This document describes the concept of professional growth or development, including conceptual, theoretical, pedagogical, and practical issues involved in using the Web for teacher education. Technology adoption in K-12 schools has been constrained by a number of factors, most importantly a general lack of adequate training and support for teachers. Traditional models of teacher professional development (such as teacher education programs and in-service workshops) may not be the best way to help teachers learn about and use technology. The Web offers many opportunities for teachers to learn not only about technology and the Internet, but also about new ideas about teaching and learning. The Web also provides opportunities for working with other teachers and researchers on a variety of projects.
"'Profession' describes at once a knowing and a doing; it describes a practice rather than a technical application." (Beyer, Feinberg, Pagano, and Whitson, 1989, p.14)
Compare this perspective with a more traditional view of teaching as a vocation, and not a profession, where effort and emphasis are placed on teaching methods and techniques, management of classroom time, coverage of pedagogical materials, cookbook-like lessons, teacher-centered classroom activities organized around didactic lectures. Researchers are beginning to realize that teachers operate in a complex environment where decisions are made all the time based on experience, curricular goals, and individual student ability.
Teachers have extensive formal training, including 4-years of college classroom work, in many cases 1-year of apprenticeship, and post-BA credits to maintain certification. Teaching has been a profession, not unlike many others (such as medical and legal) that requires constant and ongoing learning.
The challenge for teachers, as well as every other productive worker in the information age, will be to continue learning and growing personally and professionally so they can stay competitive in their field as technology becomes more integrated into their work environment. This implies that teaching, like many other professions, requires life-long learning and a continual focus on personal growth and improvement. The digital/information age that is rapidly changing our lives has important implications for our schools and teachers. Competence with technology is now considered a basic literacy requirement for employment and school systems expect teachers to do more with technology. Some state boards of education, including Michigan's, now require graduating teachers to be proficient with technology. In the future, teachers will be expected to guide students use of technology and model appropriate learning strategies to deal with the wealth of information that is available.
The challenge for teachers is how to become knowledgeable and competent about uses of technology given the constraints on their time. While many school systems are providing teachers with training in the form of in-service workshops, there are additional resources for teachers (both in the form of self-directed training, on-line discussions, and support from teachers who are already using technology) that may provide a more efficient way to meet these challenges.
One avenue to facilitate teacher life-long learning is through technology and the Internet. The Internet offers extensive opportunities for teachers to gain expertise and knowledge in a variety of areas - everything from basic technology skills to integrating new learning theories into the curriculum. What is required of teachers is their time and energy as well as organizational skills to take advantage of these opportunities and integrate these experiences with their everyday teaching practices.
K-12 Use of Technology
Efforts to incorporate technology into the K-12 classroom have had limited success, and many studies suggest there is only limited use of technology in the majority of K-12 classrooms. These studies suggest the single most important obstacle to technology adoption and use is lack of adequate training and support for teachers. With the growth of the Internet and it's general availability in K-12 schools in the future, new opportunities will be available for teachers to learn outside traditional professional development settings.
"Time to explore, digest, and experiment is perhaps the most critical need cited by these educators. There seems to be no easy way to find the time, unless it is built into the school day, or unless educators have equipment at home." (Schrum, 1995, p. 226)
Despite the increased availability of technology in K-12 schools (Becker, 1993b), many teachers are not incorporating technology into their regular curricular activities (Peck and Dorricot, 1994). Research indicates that teachers need both in-service education on specific technology applications and long-term support in order to integrate computers with the curriculum in meaningful ways (Goodson, 1991; Woodhouse and Jones, 1988).
Sheingold and Hadley (1990) found that only about one teacher per school had integrated technology into their classroom teaching, developed mastery in educational uses of technology was a gradual process requiring several years, and that "on-site support and colleagueship [were] critical ingredients to successful technology use." (p. 24)
Honey and Henriquez (1993) found the most persistent obstacles to use of telecommunications among educators were teacher training and support, time for professional and student learning activities, and school/district planning for use of telecommunications in instruction and administration. Schrum (1995) reported similar findings in a study of graduate students in teacher education. The major obstacles for student learning were lack of time, access to equipment, and resources for implementation.
"What is striking about computer use in secondary schools in the US during the 1980s and early 1990s is that most computer time has been devoted to teaching students skills qua skills, rather than embedding or applying computer capacity in the context of ongoing teaching and learning in other subjects." (Becker, 1993a, p. 69).
Teacher Professional Development
The traditional training paradigm for professional development locates knowledge about teaching and learning outside of schools. Evidence for this can be found in the fact that most educational training and research takes place in colleges or universities, and not in K-12 schools. In contrast, Richardson (1994) describes how professional development which focuses on teachers' learning aims to engage practitioners in their own improvement of practice through collaborative inquiry. Little (1993) contrasts traditional teacher training programs with teacher collaboratives or study groups and suggests the latter provide teachers with an "adequate opportunity to learn (and investigate, experiment, consult, or evaluate) embedded in the routine organization of teachers' work day and work year." While formal training that takes place in a college or university setting is the prominent model for teacher professional development, it is not the only vehicle available for teaching learning.
