5.5.1 Implementation
A teacher acknowledged that even if online learning has many benefits, teacher training “cannot be only online” (P33). There should be different forms of professional development programmes for teachers as they may need different approaches to professional development at different stages of their career.
Another point raised by the participant was how to integrate the practical side in online teacher training courses. In online teacher-training programmes there is no class visit from the tutor in a real school context. Teachers would have all the resources considered necessary in traditional teacher training together with those in online teacher training if the two modes of training could be combined. The participant is thus proposing a blended system for teacher training.
“Practical side as it is important, you get only online.” He also added that what is done in PGCE courses must be integrated into online courses, that is:
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“include the practical part also, I think a teacher for example needs also to get what is done in PGCE courses, where there is how do you call it. Where the tutor comes and explains a little, and can show a video tape also (micro teaching).” (P31)
A teacher pointed out that even though there were no practical sessions and class visits, the online course was one of the best. It does not depend only on whether there were practical sessions or class visits for the training programmes to be effective. Teachers’
experiences with the training programmes and their expectations regarding the course are important factors that need to be considered.
“Because, it is among the best course although there was no class visit session … in the past eight years, it was one of the best courses I followed.” (P34)
Thus, the way online teacher training is implemented is very important. We must not replicate what we have in face-to-face programmes in OPD. As teachers’ PD must be more practical oriented. But in spite of being free, formal as well as informal OPD need to be recognised.
5.5.2 Formal and informal learning
Study participants stressed the point that their learning must be recognised, whether formal or informal. Recognition of their learning experiences would boost them to participate more in teacher professional development courses. The recognition could be in the form of promotion or salary increase as they have invested their money. They added that the investment is for the benefit of their students and, eventually, the school. They are not refunded as school is not considered as a profit-making business. But if schools were profit- making businesses which contribute to HRDC, the employees would have been refunded whenever they go for professional development courses. This is the case for other sectors which are registered with the HRDC which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research: the employees are refunded up to 50% of the sum invested in professional development programmes.
Teachers must be valued, supported and treated as professionals. Therefore, as teachers are not refunded and do not get a salary increase after the completion of professional development courses, they prefer to do other activities which are remunerated, like private tuition after working hours, rather than attend professional development courses. But
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teachers share their ideas whenever they can, like when having a coffee or during an exchange in the corridor or in the staffroom. These discussions are more fruitful for them than in training sessions which are not the best place for meaningful collaboration.
“Is it recognised? Is there anything at the end … that is will I get a certificate or a salary increase? Possibility of promotion where you can see you are evolving [progressing].”
(P34)
“In the educational system there is not enough praise and encouragement for teachers apart from their personal desire to follow professional development courses. Teachers expect to get recognised after the completion of a professional development course
…Yes because you are investing but for whom, for the school, for your students, government, but the parastatal body does not recognise this, you understand … There must be sustainable government actions to change teacher education policies. That is find ways to encourage teachers to undergo professional development activities.” (P33)
“Must get at least Rs5000 when you have to follow a course/training for your professional development as teacher” (P31)
“How much increase will you get on your salary?” (P35)
When teachers decide to engage in PD programmes, the main question they ask before, is whether it is recognised with a salary increased. But to have a possibility to be recognised, the OPD programmes must be well-structured.
5.5.3 Course structure
Part-time training courses are the only major way for teachers to keep up-to-date.
These courses can be once-off workshops or certification courses which extend over years.
The workshops sometimes are delivered during working hours or during school holidays, while the awarding courses are offered after school hours. Teachers have to travel to the institution to attend the course. These external constraints such as travelling time reduce teachers’ academic productivity in courses. Therefore, alternative ways of learning must be implemented to facilitate access to professional development courses. But these courses must be user friendly. One participant claimed that online courses are not well-structured and not user friendly. It is difficult to move around the web pages to get the required resources. Another participant agreed with this argument that online courses are not
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structured. The web page must be structured in such a way to prevent the waste of time in searching and identifying the task itself. If more energy is wasted in identifying the task, the user will be discouraged. The course is not well-structured.
“Online courses are not structured sometimes.” (P32)
“Yes that’s true.” (P33)
However, one participant maintained that it depends on the institution, as where she is registered as student, the course is well-structured. Also there is a good relationship between the student and the tutor. Therefore, there must a common standard for all institutions offering online courses. The user has to feel comfortable in any learning environment in whichever institution he or she is registered.
