2.4 Teacher professional development in the online environment
2.4.4 Barriers to online professional development
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views but also to raise questions which may help in teachers’ transformation, pedagogical support, and strategy sharing (Albers et al., 2016). The content is tailored to the specific needs and interests of teachers, as they may experience the same problems even though the context may not be the same. The solutions can be adapted to the context. Table 2.1 provides a comparison between the emerging professional development and traditional professional development.
Table 2.1: Comparison of traditional professional development and the emerging professional development for teachers
Features of traditional PD Features of the emerging PD
A “fit-in” approach A growth-driven method
Programme ownership is missing between teachers
Programmes are constructed collectively
Top-down decision making Shared decision making
Fixed and untimely delivery mode Varied and timely delivery mode
One-size-fits-all methods Custom-made techniques
Perspective ideas Inquiry-based ideas
Decontextualized programmes Context-specific programmes
Little or no follow-up Adequate support systems
Pedagogical (child-centred) instruction Andragogy (adult-centred) instruction
Lack of proper evaluation Proactive assessment
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pointed out that, besides computer skills, the facility to access to technology is a very important concern for those implementing OPD. Computer skills of teachers appear to be an important construct (Reeves & Li, 2012) for effective OPD implementation. Continuous deficiency of infrastructure and support in schools possibly will prevent teachers from benefiting from OPD. Participants may hesitate to jump into online learning if they lack the confidence in gaining the required skills to interact successfully with the new online approach (Muilenburg & Berge 2005; Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006); this concern is relevant to the implementation of OPD in other fields such as higher education and nursing (Benson 2004; Oliver & Herrington 2002). Teachers can find it difficult to navigate through complicated websites (DeTure, 2004), as there is insufficient visual cues and instantaneous feedback.
Most of the teachers are not digital natives; they have been raised and educated using the old face-to-face system and have to teach in the information age. They have to learn new ways of learning including new codes for communicating. But some teachers tend to stick to the past and are very slow to change. Furthermore, there are some unreliable PD products, as developers tend to market these products without testing due to lack of time, as demand is urgent (Borko; Whitcomb & Liston, 2009). Thus, teachers tend to lose their trust in these PD products. This leads to participants’ problems regarding self-efficacy, belief and motivation (Kao, Wu & Tsai, 2011; Yuen & Ma, 2008), resulting in the development of negative feelings towards OPD. But all PD programmes are designed with the objective of bringing constructive transformation in knowledge, skills, beliefs or behaviours (Guskey, 2002; Lauer et al., 2014). As for the Mauritian case, the technologies have to be imported from developed countries and adapted to the local context. Therefore, if teachers develop negative feelings towards these technologies, they would lose trust in these products which were intended to help teachers in their teaching. Teachers have to create learning activities including these new technologies even though little or no social media and formal training in digital has been provided (Whitehouse, Reynolds, & Caperton, 2009). Furthermore, technology is evolving faster than it can be integrated into educational materials such as textbooks.
Clary & Wandersee (2009) argued that teachers may favour applied experiences compared to experiences perceived as less practical using sophisticated technology. Some
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teachers prefer real-time classroom application courses (Hodgson, Lazarus, & Thurlow, 2011). Moreover, if too much support is being provided or the participants are not encouraged to develop their own responses as the facilitator is providing the answers, this may limit the quality of teachers’ discussions (Kale et al., 2009; Mitchem et al., 2008). Yet no conclusive evidence of how effective online training is, has been determined (Whitehouse, Breit, McCloskey, Ketelhut, & Dede, 2006). So, shifting to online learning deserves special attention.
But online learning settings claimed to increase interaction and cooperation, although Sawchuk (2009) also stated that as online learning provides the option that the participant can work alone at his or her convenient time it does not nurture collaboration among teachers.
To the contrary, enculturation and mastery professional practice like teaching requires a socially constructed understanding emerging from active interaction. Enculturation is the process by which persons learn and develop skills and knowledge to be able to participate in cultural practices, so that they can form part in the community. This process occurs mostly through experiences. Both enculturation and personal interaction are difficult to transfer in an online environment.
As Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are emerging rapidly, teacher education will also be affected. The emerging technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence can be used to enhance TPD by enabling teachers’ access to mentors, colleagues, and resources through a web-based Virtual Teaching and Learning Community (VTLC) system (Vrasidas & Glass, 2007). Through such a system, teachers can get access to interactive, self-paced, and collaborative resources. Courses offered in such a system are mostly informal, so recognition, validation and accreditation of non-formal and informal learning need to be addressed. According to Singh (2012) recognition, validation and accreditation of these two ways of learning are vital aspects in encouraging lifelong learning, as lifelong learning is more than just formal learning and training. Singh (2012, p. 8) has defined “recognition, validation and accreditation” as follows:
“Recognition is a process of granting official status to learning outcomes and/or competences, which can lead to the acknowledgement of their value in society.
Validation is the confirmation by an approved body that learning outcomes or competencies acquired by an individual have been assessed against reference points or standards through predefined assessment methodologies.
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Accreditation is a process by which an approved body, on the basis of assessment of learning outcomes and/or competences according to different purposes and methods, awards qualifications (certificates, diplomas or titles), or grants equivalences, credit units or exemptions, or issues documents such as portfolios of competences. In some cases, the term accreditation applies to the evaluation of the quality of an institution or a programme as a whole.”
Thus, the researcher concludes that as OPD is an emerging area in educational research, studies are needed to support the claim that OPD can effectively improve teacher knowledge, instructional practices, and short-range student achievement outcomes (O’Dwyer et al. 2010). The study of OPD is still in a developing stage (Badynee, 2015;
Fishman et al., 2013; Koc, Peker, & Osmanoglu, 2009; Ranieri & Pezzati, 2017; Russell et al., 2009). The gap in the literature is that there is limited research regarding the driving factors for learners to be successful in online professional development (Vu, Cao, Vu &
Cepero, 2014). Therefore, more and more research must be carried out concerning the effectiveness of OPD in the educational system and how it is related to teachers’ beliefs. As Schleicher (2012, p. 73) pointed out, teachers must become “active agents of their own professional growth”. Effective professional development must be ongoing, in-depth, actively engaging and sustainable. As teachers’ career pathways are often cyclic and recursive, a wide range of practices is needed at various levels for effective online professional development. These practices comprise collaborative learning, peer-assisted learning, teacher-researcher, teacher-as-student, independent learning, integrated approaches and learning communities. For instance, to motivate adults’ engagement in online learning, the activities must be relevant and meaningful. More importantly, it must be their choice. Therefore, we need to explore what teachers think to be available in the online professional development activities, and how they construct their beliefs about online learning and, furthermore, how to reduce the challenges that ICT tools exert on teachers (Hamalainen & Hakkinen, 2009) as these slow down OPD implementation.
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