Assessing the Ability of an Online Environment to Facilitate the Critical Features of Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Providing teachers effective professional development (PD) is an ongoing challenge in the field of education. Emergence of technological innovations in the form of computer‐based asynchronous and synchronous communication has provided new opportunities to improve and expand teacher PD opportunities beyond the physical walls of a school. The purpose of this meta‐analysis is to examine the ability of online learning environments to facilitate the critical features of teacher PD identified in Desimone (2009) as content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Analysis of the 20 empirical studies sought to reveal the purpose of the study, methodologies utilized, and major findings. Multiple studies indicated the ability of an online environment to engage teachers in active learning, collective participation, and content‐focused learning activities. Additionally, the results of this meta‐analysis revealed a lack of empirical studies that have examined the ability of online teacher PD to support the critical features of coherence and duration. Findings of this research have implications for a future research agenda and policy considerations related to online teacher PD initiatives.

The impact of teacher engagement in an interactive webinar series on the effectiveness of financial literacy education

“…Given the importance of sustained duration and collective participation of teachers identified in models on the effectiveness of TPD (Smith & Sivo, 2012), this study evaluates an innovative OTPD initiative, in the form of a webinar series with a strong collaborative‐learning component. Surrette and Johnson (2015) conducted a meta‐analysis on the ability of OTPD to integrate the critical features for effective TPD as identified by Desimone (2009), and demonstrated that multiple online initiatives were evaluated positively with regard to collaborative‐learning possibilities. In the majority of interventions evaluated, teacher interaction occurred using discussion boards or in chat boxes.…”

Teacher Professional Development and Student Literacy Growth: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…We located two systematic reviews from the EPPI Center (Cordingely, Bell, Ishams, Evan, & Firth, 2007) and What Works Clearing House (Yoon et al, 2008), one meta-analysis from What Works Clearing House (Yoon et al, 2007), and two other meta-analysis from Psych Info: (Saylor & Johnson, 2014;Surrette & Johnson, 2015). We excluded the two latter meta-analyses from this review because the results were interpreted in a qualitative manner, student data was not reported, and there were no specific foci on literacy.…”

Remote and Blended Teacher Education: A Rapid Review

“…It should be stressed that this is an exploratory treatment of the question. While reviews such as Surrette and Johnson (2015) [63] and several other pieces we discuss below provided an excellent starting point, the literature (even when taken as a whole) did not yield an extended or comprehensive account. So, in what follows we draw on our own expertise as well as the studies and reviews in the review database, where these discuss or present relevant principles and issues.…”

“…Eliot also discusses 'cognitive presence', and 'teaching presence' (p. 118), which refer respectively to how learners interact with the content in the environment, and the instructional design and delivery within the course. Surrette and Johnson's 2015 [63] meta-analysis suggests that it is possible to achieve all of these within an online space. Their analysis of 20 empirical studies (ranging from single-case qualitative studies to randomised controlled trials) indicated that 'online PD that facilitated opportunities for collective participation enabled the teachers to (a) experience a high level of social connection with their peers, (b) engage in multiple opportunities to reflect on their teacher practice and the practice of their peers, (c) share knowledge and experiences with peers, and (d) increase their knowledge and understanding of unique instructional strategies' (Surrette and Johnson, 2015, p. 266) [63].…”

“…Surrette and Johnson's 2015 [63] meta-analysis suggests that it is possible to achieve all of these within an online space. Their analysis of 20 empirical studies (ranging from single-case qualitative studies to randomised controlled trials) indicated that 'online PD that facilitated opportunities for collective participation enabled the teachers to (a) experience a high level of social connection with their peers, (b) engage in multiple opportunities to reflect on their teacher practice and the practice of their peers, (c) share knowledge and experiences with peers, and (d) increase their knowledge and understanding of unique instructional strategies' (Surrette and Johnson, 2015, p. 266) [63]. Similarly, there are examples (e.g., Lin, 2008, in Keengwe and Kang, 2013, p. 487) [64,65] of students feeling a sense of 'connection and active participation through online discussion' even within a text-only format of an online discussion board.…”