“I am already doing a course online, and I think that it depends with which institution you are doing the course, if an institution is very professional the course structure will be well defined and user friendly” (P25)
The teachers felt treated as their own students when they went to training courses.
The issue, here, is who trained the trainers. Some of the trainers were former teachers. They just do whatever they were doing in their classes. Teachers are “same as the students.” (P33) As teachers are afraid of the unknown, the courses need to be structured in a way where less effort is needed to complete the activities. Such system must look like the common apps that teachers are actually using.
5.5.4 Unfamiliarity
A participant acknowledged that teachers are afraid of the unknown. Most teachers are not used to online learning as they have always evolved in the traditional learning environment. Teachers with many years of experience tend to find it tough to find their way in an online environment. They must first learn how to download or upload materials, or even search on the web. The user needs to acquire the basic concepts of the internet conventions as this may cause a refractive attitude towards online learning.
“Exactly I always go towards what I know, rarely towards what I do not know, towards unknown. The unknown frightens me … the users must know the ‘code’ while using
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internet … for example how to download materials or upload assignment on the internet.” (P21)
As technology has been imported to the local context, it has to be adapted. The internet was mainly used for entertainment and for searching for information only.
Educational institutions have not taken advantage of such devices from the beginning. On the contrary, educational institutions have limited the use of internet in the educational field as it was seen as a leisure tool and teachers were afraid of being replaced. Furthermore, no education was provided at the national level to sensitise people about the benefits of using such a device in teaching and learning since the beginning. It seemed to be the reason why teachers are not using the internet, especially the social media, for educational purposes, but mostly as a leisure tool. When using social media as a leisure tool, people learn from their peers; for example, people can ask their peers how to upload or download photos from Facebook. But, when it came to the use of the internet for learning, people found it more difficult to learn from their peers.
5.5.5 Human contact
The participants argued that human contact is very important in education as, without it, some aspects of the learning environment will be erased. But the rapid growth of ICT has greatly influenced the way we live, communicate, do business, socialise, work and learn.
People use local area networks and wide area networks, for example the internet, to access large amounts of information. Physical human contact is no longer mandatory. In online learning, human contact has changed form: webcam can be used or as in augmented reality you can have the hologram. This new form of contact is emerging in the educational sector.
“I think in education human contact is very important and online will erase certain aspects, how would I say, it will erase the propitious learning environment.” (P14) Another participant in focus group three argued that even if there was no human contact in the course, she loved it because it was very rich. It can be concluded that human contact is not a barrier while learning online, as the user enjoys what is obtained as experiences and resources. In online learning it is more about digital presence than physical contact.
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“I saw it so rich ... although it was for a short duration, I really I loved the online course.
There was no physical contact but I still enjoyed it.” (P34)
In comparison to face-to-face PD delivery, OPD has removed the human aspect which one participant in focus group one saw as being important in education. But another participant in focus group three, has pointed that she has loved the online course. When using technology for a long period of time, people can have health problems such as repetitive strain injury.
5.5.6 Health problems
One of the participants stressed the point that she cannot stare at the computer screen for too long. His/her eyes become painful, which is one of the health problems related to computer usage. A computer user can have different health problems while using this tool for long periods of time. These health problems can be back pain, eye strain and repetitive strain injury. There are some precautions that must be observed while using ICT tools, for example, taking regular breaks, which should be included as guidelines in the online courses
“I prefer hardcopy as I have eyes problem, I cannot concentrate on the screen for too long. When I stare at the screen for more than one hour, my eyes become painful in the long run.” (P24)
Even with the advance in technology, there are still some people who prefer hard copy, which they are used to. Besides, the health problems which OPD can cause, another disadvantage of OPD is that the learner needs self-discipline which is a crucial factor.
5.5.7 Self-discipline
Teachers will have to be self-disciplined when they register for any online professional development course. Self-discipline is a sine qua non when enrolling for an online course, according to the participants. As online learning is a self-directed leaning approach, the user must be adequately informed about the implications since this is an emerging way of learning. The users must learn how to balance learning time and leisure time.
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“And also discipline, self-discipline, if you do not have this, you cannot do a course online. It is impossible. You must have a good discipline, and you need to have a time to work.” (P14)
Another participant explained her bad experiences with online learning. She did a module for her Bachelor degree online. She was alone in the online learning environment.
Sometimes she did not know what to do and when to do what. She never saw her lecturer.
The institutions must ensure that the students are ready enough to engage in online courses.
