A study of the professional community of teachers in equity of teaching quality

The high level of educational participation has not guaranteed the quality of education in a country. Especially developing countries, the issue of educational participation can be overcome with the maximum, but the problem that is still the agenda in various countries is about the equalization of the quality of education. This article is an article compiled based on literature review of the issues. One of the key factors causing inequality in the quality of education is the irregularity of the quality of educators which ultimately affects the inequality of teaching quality. The literature study conducted finding the teacher community is an effective solution to solve the problem. The professional community is an association of teachers to interact with each other and communicate in an integrated learning and teaching improvement. The professional community of teachers is considered to be able to overcome the quality of educators who are located in remote areas. The activities of this professional community of teachers can also be maximized by the use of various media such as internet network. Addressing the gap in teaching quality between remote and airspace will ultimately be able to address the inequalities of appropriate educational quality. Keyword: equalization of teaching quality; professional community of teacher

Building a community among teachers, researchers and university students. A blended approach to training

In this paper we present a case study about a community of practice's foundation and development among Italian teachers, researchers and university students who participated in a European project aimed at developing and testing innovative pedagogical models and technologies for collaborative knowledge building. Forty-five people (34 teachers, five researchers and six university students) participated in the community of adults that interacted for a school year both face to face and online. We analyzed interactions in order to study the roles, forms and distribution of participation in that community, and the content of teachers' reflections about the activity. The analysis focuses particularly on different modalities of participation between expert teachers (involved in the project from the beginning) and novices, novice and expert being treated as relevant dimensions according to Wenger's model. Conversations were transcribed and a qualitative analysis of face-to-face and online discussion performed. The diversity of roles and different modalities of participation between social factors involved in the community, in particular between novice and expert teachers, emerged from the analysis. In final focus groups, teachers underlined innovative potentialities as well as difficulties related to computer-supported collaborative learning, both in classroom activities and in teacher training. In these final focus groups, novice teachers participated in the community, becoming more competent and conscious partners in shared planning with the expert teachers

Nursing Students\u27 and Novice Clinical Instructors\u27 Experiences With Clinical Instruction and Assessment

Adjunct faculty members make up a growing proportion of nursing school clinical faculty in the United States due to a nurse educator shortage in higher education. Many of the nurses hired as clinical faculty members have years of experience providing patient care, but they lack experience in clinical instruction and assessment. At a state community college in the southeastern United States, nursing students have expressed dissatisfaction in their course evaluations with inexperienced faculty in clinical programs. The experiences of both nursing students under the guidance of novice clinical instructors and clinical faculty were examined in this case study. The National League for Nursing\u27s (NLN) standards for practice for academic nurse educators served as the conceptual framework for this study and was used to develop research questions related to clinical practice and assessment. Data were collected from 9 students and 6 clinical nursing faculty members who participated in anonymous, open-ended electronic questionnaires regarding use of the standards in instruction and assessment. Student clinical experience collective evaluations from 3nursing programs across the state were also used for data collection and analysis. Data were coded and themes were identified and verified through triangulation. Themes were inconsistent with the NLN standards and included no formal orientation, no preparation for the clinical instructor role, use of subjective instructor evaluations, and lack of instructor feedback. Results were used to develop a professional development program to prepare novice clinical instructors for the clinical environment according to the NLN standards. This study may result in positive social change by improving clinical experiences for nursing students in community colleges, resulting in better patient care as they assume their roles in the larger medical community

Rethinking Teaching in STEM Education in a Community College : Role of Instructional Consultation and Digital Technologies

