Formal and Informal On-line Communities to
Support Continuing Professional Development for
Teachers
Chris Daw
Cambridge International Examinations
Phil Riding
Interactive Technologies in Assessment and Learning (ITAL) Unit
Overview

Who we are

Our interest in Continuing Professional Development

Technology - ‘VLE-lite’

Formal teacher development

Informal teacher development
Context
University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate
ITAL
OCR
ESOL
CIE
Continuing Professional Development
 Traditionally delivered at face to face INSET
 Some benefits of f2f


Allows teachers to share best practice
Encourages peer support and networking
 Some shortcomings of f2f

Divorced from practice
 Lacking in follow up
 Expensive (time and money)
 Discriminatory
What makes good CPD for teachers?
It should aim to:
 Be ongoing
 Be school-based and rooted in the knowledge base of teaching
 Be flexible and fit in with the natural rhythms of teaching
 Be collaborative and allow teachers to interact with peers
 Include opportunities for reflection and group enquiry into practice
 Be accessible and inclusive
On-line Communities could be the answer…
Using technology to support effective CPD Communication
Email-based discussion groups

Asynchronous
 ‘Push’
 Text-based
 Archived
Enables/encourages

Real time problem solving
 Collaboration
 Making implicit knowledge explicit
 Greater/wider participation
Online communities - software
Using technology to support effective CPD Sharing
Web-based document, URL and FAQ facility
• Distribute/Share documents (tasks, worksheets, etc.)
• Collect and publish Frequently Asked Questions
• Provide a ‘one-stop’ site for community
• Easy to manage by tutor or listowner
Online communities - software
Online communities - software
Online communities - software
Formal/
Institutional
The CPD spectrum
Informal/
deinstitutionalised
Curriculum-based
No curriculum
Structured
Unstructured
Specified learning outcomes
No specified learning outcomes
Time constrained
Open ended
Tutored
Untutored
Certificated
Uncertificated
4 types of learning community
Formal
Informal
Teacher
1
3
E-tutor
2
1 - formal teacher development
 6 week course
 Structured






Assignments
E-tivities
Certificate of participation
Using ‘VLE-lite’
Migration from formal to informal communities
397 teachers have attended courses so far, in 19 subjects, from
over 40 countries on all continents
2 - formal e-tutor training and development
 Why train the e-tutors?

Facilitation of on-line learning and communities demands new skills
and roles
 Not all good face-to-face tutors make good on-line tutors
Therefore we needed to devise a course that converted good face-to-face
teachers into good e-tutors.
Formal E-tutor training and development - first
iteration
 A one-day face-to-face training session
Followed by
 E-mail based discussion list
Issues arising from the first iteration
 Participants all said that the best preparation was ‘doing it’ - we needed
to offer them more ‘experience’
 More focus was needed on helping e-tutors to promote on-line
reflective discussion
 More input/discussion on ‘virtual classroom’ management needed
 The need for us to develop our skills in creating and supporting a
community of e-tutors
 A better method of sharing tasks, resources and ‘artefacts’ was needed
Iteration 2
 100% on-line
 Guided observation on existing courses (6 weeks)
 ‘As students’, ‘as tutors’
 Facilitated discussion (2 weeks) - loose agenda covering the social,
pedagogical, managerial and technical roles of an e-tutor
 We invited existing tutors to be part of discussion group (‘elders’)
 Use of a website to share resources and artefacts arising from the
communities
Outcomes/issues
 The facilitated discussion was not a success (most discussion occurred
during the observation period)
 Our ‘structure’ got in the way. Better to allow tutors to raise issues as
they arose (move to more informality).
 We are still learning about e-tutoring.
 E-tutor community.
3 - informal teacher development







UK and worldwide teacher ‘communities’
OCR/CIE syllabus focussed
No ‘course’
Community-defined content
‘Rolling membership’
No certification
No ‘tutor’ - everyone is a potential tutor!
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No. of members
Membership (UK communities)
700
600
500
400
Psychology
Media Studies
300
200
100
0
Contributions
Average number of messages per month
80
Messages per month
70
60
50
Media Studies
40
Psychology
30
20
10
0
2000
2001
Year
2002
How do teachers use the communities?







Share resources and ideas
Ask about the examination
Talk about professional issues
Advertise things and jobs
Make contacts
Just listen - ‘lurking’ is OK! ‘Vicarious learning’
Not argue, or talk about computers
Share resources and ideas

‘Can anyone help me find some interesting places to take a large group of psychology
students (around 100) whilst on a day trip to London?’

‘I am teaching psychology for first time this year. I am on my own with 26 keen students
and I' m very keen to share ideas with anyone out there. My plan is […]),

I am writing to let others know that I took a large group of AS students to the Science
Museum just before Christmas and it was a great success. There is plenty to look at in the
new gallery...
During this year, my students prepared the Core Advanced and the following modules: {…}. I
would like to share their experience during the assessments. [followed by detailed analysis
of her students’ and her own experiences]
I think it is a good idea to share exercises. The following is an example for Data Analysis,
Standard Level I used with my class. It is very similar to an example from the Tutor Pack,
but my students needed more information than what was provided in the example.


Ask about the examination
 Clarification


(New OCR teacher) I have just received practical investigation folders. Are there rules about
when the students fill them in, what the content should be, how much help I can give etc.?
I forgot to ask another question about business chart module. I would like to know what to
cover in order to prepare them for "extracting data from a large set".
 Debate


I am not convinced […] that this syllabus represents a more applied, practical, or inventive
way in which to teach the discipline. I find many of the core studies are far too complex for a
pre-A-level course, not to mention tedious!.[…]
I could not agree less with what xxx has said. I made the switch to OCR in 1994 and have
never looked back. It provides a wonderful opportunity to be inventive in your teaching...far
more than AEB/AQA does. Try re-enacting some of the studies as a starter!! […]
Advertise jobs/things



We need a Psychology teacher after Christmas. It could be full or part
time. Needless to say we have a lovely department and do OCR A
level only.
Have a look at my website for more teaching ideas…
Here is a list of all the INSET courses that we are offering this term…
Make Contacts



I teach at Bushey Meads. I did not know there was a fellow OCR
colleague so close…
Anyone fancy getting together to thrash out a unit on crime
psychology?
I teach in Karachi too! How about we get together one weekend?
Just listen
•‘Although I have never contributed to it I have found it to be an excellent resource and
have very much enjoyed reading people's views, comments etc’.
•‘I'm enjoying the experience of being part of the 'net group'. One reason for not
contributing earlier is because other people have asked questions I was considering.’
What are the success factors?





Push technology
Focus
No compulsion to contribute
The subject area?
Moderation/tutoring?
‘Tutor’ contributions
'Tutor' contributions (percent of messages)
Percentage of messages from
'tutor'
25
20
15
Media Studies
Psychology
10
5
0
2000
2001
Year
2002
What kinds of messages do the tutors send?
Facilitating
5%
responding/
clarifying
51%
Giving
information
44%
Future research and development


Develop the informal community of e-tutors
Develop ‘VLE-lite’ to incorporate a management system




Legitimation - how to assess it (Slashdot type tracking?)
Cultural issues
To what extent do we have ‘communities’?
Who’s been learning here and who’s been teaching?
E-conference on teacher training and staff
development (EDEN/OU/UCLES sponsored)
http://www.eden.bme.hu/contents/computerconf.html
This presentation will be available at
http://ital.ucles-red.cam.ac.uk/