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Promoting pre-service teachers’ engagement in an online professional learning community: support from practitioners

Promoting pre-service teachers’ engagement in an online professional learning community: support from practitioners
Promoting pre-service teachers’ engagement in an online professional learning community: support from practitioners
Purpose: this study investigated the role of experienced practitioners in promoting pre-service teachers’ knowledge construction and social interaction in an online professional learning community.

Design/methodology/approach: a repeated-measures design with control and experimental groups was adopted. Two practitioners supported pre-service teachers in the experimental group to discuss issues around teaching practice. Social network analysis (SNA) and content analysis (CA) were used in the analytical approach.

Findings: CA revealed that the practitioners increased pre-service teachers’ levels of knowledge construction and high-cognitive discourse. SNA showed that the practitioners enhanced pre-service teachers’ professional ties. Though collaboration in high-level knowledge-building occurred predominantly with peers in the same discipline, the presence of the practitioners facilitated the development of more cross-disciplinary ties in the experimental group.

Practical implications: the practitioners can be used as a pedagogical tool to enhance pre-service teachers’ engagement in the process of professional learning. This study suggests that in order to enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers from different departments, the online activity should be designed to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration.

Originality/value: the study contributes to new knowledge about the ways in which practitioners can enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers in an online PLC. It also provides insight on how to combine CA and SNA to examine professional learning.
Knowledge-building, Online professional learning community, Practitioners, Pre-service teachers, SNA, Social interaction
2056-9548
129-146
Alwafi, Enas, Mohammad F.
ae372c78-a626-4433-9402-cb87709b5503
Downey, Christopher
bb95b259-2e31-401b-8edf-78e8d76bfb8c
Kinchin, Gary
04cfb5e4-89a6-479a-9426-8534944436a4
Alwafi, Enas, Mohammad F.
ae372c78-a626-4433-9402-cb87709b5503
Downey, Christopher
bb95b259-2e31-401b-8edf-78e8d76bfb8c
Kinchin, Gary
04cfb5e4-89a6-479a-9426-8534944436a4

Alwafi, Enas, Mohammad F., Downey, Christopher and Kinchin, Gary (2020) Promoting pre-service teachers’ engagement in an online professional learning community: support from practitioners. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 5 (2), 129-146. (doi:10.1108/JPCC-10-2019-0027).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose: this study investigated the role of experienced practitioners in promoting pre-service teachers’ knowledge construction and social interaction in an online professional learning community.

Design/methodology/approach: a repeated-measures design with control and experimental groups was adopted. Two practitioners supported pre-service teachers in the experimental group to discuss issues around teaching practice. Social network analysis (SNA) and content analysis (CA) were used in the analytical approach.

Findings: CA revealed that the practitioners increased pre-service teachers’ levels of knowledge construction and high-cognitive discourse. SNA showed that the practitioners enhanced pre-service teachers’ professional ties. Though collaboration in high-level knowledge-building occurred predominantly with peers in the same discipline, the presence of the practitioners facilitated the development of more cross-disciplinary ties in the experimental group.

Practical implications: the practitioners can be used as a pedagogical tool to enhance pre-service teachers’ engagement in the process of professional learning. This study suggests that in order to enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers from different departments, the online activity should be designed to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration.

Originality/value: the study contributes to new knowledge about the ways in which practitioners can enhance the collaboration among pre-service teachers in an online PLC. It also provides insight on how to combine CA and SNA to examine professional learning.

Text
Promoting Pre-service Teacher Engagement - FINAL JPCC Accepted - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 15 January 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 March 2020
Published date: 16 March 2020
Keywords: Knowledge-building, Online professional learning community, Practitioners, Pre-service teachers, SNA, Social interaction

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 437244
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437244
ISSN: 2056-9548
PURE UUID: b338d8c5-31a9-418c-bb32-bf56c9e6450e
ORCID for Christopher Downey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6094-0534

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Jan 2020 17:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:11

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Contributors

Author: Enas, Mohammad F. Alwafi
Author: Gary Kinchin

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