Community college faculty members educate almost half of all U.S. undergraduates, who are often more diverse and more academically underprepared when compared to undergraduate students who attend four-year institutions. In addition, faculty members in community colleges are facing increased accountability for meeting student learning outcomes, expectations to adjust their teaching practices to include active learning practices, and expectations to incorporate more technologies into the classroom. Faculty developers are one of the support structures that faculty members can look to in order to meet those challenges. A survey of literature in faculty development suggests that instructional consultation can play an important role in shaping and transforming teaching practices. Hence, this action research study examined my work using instructional consulting with four full-time STEM faculty colleagues in order to examine and shape their teaching practices with and without the use of digital technologies. The two foci of the research, examining shifts in faculty participants’ teaching practices, and my instructional consulting practices, were informed by Thomas and Brown’s (2011) social view of learning and the concept of teaching and learning in a “co-learning” environment. Two dominant factors emerged regarding faculty participants’ shift in teaching practices. These factors concerned: 1) the perception of control and 2) individual faculty participant’s comfort level, expectations, and readiness. In addition to these two dominant factors, the instructional consultation process also supported a range of shifts in either mindset and/or teaching practices. My analysis showed that the use of digital technologies was not an essential factor in shifting faculty participant mindset and/or teaching practices, instead digital technologies were used to enhance the teaching process and students’ learning experiences

Developing online teacher communities to support communication and collaboration

Glow, the Scottish arm of the National Grid for Learning (NGfL), was created to connect each of Scotland's 32 local authorities, schools, teachers and pupils, as well as key stakeholders through a secure intranet. Since the official launch of Glow in 2007 it has received a mixed reception amongst the teaching profession and engagement has been variable. This study set out to investigate Glow's use. The initial online survey of teachers' perceptions of Glow, in 2009, indicated that respondents were making little use of Glow. This led to a refocusing ofthe research to investigate a group of teachers who had a history of communicating online, with a view to understanding how teacher communities evolve online. A case study approach was adopted using a variety of methods including e-participant observations of their asynchronous discussion forums, questionnaires and interviews. The research builds on previous work on member Life-Cycle models and online community models in order to describe and analyse this onlineteacher community. Key findings emerged related to the adequacy of existing models of online communities and the evolution of new modes of online interaction. Specifically, member Life-Cycle models designed for open online communities do not fully describe the roles adopted in a closed teacher community. Furthermore, such models are inadequate to fully understand community development where members communicate offline as well as online. For this existing teacher community synchronous discussions appear to be increasing in relevance and popularity in comparison with asynchronous discussions. The implications of this for the next generation of Glow and online teacher communities are particularly relevant suggesting that focused synchronous discussion groups are an area for future research. Keywords: Glow, NGfL, online communication, online collaboration, online communities, teacher communities

Evidence-based web-mediated professional learning program for Early Childhood Education and Care addressing physical activity and healthy eating behaviours of young children

The Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) environment has been identified as an optimal environment for the promotion of healthy eating and physical activity. A number of factors influence healthy eating and physical activity in the ECEC environment, including the quality of the environment, and ongoing Professional Learning (PL) of ECEC educators. This project investigated the relationship between the quality of ECEC environment and children’s physical activity and evaluated the efficacy of a blended PL program focusing on healthy eating and physical activity. A systematic review was conducted to investigate the impact of PL in physical activity interventions on childrens objectively measured physical activity. A cross sectional study investigated the relationship between the quality of the ECEC environment and physical activity and sedentary behaviours of toddlers and preschoolers (n=68)

"The Bridge Between Sessions": The Nature of Discourse in a Novice Teachers' Blended Community of Practice

Providing sustainable, meaningful professional development to novice teachers in order to support the rising demands encountered in schools continues to exist as an ongoing challenge in education. One type of professional development that is understudied in the literature is blended Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) for novice teachers. Following two sets of participants through two separate 3-month iterations, this qualitative study examined the nature of discourse for a group of new teachers in a pre-existing discourse community when combined with an online component. Using discourse analysis, the conversations in both the face-to-face and online sessions were examined for content themes, participant interactions, and the impact the two contexts--face-to-face and online--had on one another. Findings highlight participants' use of certain discourse patterns including active listening and laughter that exemplified a Community of Practice in the face-to-face discussions. Though absent in the on-line component in iteration one, these discourse patterns became apparent in the online component of iteration two when the conversation flowed between the face-to-face and online components. Reasons as to why the second iteration developed into a blended community in contrast to the first iteration are considered, providing fodder for future new teacher induction efforts.Doctor of Philosoph