Teacher design teams as a strategy for professional development : the role of the facilitator

The goal of the current study was to explore the role and importance of the facilitator in Teacher Design Teams. The study took place in the context of a pre-service teacher education institution in Belgium, where teacher design teams were set up to facilitate the professional development of teacher educators. The findings from focus group discussions with team members and semi-structured interviews with facilitators confirm that the perceived importance of a facilitator depends on several factors, such as team characteristics and the design phase. Moreover, we found that a facilitator can fulfil three roles in a dynamic way: 1) providing logistic support, 2) scaffolding the design process and 3) monitoring the design process. The discussion centers on how these results can be used to support facilitators for successful Teacher Design Teams

Conditions for the successful implementation of teacher educator design teams for ICT integration : a Delphi study

Teacher educators often struggle to model effective integration of technology. Several studies suggest that the involvement of teacher educators in collaborative design is effective in developing the competences necessary for integrating information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching. In a teacher educator design team (TeDT), two or more teacher educators (re-)design curriculum materials together. For the successful implementation of TeDTs, conditions at both team and institutional levels have to be taken into account. However, there is little consensus among stakeholders about which of these conditions are of highest priority. Most studies present priority or critical conditions from the viewpoint of just one group (e.g., school leaders). A Delphi study was set up aiming at synthesising the knowledge and views of various stakeholders about the conditions for the successful implementation of TeDTs for ICT integration. Consensus about the importance of ten conditions was reached in the entire sample after three rounds. These conditions include a long-term vision, trust, ownership, time and supportive institutional policies