Formal and Informal On-line Communities to Support Continuing Professional Development for Teachers

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Formal and Informal On-line Communities to
Support Continuing Professional Development for
Teachers

• Chris Daw
• Cambridge International Examinations
• Phil Riding
• Interactive Technologies in Assessment and
  Learning (ITAL) Unit

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Overview

• Who we are
• Our interest in Continuing Professional
  Development
• Technology - VLE-lite
• Formal teacher development
• Informal teacher development

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Context
University of Cambridge Local Examinations
Syndicate
ITAL
OCR
ESOL
CIE
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Continuing Professional Development

• Traditionally delivered at face to face INSET
• Some benefits of f2f
• Allows teachers to share best practice
• Encourages peer support and networking
• Some shortcomings of f2f
• Divorced from practice
• Lacking in follow up
• Expensive (time and money)
• Discriminatory

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What makes good CPD for teachers?

• It should aim to
• Be ongoing
• Be school-based and rooted in the knowledge base
  of teaching
• Be flexible and fit in with the natural rhythms
  of teaching
• Be collaborative and allow teachers to interact
  with peers
• Include opportunities for reflection and group
  enquiry into practice
• Be accessible and inclusive
• On-line Communities could be the answer

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Using technology to support effective CPD -
Communication

• Email-based discussion groups
• Asynchronous
• Push
• Text-based
• Archived
• Enables/encourages
• Real time problem solving
• Collaboration
• Making implicit knowledge explicit
• Greater/wider participation

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Online communities - software

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Using technology to support effective CPD -
Sharing

• Web-based document, URL and FAQ facility
• Distribute/Share documents (tasks, worksheets,
  etc.)
• Collect and publish Frequently Asked Questions
• Provide a one-stop site for community
• Easy to manage by tutor or listowner

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Online communities - software
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Online communities - software
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Online communities - software
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The CPD spectrum
Formal/ Institutional
Informal/ deinstitutionalised
Curriculum-based No curriculum
Structured Unstructured
Specified learning outcomes No specified learning outcomes
Time constrained Open ended
Tutored Untutored
Certificated Uncertificated
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4 types of learning community
Formal
Informal
1
3
Teacher
E-tutor
2
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1 - formal teacher development

• 6 week course
• Structured
• Assignments
• E-tivities
• Certificate of participation
• Using VLE-lite
• Migration from formal to informal communities
• 397 teachers have attended courses so far, in 19
  subjects, from over 40 countries on all
  continents

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Kazakhstan Kenya Lesotho Malta Mexico
Brazil Brunei Cameroon Cyprus
Bahrain Belgium Belize Bermuda Botswana
UK Zambia Zimbabwe
Thailand Togo UAE Uganda
Nigeria Peoples Republic of China Philippines Sing
apore
South Africa Spain Switzerland Taiwan
Ethiopia Germany India Iran Jordan
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2 - formal e-tutor training and development

• Why train the e-tutors?
• Facilitation of on-line learning and communities
  demands new skills and roles
• Not all good face-to-face tutors make good
  on-line tutors
• Therefore we needed to devise a course that
  converted good face-to-face teachers into good
  e-tutors.

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Formal E-tutor training and development - first
iteration

• A one-day face-to-face training session
• Followed by
• E-mail based discussion list

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Issues arising from the first iteration

• Participants all said that the best preparation
  was doing it - we needed to offer them more
  experience
• More focus was needed on helping e-tutors to
  promote on-line reflective discussion
• More input/discussion on virtual classroom
  management needed
• The need for us to develop our skills in creating
  and supporting a community of e-tutors
• A better method of sharing tasks, resources and
  artefacts was needed

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Iteration 2

• 100 on-line
• Guided observation on existing courses (6 weeks)
• As students, as tutors
• Facilitated discussion (2 weeks) - loose agenda
  covering the social, pedagogical, managerial and
  technical roles of an e-tutor
• We invited existing tutors to be part of
  discussion group (elders)
• Use of a website to share resources and artefacts
  arising from the communities

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Outcomes/issues

• The facilitated discussion was not a success
  (most discussion occurred during the observation
  period)
• Our structure got in the way. Better to allow
  tutors to raise issues as they arose (move to
  more informality).
• We are still learning about e-tutoring.
• E-tutor community.