The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) funded and created a report that evaluates current uses of educational technology and makes recommendations for focusing on teacher professional development as a key to successful technology adoption. Two chapters in the final report, Chapter 4 Helping Teachers Learn About and Use Technology Resources and Chapter 5 Technology and the Preparation of New Teachers, describe factors that influence teacher use of technology, reform efforts in teacher education, and the role of teachnology in teacher education. This report, no longer available in print because the OTA was eliminated by Congress in 1996, is available electronically (see Internet Resources below). A variety of models are available to support teacher learning and professional development. Many of these were originally developed to support teacher training in new methods, new subject matter, and now classroom management techniques. The recent movement towards widescale adoption of technology into K-12 classrooms has resulted in more and more emphasis placed on learning experiences with and about technology.
- Traditional teacher education programs are offered at colleges and universities, and often involve 4-year programs designed to provide students with subject matter and pedagogical knowledge, training in classroom management, internships, and help with placement upon graduation. Many of these programs have evolved into specialized learning opportunities inside and outside the traditional college classroom environment that take place prior to actual classroom teaching. Professional Development Schools (PDS's) are often an important part of these teacher education programs and provide a connection to classroom-based teaching through internships and mentoring experiences.
Michigan State University has a teacher education program that includes undergraduate and graduate courses in teacher education including on-campus classes, internships in local school systems, and help with placement by the professional development school. Other teacher education programs include the Maryland Collaborative for teacher education; distance learning through Mind Extension University, and the Open University and Open College in Canada (see Internet Resources below).
- In-service workshops often involve coursework, hands-on experience, or demonstration and training by experts over short blocks of time. In-service programs are typically short-duration (1/2-day or 1-day) courses aimed at providing teachers with specific technical skills around curriculum development, new teaching methods, classroom management techniques, or new subject matter coverage. Teachers are normally given time-off to attend these classes, with substitutes hired to replace them, but are not often given time to incorporate what they learn into their regular teaching practices.
- Outreach and summer teacher education programs are also available and involve longer-term learning experiences at universities or colleges around specific topics of interest, new teaching methods, new technologies, and new subject matter taken during summer hours so as not to conflict with regular K-12 classroom work.
Examples of these types of programs that focus on technology include the Science House Teacher In-service programs, Establish Teacher Enhancement Programs for the Professional Development of In-service Teachers, on-line Seminars for teachers, and the Internet Seminar Series at the Boulder Valley School District (see Internet Resources below).
- Self-directed learning is another approach to professional development for teachers targeted at specific topics of interest to the individual teacher. These learning experiences can happen during school hours, or after school. Local community colleges, universities, and other community institutions offer a variety of workshops on technology that may be of value to teachers.
The Internet offers a variety of self-directed learning experiences for teachers on a variety of topics. Examples of these include the courses at the On-line Internet Institute, the Heritage Institute, the World Lecture Hall at the University of Texas, the Web University courses, and the Learning Applications at PacBell (see Internet Resources below). The Related Resources section contains links to many other useful resources.
- Another model of teacher professional development that has gained popularity in the past few years is participation in a community of teaching practice. This model draws on the research into learning through participation in discourse and activities within a community of teaching practice. These groups often take the form of teacher study groups, teacher collaboratives, teacher-researcher groups, or subject matter workgroups.
Within these groups, teachers are encouraged to focus on reflection and improvement of their practice, drawing on their own experiences as a source of knowledge. Also important in these groups is discourse around the nature of teaching practice, balanced with consideration of the research literature and empirical evidence of beneficial learning and teaching practices. These communities can include a formal research component (collaboration with educational researchers) as well as informal teacher research (in the form of inquiry into teaching practices).
Examples of this type of professional development can be found at LabNet for Science and Math teachers, the Mathematics Learning Forums at Bank Street College, and Community of Teaching Learning and Technology (see Internet Resources below). Through participation in these communities, teachers can share their experiences, learn from the experiences of their peers, study their own teaching practices, and develop new methods of teaching that fit their individual needs.
- Community of Teaching Learning and Technology
- Establish Teacher Enhancement Programs for the Professional Development of In-service Teachers
[http://www.csmate.colostate.edu/establishteacherenhancemen.html] A document describing programs in professional development.
- Heritage Institute
- Internet Seminar Series
Inernet seminars at the Boulder Valley School District
- LabNet for Science and Math teachers
An ongoing electronic community of science and math teachers.
- Learning Applications at PacBell
- Maryland Collaborative for teacher education
A collaborative venture between the University and local school systems.
- Mathematics Learning Forums at Bank Street College
A series of on-line discussion groups for math teachers.
- Michigan State University teacher education program
The 4-year TE program at MSU.
- Mind Extension University
MEU offers distance learning degrees in a variety of subjects.
- On-line Internet Institute
More Internet workshops.
- On-line Seminars for teachers
A group of seminars available on-line.
- Open University and Open College
OU and OC in Canada.
- Science House Teacher In-service programs
- World Lecture Hall at the University of Texas
A complete reference to available courses and workshops on-line.
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- Andrew Topper