DIGITAL TEACHING PORTFOLIO
BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY IN UNIVERSITIES
A workshop on shifting the focus of professional development in universities from passive assimilation of information to active construction and sharing of knowledge.
Profesor Lim Cher Ping, PhD
Date:
11th July 2011 Time:
9:00am‐10:30am
Venue : Gerbang Minda Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Organizer : Faculty of Education University Kebangsaan Malaysia
Introduction:
This seminar discusses how digital teaching portfolios build a professional learning community in universities. The professional learning community model “flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn” (DuFour, 2004, 8); it provides academic and teaching staff with opportunities to carry out ongoing inquiries into their own and their peers’ teaching and learning practices to engage students in their learning. Such inquiries are pivotal to the effectiveness of professional development where it is informed by data‐
driven improvement efforts that include data on student learning outcomes, and formal and informal feedback from students, peers and other stakeholders (Guskey, 2002). As these inquiries involve a community of academic and teaching staff co‐developing insights about a teaching and learning innovation or addressing a teaching and learning issue, it shifts the focus of professional development in universities from passive assimilation of information to active construction and sharing of knowledge (Dede, 2000).
A professional learning community may be built by drawing upon the affordances of digital teaching portfolio for the critical reflection of one’s own teaching and learning practices (Quinlan, 2002; Wray, 2007), the ongoing dialogues and collaboration among peers about teaching and learning improvement (Groom & Maunonen‐Eskelinen, 2006; Xu, 2003), and the intellectual and scholarly discussion of teaching and learning in the Institute (FitzPatrick
& Spiller, 2010). Teaching portfolios have been used for different purposes (from being a self‐reflection tool for improving teaching and learning to being an evaluative product for personnel decisions such as promotion and teaching awards) in universities around the world.
This seminar will address how digital teaching portfolios will provide professional learning communities in universities with:
1. opportunities for reflective professional inquiry,
2. a platform for collaborative work and discussion among academic and teaching staff,
3. a strong and consistent focus on teaching and learning within the collaborative work among colleagues, and
4. a database to inquire into and evaluate the progress of student and staff learning over time.
When academic and teaching staff are engaged in a professional learning community, they are more likely to demonstrate greater confidence and commitment to transform their teaching and learning practices and willingness to explore education innovations, and develop enthusiasm for collaborative work (Lee, Zhang, & Yin, 2011). Staff commitment and enthusiasm for collective work will increase the sense of collective efficacy that is pivotal to the university’s success in improving student learning outcomes.
Biodata of Profesor Lim Cher Ping
Professor Lim has led a number of large scale research projects including the Effective Integration of ICT in Singapore Schools - Policy and Pedagogical Implications and Improving the Quality and Quantity of Teachers in the Asia- Pacific. He has published internationally in different areas of education technologies, including ICT-based learning environments in schools, teacher education and corporations.
Web: http://ied.academia.edu/CherPingLim/About
Further Information and Registration:
Rosseni Din/ Nurainshah Abdul Mutalib
Email : [email protected]; [email protected] Tel : 03‐8921‐7102
