Teacher development

Definition

• Teacher development means continous teacher training (both formal and informal).

• According to Andy diSessa et al. [1]: " One often talks about teacher development in conjunction with pedagogical innovation and change management. E.g. Reflecting upon and revising one's teaching is a difficult endeavor to say the least. The endeavor includes cultural and individual constraints. Culturally, teachers are embedded in a community with various group norms and mechanisms which influence what they do in the classroom. Beyond these constraints, changing one's instructional practice can be a difficult instance of conceptual change at an individual level. We would expect that changing one's view of classroom instruction (e.g., becoming a guide on the side rather than a sage on a stage) to be similar to children changing their scientific ideas about the physical world. "

See also: Change management

Designs

Communities of practice

Theory argues that teacher development is improved when teachers as learners constitute a community of practice, i.e. form a group that joinly develops better practices.

E.g. According to Foley & Chang (2006) [2]: "Effective teacher preparation should help teachers improve their knowledge of their subjects, their understanding of students thinking and of different instructional practices. A key component of many successful teacher preparation programs is the development of a community of teacher-learners (Borko, 2004). Several projects have used technology as a way to support communities of teachers (Barab et al, 2001; Renninger & Shumar, 2002; Schlager, Fusco, & Schank, 2002)."

See also: community of practice

Technologies for Teacher development

According to diSessa et al. [3] "The goals of using technology for teacher development can include: (a) introducing teachers to the materials to be used in a design experiment, (b) learn about conceptual frameworks for instruction and learning, (c) engage in reflection about their own practice, or (d) develop materials which can be useful to other teachers wanting to use a particular innovation or reform their teaching method."

Collaboration tools

(e.g. for community building)

• Wikis, e.g. Foley and Change (2006)
• MOOs, e.g. Schlager et al.
• Forums, Mailing lists or any other sort of asynchronous communication tool.

Cognitive tools

• Curricula Planners
• Concept Maps

See also: Cognitive tools and Visualization

Observation tools

Gather what happens in the classroom

Misc

• all the sorts of technology used in teaching ...  ;)

References

• Bartlett, L. (1990). Teacher development through reflective teaching. In Richards, J.C. & D. Nunan (eds.), Second language teacher education (pp. 202-214), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Brian Foley & Tae Chang, Wiki as a professional development tool, California State University, Northridge [4]. Interesting reading for those who plan to use a MediaWiki

• Barab, S. A., Makinster, J. G., Moore, J. A., Cunningham, D. J., & the ILF Design Team (2001) Designing and Building an On-ling Community: The struggle to support sociability in the Inquiry Learning Forum, in Educational Technology, Research & Develeopment, 49 (4)

• diSessa et al. Field Guide to Design Experiments in Education, University of California at Berkeley, [5] 15:33, 12 April 2006 (MEST).

• Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W. (2002) Community Building with and for Teachers at the Math Forum, in Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W.(eds.) Building Virtual Communities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

• Schlager, M. S., Fusco, J. & Schank, P. (2002) Evolution of an Online Education Community of Practice, in Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W.(eds.) Building Virtual Communities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

• Schlager, M., Fusco, J. & Schank, P (2002). Evolution of an on-line education community of practice. In K. A. Renninger and W. Shumar (Eds.), Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace. NY: Cambridge University Press, 129-158. [[6]]

• Schlager, M., & Fusco, J. (2004). Teacher professional development, technology, and communities of practice: Are we putting the cart before the horse? In S. Barab, R. Kling, & J. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [[7]]