The role of experienced practitioners in promoting Saudi female pre-service teachers’ cognitive and social engagement in learning to teach with technology through participation in an online professional learning community

Abstract

Teacher education programmes are increasingly focused on engaging pre-service teachers in the process of learning to teach with technology. Learning to teach with technology is considered a complex process that requires pre-service teachers to engage both cognitively and socially. One of the possible approaches that can enhance pre-service teachers’ engagement in the learning to teach is by engaging pre-service teachers in an online professional learning community (PLC) with experienced practitioners who are expert in-service teachers in the field of technology use in education. Therefore, this study seeks to explore the role of experienced practitioners in promoting Saudi female pre-service teachers’ cognitive and social engagement in learning to teach with technology through participation in an online PLC. This study adopted a mixed method and experimental approach. Two practitioners and 76 female pre-service teachers participated in the study. The pre-service teachers were assigned to one of two groups, with 38 pre-service teachers in each group. The practitioners only participated in the experimental group.

The study was divided into three phases. The first phase investigated the role of practitioners in developing pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The results revealed that the experimental group had significantly higher scores in technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and TPACK than the control group. The interview findings show that practitioners increased pre-service teachers’ awareness of up-to-date technology, technologies designed for specific subjects, the pedagogical affordance of technology, and factors that need to be considered during the use of technology. The second phase examined the role of practitioners in promoting pre-service teachers’ knowledge construction and social interaction by employing content analysis (CA), social network analysis (SNA), and a TPACK questionnaire. The practitioners increased pre-service teachers’ levels of knowledge construction, high-cognitive discourse as well as network size and the extent of collaboration between those with varying levels of TPACK knowledge in both knowledge sharing and building networks. In both groups, collaboration in the knowledge building network predominantly occurred with peers in the same discipline. The third phase explored both pre-service teachers and practitioners’ experience regarding their participation in an online PLC via interviews. The interview findings revealed that practitioners enhanced the quality of the discussion as well as enhancing the depth of the discussion. Another significant finding was that the practitioners enhanced the social interaction among pre-service teachers by strengthening their self-confidence, deepening the ethics of collaborative work within an Islamic cultural perspective, strengthening the sense of community, making interdisciplinary activities, linking pre-service teachers with each other, and encouraging them to use their external support as a resource. The practitioners found that this experience enhanced their professional growth. This research provides suggestions for enhancing pre-service teachers’ engagement with practitioners in an online PLC.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Christopher Downey: orcid.org/0000-0002-6094-0534

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