The Impact of Using a Distance Learning Network on Building Teachers' Communities of Practice in Egypt

This research is a case study of using a distance learning network for teachers’ professional development in Egypt. It aims to investigate the impact of using Egypt’s National Network for Distance Training (NNDT) in developing teachers’ knowledge and on building communities of practice. It explores the role of professional development experts and teachers’ participation within the network. In addition, it draws attention to the teachers’ level of engagement in professional development programmes and, therefore, it reveals their modes of participation within the network. Moreover, it identifies the role of the technology in facilitating communication and collaboration between participants. Finally, this paper offers a number of recommendations that aim to develop the network capabilities to become a more ‘effective’ means for teachers’ professional development in Egypt

The Role of Professional Development Networks in Reforming Mathematics Education in Egypt

Mathematics is considered to be one of the key areas for growth and development in Egyptian schools (Monk et al., 1999). Therefore, reforming mathematics education has been given priority by the Egyptian Ministry of Education. Accordingly, a particular emphasis has been given to the professional development of mathematics teachers. This paper is a case study of the role of the Egyptian National Network for Distance Training (NNDT) in development of mathematics teachers’ knowledge and in reforming teachers’ practice in schools. This paper concludes with some suggestions for the effective use of the network in teachers’ professional development

TeachandLearn.net: Using new technology to support D&T teachers

During 2003/2004, The Open University in the United Kingdom, in association with he BBC, will launch a wholly on-line continual professional development environment for teachers to be known as TeachandLearn.Net. Focusing on the example of the materials developed for Design and Technology teachers, this paper will consider the rationale, design and learning purposes of this novel approach to teacher development. The line of pedagogical development of on-line technologies from the Learning Schools Programme (see paper in PATT-11) to the current flexible Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course, through to the proposed TeachandLearn.net will be explored

Using a structured approach to authoring OER content: An evaluation of two cases

The Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) OER materials are a response to the teacher crisis in many developing countries, with millions of unqualified teachers entering the classroom ( See www.tessafrica.net ). The TESSA teacher professional development materials were developed by a collaboration of eighteen institutions and are currently being used by about 300 000 teachers across nine African countries. To ensure that the resources were appropriate and relevant, these OERs followed an agreed common template for construction with the intention to facilitate versioning for the different school contexts, in four languages. OpenLearn ( See www.open.ac.uk/openlearn ) is an OER site containing over 10 000 hours of learning materials from the UK Open University. With well over five million unique visitors, its purpose was to showcase the Universities materials, to attract new students and to investigate new possibilities in the creation of new course content. It too was created around a template as shown by the OpenLearn module ‘Creating Open Educational Resources’ (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3636 . The Open University took a leading role in the development of both TESSA and OpenLearn. Using these as case studies, this paper analyses the systemic organisational benefits and constraints of a structured template approach to OER content production. It seems that such an approach is successful – both the TESSA and OpenLearn OER sites have won prestigious awards. However, this structured methodology for OER content production is considered particularly in relation to: • The level of support needed by authors new to creating OERs • The cost-benefits of production; • The speed of creation and re-creation; • The way cultural norms impact on notions of ‘ownership’, ‘sharing’ and ‘adapting’ the work of others; It is suggested that making the construction template more explicit would encourage greater contribution to Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Technological literacy in a developing world context: the case of Bangladesh

At 900 persons per square kilometre, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries of the world and is similar to many developing countries in that nearly half the population is under 19 years of age. On average 41% of the population do not complete Primary Education, completion rates being as low as 27.5% in some areas. The reasons for such high school drop-out rates are complex: family poverty, teaching quality and the quality of teacher/student interaction, the school environment and lack of resources all playing a part. A crucial factor, however, is the nature of the school curriculum and its perceived relevance by students and parents. This paper analyses the nature of the technology curriculum as part of the basic education offered to children in government and non-government schools. A framework of analysis using three inter-related strands is considered: the curriculum rationale (focusing on the specified curriculum); teacher knowledge (focusing on the enacted curriculum); and student learning (focusing on the experienced curriculum). A consideration of these strands in a developing world context, centred on the relevance of the school curriculum in relation to technological understanding as perceived by children and parents, may have wider implications for the assumptions about the curriculum for ‘technological literacy’ in other more developed countries as well as for politicians within Bangladesh itself

Developing professional knowledge during initial design and technology teacher education

This article seeks to identify the components which make up teachers' professional knowledge:subject content knowledgepedagogical content knowledgecurricular knowledgeschool subject knowledge";I don't think anything quite prepares you for teaching in a class does it?"; (ITT technology student).The greater involvement of schools in theprofessional development of new teachers makes it increasingly important to establish a common framework of understanding between students, school staff and lecturers in higher education. This understanding naturally covers common expectations of subject teaching competences to enter the profession, such as those pUblished by DATA (1995). School-Higher Education Institute (HEI) partnerships have existed for years, but an increased use of subject 'mentoring' in initial teacher education means it is useful also to extend our common understanding to a fuller discussion of the different components which make up teacher professional knowledge. Staff at the Centre for Research into Teacher Education (CRETE) at the Open University are working to develop such a framework of teacher professional knowledge and are researching how aspects of such knowledge (or the lack of them!) impact on school teacher performance. More research needs to be done, but I suggest here some preliminary ideas of a framework which could help discussion and lead to shared language amongst the different 'players'; students, school-based mentors and HEI tutors

Approaches and models in technology teacher education: an overview

In this paper, I give an overview of the different models and approaches to technology teacher education. Many of the issues which shape the requirements for the professional development of teachers are common to the different teacher education structures which exist, and the need to improve the quality and quantity of technology teachers is shared by all countries. By standing apart from any one country's programme, perhaps novel solutions to common problems will present themselves. I present here a framework for analysis which may be applied to a range of courses, both pre-service and INSET, and consider both new and traditional approaches to the education of technology teachers

Total hemispherical emittance measured at high temperatures by the calorimetric method

A calorimetric vacuum emissometer (CVE) capable of measuring total hemispherical emittance of surfaces at elevated temperatures was designed, built, and tested. Several materials with a wide range of emittances were measured in the CVE between 773 to 923 K. These results were compared to values calculated from spectral emittance curves measured in a room temperature Hohlraum reflectometer and in an open-air elevated temperature emissometer. The results differed by as much as 0.2 for some materials but were in closer agreement for the more highly-emitting, diffuse-reflecting samples. The differences were attributed to temperature, atmospheric, and directional effects, and errors in the Hohlraum and emissometer measurements (plus or minus 5 percent). The probable error of the CVE measurements was typically less than 1 percent