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Online professional development (PD) can reach teachers from widespread areas. Here, we describe PD activities that are part of a project focused on integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness among earlycareer elementary teachers. Toward our objective of building a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their iSTEM teaching, we are conducting online PD institutes over four summers. These PD institutes are designed using Desimone’s five critical features of effective PD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Our institutes engage teachers in an initial synchronous online session, which is followed by independent work time to put their learning into practice. It concludes with a final synchronous online session where teachers share their asynchronous work, receive feedback, and identify the next steps in enacting their learning in the classroom. Below we describe the first year’s PD activities.
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Professional development in 140 characters? Analyzing Twitter as a professional learning platform for science teachers.
This mixed-methods observational study analyzes Advanced Placement (AP) Biology teachers’ engagement in microblogging for their professional development (PD). Data from three hashtag-based Twitter communities, #apbiochat, #apbioleaderacad, and #apbioleaderacademy (121 users; 2,253 tweets), are analyzed using methodological approaches including educational data mining, qualitative two-cycle content analysis, social network analysis, linear and logistic regression analyses, and hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicate that Twitter adheres to standards of high-quality PD and has the potential to complement more traditional PD activities. Notably, Twitter’s non-hierarchical leadership affords shared content creation and distribution. Additionally, Twitter allows for different temporal participation patterns and supports the personalization of learning experiences aligned to teachers’ needs and preferences. Furthermore, teachers frame their interactions on Twitter positively, thus, creating a supportive environment for professional learning that might reduce teachers’ perceived isolation. Therefore, policy makers and school leaders should feel empowered to encourage teachers to use microblogging complementary to other PD activities.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1221861
- PAR ID:
- 10067590
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Educational Research Association
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Online professional development (PD) can reach teachers from widespread areas. Here, we describe PD activities that are part of a project focused on integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness among early-career elementary teachers. Toward our objective of building a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their iSTEM teaching, we are conducting online PD institutes over four summers. These PD institutes are designed using Desimone’s five critical features of effective PD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Our institutes engage teachers in an initial synchronous online session, which is followed by independent work time to put their learning into practice. It concludes with a final synchronous online session where teachers share their asynchronous work, receive feedback, and identify the next steps in enacting their learning in the classroom. Below we describe the first year’s PD activities.more » « less
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Online professional development (PD) can reach teachers from widespread areas. Here, we describe PD activities that are part of a project focused on integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness among early-career elementary teachers. Toward our objective of building a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their iSTEM teaching, we are conducting online PD institutes over four summers. These PD institutes are designed using Desimone’s five critical features of effective PD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Our institutes engage teachers in an initial synchronous online session, which is followed by independent work time to put their learning into practice. It concludes with a final synchronous online session where teachers share their asynchronous work, receive feedback, and identify the next steps in enacting their learning in the classroom. Below we describe the first year’s PD activities.more » « less
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Online professional development (PD) can reach teachers from widespread areas. Here, we describe PD activities that are part of a project focused on integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness among early-career elementary teachers. Toward our objective of building a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their iSTEM teaching, we are conducting online PD institutes over four summers. These PD institutes are designed using Desimone’s five critical features of effective PD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Our institutes engage teachers in an initial synchronous online session, which is followed by independent work time to put their learning into practice. It concludes with a final synchronous online session where teachers share their asynchronous work, receive feedback, and identify the next steps in enacting their learning in the classroom. Below we describe the first year’s PD activities.more » « less
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null (Ed.)The impacts of COVID-19 have led to a rapid pivot in the delivery of professional development (PD) for new teachers to [PROGRAM]. [PROGRAM] previously provided a week-long, in-person, intensive PD in the summer for teachers but PD was shifted online to a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous sessions during the summer of 2020. The goal of this work in progress is to present how the [PROGRAM] team adapted teacher PD to establish community among our teachers and between teachers and staff, use this connection to enhance our responsiveness in PD, and deliver the engaging content of the [PROGRAM] curriculum. Teachers engaging remotely in [PROGRAM] activities have led to productive adaptations based on their challenges. The lessons learned reflecting back upon the PD will inform the design, delivery, and content of future [PROGRAM] teacher PDs. It is expected that future PD and professional learning offerings will continue to utilize flexible modalities and novel online tools, while also working to better align to PD standards.more » « less
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