Research Article
Tufan Adiguzel, Mehmet Haldun Kaya, Mehmet Akin Bulut, Sinem Emine Mete, Yesim Nalkesen-Akin
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 2, Article No: ep417
ABSTRACT
For K-12 teachers to improve effective teaching skills, cognitive presence (CP) integration into teaching and learning process is of utmost value. CP strategy training can serve as a facilitating component in supporting K-12 teachers’ instructional capacity. This study presents findings of a teacher professional development training aiming CP strategy implementation at K-12 level. Following a mixed-method methodology, the present research was carried out with 53 teachers from four different campuses and grade levels, who were guided to implement CP strategies in their teaching context. The data sources were CP-integrated lesson plans, trainers’ feedback on these lesson plans, teacher responses on a questionnaire. The data collection methods were utilizing an end-of-the-training questionnaire directed to teachers, lesson plan evaluation through a CP rubric, content analysis of trainer feedback on lesson plans and revised lesson plans. Results unveiled that this professional development training designed and implemented for K-12 teachers led to significantly positive changes in teachers’ CP strategy integration into lesson plans regardless of levels, subjects or topics. This study could also provide important contributions to designing teacher professional development training for researchers, practitioners and teacher trainers, particularly in CP dimension.
Keywords: cognitive presence, professional development, K-12, learning community, practical inquiry model
Research Article
Yiyun Fan, Kathlyn Elliott
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 3, Article No: ep373
ABSTRACT
Educators have increasingly turned to social media for their instructional, social, and emotional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to see where support and professional development would be needed and how the educational community interacted online, we sought to use existing Twitter data to examine potential educators’ networking and discourse patterns. Specifically, this mixed-methods study explores how educators used Twitter as a platform to seek and share resources and support during the transition to remote teaching around the start of massive school closures due to the pandemic. Based on a public COVID-19 Twitter chatter database, tweets from late March to early April 2020 were searched using educational keywords and analyzed using social network analysis and thematic analysis. Social network analysis findings indicate that the support networks for educators on Twitter were sparse and consisted of mainly small, exclusive communities. The networks featured one-on-one interactions during the early pandemic, highlighting that there were few large conversations that most educators were part of but rather many small ones. Thematic analysis findings further suggest that both informational and nurturant support were relatively equally present on Twitter among educators, particularly pedagogical content knowledge and gratitude. This study adds to an understanding of the educational networks as a means of professional and personal support. Additionally, findings present the discourse featured in educator networks at the onset of an educational emergency (i.e., COVID-19) as decentralized as well as desiring pedagogical content knowledge and emotional sharing.
Keywords: data science applications in education, emergency online learning, Twitter, teacher professional development, social network analysis
Research Article
Xuan Zhou, Yolanda Padron, Hersh Waxman
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article No: ep328
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in professional development (PD) opportunities afforded to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers based on years of teaching experience related to foreign language teaching. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in seven primary schools with 60 primary EFL teachers in a middle-sized urban school district in China. Descriptive statistics and multiple Chi-square tests were used in the study. The results indicated that more experienced primary EFL teachers had the least technological pedagogical knowledge, which is contrary to the traditional concept that more experienced teachers have better teaching knowledge. The study suggests the need to support EFL teachers in China with technology-based PD training including teachers with varied years of teaching experience, in order to enhance their instructional skills.
Keywords: EFL, TPACK, education technology, professional development, teacher training
Research Article
Eirini Tzovla, Katerina Kedraka, Thanassis Karalis, Marina Kougiourouki, Konstantinos Lavidas
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: ep324
ABSTRACT
Teachers’ Professional Development Massive Open Online Courses (TPD-MOOCs) are a new form of MOOCs and have influenced an intense research interest. This study reports on the design and implementation of a TPD-MOOC which utilizes digital educational content and Open Educational Recourses (OER) and supports in-service elementary school teachers to enhance their self-efficacy beliefs. In the design framework we take into consideration the findings of previous research and the educational needs of the participants. We conducted an experimental design research and compared the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs before and after their participation in a TPD-MOOC. A total of 251 teachers enrolled in this course and 142 of them completed it. We used quantitative data to measure the enhancement of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and the effectiveness of the course. The results provide evidence that our TPD-MOOC improved in service elementary school teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in teaching biological concepts. Recommendations are made for future research.