“I did a class like this at the university. I never saw my teacher. Although we had examinations, I never saw the corrected versions of the questions we had done as assignment.” (P25)
The participants claimed that teachers tend to isolate themselves due to social influences, as they are afraid of being judged by their colleagues. They do not come forward to share what is happening in their class. They fear the comments of their peers. Online learning must cater for this type of learners. One way to cater for shy teachers is to provide the possibility of being anonymous, as teachers can express themselves anonymously in an online learning environment. This can provide a space for teachers to really describe what happens in their classes. Their peers can suggest solutions to their problems.
“When it becomes talk of town [gossip].” (P11)
“This is true, gossip can lead to an issue. Even if these teachers have offers for professional development, they prefer not to go forward maybe ....when you are online
… maybe also, the fact that … we don't consider the fact that many teachers don't describe what happens in the class, for fear of being judged, not being understood.”
(P13)
The learner needs self-discipline which is an important element while engaging in online professional development. The learner needs to find a balance between the learning and leisure activities. The learner must be honest enough to submit only their own work.
5.5.8 Authenticity of teachers’ work
A participant acknowledged the fact that students in an online learning environment can easily cheat. They can copy/paste their friends’ work or even ask their friends to do the
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work for them. The participant claimed that in online courses it is difficult to ensure the authenticity of students’ work, for example, a student can upload assignments which can be someone else’s assignment and not the registered person’s. This will discourage people from enrolling in online courses. But if all institutions that offer online courses apply the same rules, people will be more willing to register in online courses. One of these rule could be if any plagiarism is detected in any student’s work, the student fails the module and cannot submit any task with the same topics; even though the plagiarised part has been removed.
“But there is no guarantee that the work that I sent is mine. I can ask my cousin or friends to do this assignment for me, or I know someone who has done this assignment before, I ask for a copy, I change the name.” (P21)
The participant stressed the point that the institutions must be able to verify the students’ identity as there is a lack of control in the current online courses provided by these institutions. To increase the trustworthiness of teachers, a webcam can be used to compare the picture of the user with what is stored in the database during registration. Plagiarism software should also be used to detect the authenticity of the submitted work. This could be another security issue added to the existing ones. The user must be given a username and a password. Therefore, the online learning system will become more credible, thus increasing the enrolment rate.
I send the work, who can verify whether it is really mine. At the end, I get my certification.” (P21)
One of the major challenges of online teacher-training programmes is how to verify the authenticity of the work submitted. It is difficult to know whether it was the same person who have submitted the work. One way to reduce such risk, is to review the structure of TPD curriculum.
5.5.9 Curriculum constraint
Teachers are now restricted by the curriculum; therefore, there is no time to devote to the affective domain of the students. The educational system is creating consumers of curriculum. Thinking that they are doing their best, different governments during the past few years have tried to reform our education system. The government has now introduced
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what the researcher considers “constraints” in our educational system, for example, quality assurance, which is a good thing on its own, but how it is applied in education is very important. As teachers are more and more accountable now they tend to do what is in the curriculum only and also finish it in the given time independent of whether the students have grasped the concepts or not. Hence, teachers do not have the time to create a conducive environment for the learners to learn.
“Therefore management will ask you why students have not worked, why the class has not worked, you have to explain.” (21)
“Mostly in Mauritius, it can be just cognitive aspect, mostly cognitive thing, mental, intellectual aspect that is favoured but the emotional aspect, psychological aspect of the learner is not being taken into consideration.” (P23)
The reform is towards the holistic development of the child, but its implementation is restricted by the curriculum which the teachers have to cover in a given period of time.
This is because the society and the system in general are more examination oriented. The resources may be available but if there is not enough time to use these resources, the resources become useless. Education cannot be holistic if the education system is guided by the curriculum. The system and the curriculum need to be reviewed so that it can cater for different learners and enable them to develop different skills. The system must emphasise morals and values as an integral part in education in all the schools to help the learners to be better persons in the society. Otherwise holistic education will remain only a wish if funds, proper infrastructure, ongoing professional development programmes and research are not available to all stakeholders engaging in the system.
“Only one way of learning, and they are expecting to help developing the capacity of the children.” (P21)
“But unfortunately we have time factor. We are limited to time factor so meaning that we have the theories but we do not have time to apply them in the classroom situation.”
(P22)
The same situation occurs in teachers’ professional development courses which have to be finished in a given time and then the teachers go through the examination process. So, teachers tend to learn only for the examination rather than acquiring strategies to improve