Challenging Teachers’ Pedagogic Practice and Assumptions about Social Media

Abstract

This article describes an innovative approach to professional development designed to challenge teachers' pedagogic practice and assumptions about educational technologies such as social media. Developing effective technology-related professional development for teachers can be a challenge for institutions and facilitators who provide this support. To contend with this challenge, we drew on Bain's (2004) "baker's dozen" questions to guide the design of an online postgraduate course for teachers. This article discusses the design of the online course and what teachers came to understand about the relationship between social media and teaching as a result of completing the course activities. This small-scale case study utilised qualitative data from three cohorts of participating teachers and found that teachers do change their pedagogical practice and assumptions about social media for their own teaching contexts when they engage in course activities that challenge their existing mental models and encourage critical reasoning and reflection on learning.

Using Social Media as a Platform for a Virtual Professional Learning Community

“…Professional development in higher education continues to be viewed as an important component of faculty support (Kane et al, 2016;Thurlings & den Brok, 2017). Faculty developers work to create opportunities for faculty to engage in learning situated in a social constructivist paradigm (Cartner & Hallas, 2017) with the goal of supporting participants as producers of knowledge based on their own experience and that of their peers (Sullivan, Neu, & Yang, 2018). The PLC and the VPLC for dispersed faculty have been found useful to address contemporary faculty learning needs (Cândida Müller & Lucchesi de Carvalho, 2014;Sullivan, Neu, & Yang, 2018;Valle & Fuchs, 2015;Wegner, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002).…”

“…This study was conducted under the premise that the use of media itself does not facilitate learning (Cartner & Hallas, 2017). Rather, the social media platform served as a way to cultivate learning through the understanding of others' experiences within a social community of peers (Sullivan, Neu, & Yang, 2018).…”

“…While the VPLC is becoming a more acceptable delivery mechanism for faculty professional development (Brooks, 2010;Lewis & Ewing, 2016: McAllister, Oprescu, & Jones, 2014, successful practices for designing these learning environments have received little attention in the research literature (Meyer & Murrell, 2014;Meyer, 2018). While it is clear that interaction and engagement are necessary for successful learning outcomes (Cartner & Hallas, 2017;Sullivan, Neu, & Yang, 2017;Thurlings & den Brok, 2017), it is not clear what design features best support it. Social media has been found to provide learning opportunities and may also prove to be a supportive learning environment for a VPLC (Moorley & Chinn, 2014;Sari-Motlah et al, 2016;Yee, 2015).…”

“…Contemporary professional development teams need to consider how to best provide opportunities that align with a social constructivist paradigm in which learning is accomplished through the construction of knowledge blended with dialogue, relationships, and self-directed learning (Cartner & Hallas, 2017;Saroyan & Trigwell, 2015). Faculty developers are also challenged with meeting the needs of adult learners by creating trusting learning environments that allow for engagement and interaction.…”

Aligning assessment, technology, and multi-literacies

“…Four major course activities were developed, with activities 2 and 4 also designed as assessment outputs, and these are discussed next. The following activities have been summarized from Cartner and Hallas (2017).…”