Keywords: teacher professional development, MOOC, self-efficacy beliefs, elementary education, improving classroom teaching
Research Article
Mehmet Haldun Kaya, Tufan Adiguzel
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: ep323
ABSTRACT
For technology integration to achieve intended instructional objectives, professional development is of paramount importance for in-service instructors. Technology enhanced reflection providing multimodality and evidence-based data has the potential of helping instructors achieve technology integration in their teaching. Thus, this study addressed the lack of professional development programs for in-service English language instructors aiming at technology integration through evidence-based multimodal reflective practices. By following the developmental research methodology, an instrumental case study was conducted using mixed-methods design including both qualitative and quantitative data. The professional training was carried out with eight English language instructors at tertiary level who aimed to integrate technology into their English classes by being involved in evidence-based multimodal reflective practice. In this study, there were five different data sources (instructors’ opinions, recorded lessons, video annotations, face-to-face interaction notes and pages in the learning management system) and seven data collection tools (interviews, tutor reflection template, self-reflection template, peer-reflection template, technology integration questionnaire, online discussion forums and evaluation criteria form). As a result, this professional training particularly designed and implemented for the in-service English language instructors at tertiary level did make a change in their both technology integration and evidence-based multimodal reflective practice. Apart from the change in the instructors’ technology integration, this study had an impact on their understanding, practice and quality of reflective practice involving evidence-based multimodal reflection tools as it helped the instructors to increase depth in their evidence-based multimodal reflective practice.
Keywords: technology integration, reflection, professional development, teacher training
Research Article
Trang Phan, Mary Paul, Meina Zhu
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep307
ABSTRACT
This study portrays profile uses of technology in the classroom by faculty at a school of education at a university in Central California (N = 47). First, it describes their professional uses of certain technology on a frequency scale. Second, it reports the effects of faculty’s teaching philosophy and perceptions of instructional technology (IT) in their teaching practice with regards to use of technology. This study employed quantitative data analysis. The findings indicate that faculty’s teaching goals and perception of the learning environment play an important role in determining their uses of technology. Third, it reveals faculty’s motivation and challenges to use certain technological tools in their teaching. Specifically, the participants reported high levels of motivation for using various new technologies, minimal challenges to IT use in their classroom and their actual uses of such technology being unknown. Given the faculty’s high motivation (or absence of barriers) of using various innovative technology, one of the suggestions for future professional development programs is to offer training which moves beyond understanding how to use technology, and addresses the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching with technology.
Keywords: technological practice, perceptions, teaching philosophy, instructional technology, professional development
Research Article
Joseph Njiku, Védaste Mutarutinya, Jean François Maniraho
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article No: ep297
ABSTRACT
Developing teachers’ competencies in technology integration has recently been one of the areas of attention in teacher training. This paper presents an investigation of the development of mathematics teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through collaborative lesson design activities. The study employed a pre and post-test for non-equivalent groups quasi-experiment with three groups. Participants were secondary school mathematics teachers from Dar es Salaam -Tanzania who responded to a TPACK questionnaire before and after the intervention. Group 1 participated in collaborative lesson design teams to integrate technology and implemented the designed lesson in the classroom. Group 2 participated in lesson planning and implementation and group 3 operated conventionally. Using paired sample t-test, although all groups appear to have improved their TPACK significantly, the effect size was large for group 1 and group 2 only. When the comparison between groups and across the two points of time for data collection was done using the split-plot analysis of variance, it was found that group 1 improved the most in TPACK. These finding favoured the use of collaborative lesson designs in school-based teacher design teams. The study recommends that professional development needs to be authentic by involving teachers in routine professional activities, optimizing their peer teams to support each other within the real school contexts.
Keywords: collaborative activities, lesson design, TPACK, mathematics education, professional development
Research Article
Julia S. Fuller, Kara M. Dawson
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 8, Issue 4, pp. 370-389
ABSTRACT
In this article we share how a district-level technology integration specialist used literature on implementing student response systems (SRS) for formative assessment, based on Desimone’s (2009) core features of professional development design, Guskey’s Levels of Professional Development Evaluation (1998, 2000, 2002), and Danielson’s Observation Cycle (2007), to support 12 middle school teachers in using SRS in their classrooms. The work reported here provides an example of incorporating literature-based best practices to support teachers in effectively using technology in the classroom. The findings of this study indicate that the teachers learned to use the SRS technology and associated strategies to collect formative data and appropriately adjust instruction to meet learners’ needs. This work has implications for SRS in K-12 classrooms, technology integration professional development, and for preservice teacher education.
Keywords: Student response systems, Professional development
Research Article
Arwa Ahmad Abdo Qasem, Gandla Viswanathappa
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 7, Issue 3, pp. 264-276
ABSTRACT
A theoretical framework has emerged recently to guide research in the teachers’ use of ICT and it is the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Early research indicates that Blended learning is increasingly being adopted at all levels of educational system. It is considered as a way to foster engaging in interactive learning experiences. The purpose of this article was to determine the levels of ICT knowledge on e-course design through blended learning approach among science teachers of secondary schools in Yemen. The study was conducted on the sample of 60 science teacher trainees in Ibb city. The ICT knowledge scale was used based on TPACK. To analyze the data t-test was used. The findings in this study indicated that TPACK has provided a valuable tool for assessing teacher knowledge in the area of technology integration, the teachers’ ICT knowledge was above average in two groups, and there is significant difference between experimental and control groups on ICT knowledge scale. Recommendations are made for future research on online collaboration activities to raise awareness of factors related to online group work and to determine the in-service training needs of teachers on ICT use to follow-up support and to ensure successful utilization of new technologies.
Keywords: Blended learning, Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), Professional development, ICT integration, In-service teachers