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3 - informal teacher development

• UK and worldwide teacher communities
• OCR/CIE syllabus focussed
• No course
• Community-defined content
• Rolling membership
• No certification
• No tutor - everyone is a potential tutor!

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Membership (UK communities)
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Contributions
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How do teachers use the communities?

• Share resources and ideas
• Ask about the examination
• Talk about professional issues
• Advertise things and jobs
• Make contacts
• Just listen - lurking is OK! Vicarious
  learning
• Not argue, or talk about computers

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Share resources and ideas

• Can anyone help me find some interesting places
  to take a large group of psychology students
  (around 100) whilst on a day trip to London?
• I am teaching psychology for first time this
  year. I am on my own with 26 keen students and
  I' m very keen to share ideas with anyone out
  there. My plan is ),
• I am writing to let others know that I took a
  large group of AS students to the Science Museum
  just before Christmas and it was a great success.
  There is plenty to look at in the new gallery...
• During this year, my students prepared the Core
  Advanced and the following modules . I would
  like to share their experience during the
  assessments. followed by detailed analysis of
  her students and her own experiences
• I think it is a good idea to share exercises.
  The following is an example for Data Analysis,
  Standard Level I used with my class. It is very
  similar to an example from the Tutor Pack, but my
  students needed more information than what was
  provided in the example.

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Ask about the examination

• Clarification
• (New OCR teacher) I have just received practical
  investigation folders. Are there rules about
  when the students fill them in, what the content
  should be, how much help I can give etc.?
• I forgot to ask another question about business
  chart module. I would like to know what to cover
  in order to prepare them for "extracting data
  from a large set".
• Debate
• I am not convinced that this syllabus
  represents a more applied, practical, or
  inventive way in which to teach the discipline. I
  find many of the core studies are far too complex
  for a pre-A-level course, not to mention
  tedious!.
• I could not agree less with what xxx has said. I
  made the switch to OCR in 1994 and have never
  looked back. It provides a wonderful opportunity
  to be inventive in your teaching...far more than
  AEB/AQA does. Try re-enacting some of the studies
  as a starter!!

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Advertise jobs/things

• We need a Psychology teacher after Christmas. It
  could be full or part time. Needless to say we
  have a lovely department and do OCR A level only.
• Have a look at my website for more teaching
  ideas
• Here is a list of all the INSET courses that we
  are offering this term

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Make Contacts

• I teach at Bushey Meads. I did not know there was
  a fellow OCR colleague so close
• Anyone fancy getting together to thrash out a
  unit on crime psychology?
• I teach in Karachi too! How about we get together
  one weekend?

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Just listen

• Although I have never contributed to it I have
  found it to be an excellent resource and have
  very much enjoyed reading people's views,
  comments etc.
• I'm enjoying the experience of being part of the
  'net group'. One reason for not contributing
  earlier is because other people have asked
  questions I was considering.

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What are the success factors?

• Push technology
• Focus
• No compulsion to contribute
• The subject area?
• Moderation/tutoring?

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Tutor contributions
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What kinds of messages do the tutors send?
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Future research and development

• Develop the informal community of e-tutors
• Develop VLE-lite to incorporate a management
  system
• Legitimation - how to assess it (Slashdot type
  tracking?)
• Cultural issues
• To what extent do we have communities?
• Whos been learning here and whos been teaching?

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E-conference on teacher training and staff
development (EDEN/OU/UCLES sponsored)

• http//www.eden.bme.hu/contents/computerconf.html
• This presentation will be available at
• http//ital.ucles-red.cam.ac.uk/