and then synthesize those approaches to highlight three principles that can guide effective OWI preparation for graduate students in any program: immersion, reflection, and failure.     

Online professional development for environmental educators: strategies to foster critical thinking and social interactions

Abstract

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer opportunities for professional development of environmental educators globally, yet we lack understanding of participants? cognitive and social learning processes and of how instructors can enhance these processes. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, we used a survey and coded participant discussion board and Facebook posts to examine the cognitive, social, and teaching presence in the Environmental Education: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Addressing Wicked Problems MOOC, offered by Cornell University. Rather than train educators in a specific curriculum, the goal of the MOOC is to expand educators? critical and transdisciplinary thinking about the field of environmental education and to enhance social interactions to support learning, educators, and knowledge co-creation. Results indicate that cognitive presence is higher on the discussion board whereas social presence is higher on Facebook. Over half of cognitive posts focused on exploration, a lower level of learning, whereas just less than a fifth reflected higher level integration, suggesting room for enhancing cognitive learning. Our results suggest strategies to encourage higher levels of thinking and more meaningful social interactions to foster learning, educator support, and co-creation of knowledge, thereby improving online professional development.     

A Comparison of Professional Development Models for Teachers of Primary Mathematics and Science

The authors have been involved in two substantial Australian teacher professional development projects, with the Mathematical Association of Victoria and with the Science Teachers’ Association of Victoria, which focused, respectively, on a whole‐school professional development and an extended workshop programme. The research described in this paper explores the experiences of participants in these two programmes, in order to identify the advantages and limitations of each type of professional development model in supporting teacher development, and the different needs of teachers in relation to mathematics and science. The findings from a questionnaire, supported by participant interviews, show a range of differences in experience and outcomes due to programme style and subject area. These are used to suggest a developmental framework for conceptualizing teacher professional development needs.