Session Information
06 SES 10, Teacher's Perspective on Technology-Enhanced Learning
Paper Session
Contribution
This research investigated how effectively student teachers engaged in reflective practices within on-line discussion forums, and the potential of these forums to encourage professional socialisation.
The participants in this study were a cohort of post-graduate students at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, (http://www.nuim.ie/academic/education) who were studying a full-time one-year course, the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), with the aim of becoming qualified teachers in post-primary schools.
This study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods within a case study approach and utilised on-line questionnaires, focus group discussions, semi-formal interviews and an examination of the messages posted in the tutorial on-line forums using the analytic methods of interpretative phenomenology, discourse analysis and grounded theory.
This project referenced a number of methods used in other studies to identify, measure and categorise the reflective activities of the student teachers in the on-line forums. The result of this work has led to a modified approach that identified additional categories to more appropriately identify and measure the student teachers’ reflective practices. The outcome of identifying these new reflective categories could offer the on-line tutor an alternative focus for their on-line teaching of reflection and their encouragement and development of the students’ reflective activities.
In addition, this research study identified how the student teachers’ experience and socialisation within the on-line discussion forums helped them to develop their thoughts, values, attitudes and beliefs about the profession they hoped to join and so develped and supported their professional socialisation.
The findings from this research highlight implications for the use of on-line forums as a pedagogic tool in developing reflective and professional socialisation practices and a number of recommendations are presented. This is followed by some suggestions and directions for future research.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Austin, R. and Anderson, J. (2008) e-Schooling Global messages from a small island, Routledge, London and New York. Galvez-Martin, M., Bowman, C., & Morrison, M. (1998) ‘An exploratory study of the level of reflection attained by preservice teachers’, Mid-Western Educational Researcher, 11(2), 9-18. Glaser, B. and Straus, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Chicago: Aldane. Gunawardena, C., Lowe, C. and Anderson, T. (1997) ‘Analysis of a Global On-line Debate and the Development of an Interaction Analysis Model for Examining Social Construction of Knowledge in Computer Conferencing’, Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17(4), 397-431. Weedman, J. (1999) ‘Conversation and community: The potential of electronic conferences for creating intellectual proximity in distributed learning environments’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(10), 907-928. Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
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