Investigating the Impact of Greek EFL Teachers Participation in Online Communities of Practice as a Means of Professional Development

Abstract

This paper examines EFL teachers' participation in online Communities of Practice (CoPs) and its impact on their professional development. The study focuses on 50 EFL teachers who became members of CoPs using an online platform named 2gather developed by the University of Athens in the context of a national in-service professional development project in Greece. Founded on the theory of situated learning, CoPs have been defined as "groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis" (Wenger et al., 2002). The study involved monitoring the development of four CoPs and teachers' patterns of participation using a mixed-methods approach which combined quantitative data and qualitative research of collective case studies (Dornyei, 2007) of different groups of teachers. A comparison of teachers' exposure to meaningful professional development (Franke et al., 2001) activities "before" and "after" their participation in the CoPs was carried out. In addition, results suggest the existence of statistically significant associations between the teachers' participation in online CoPs and perceived benefit and change of their beliefs and/or practices. They also highlight the specific conditions that have supported their reflection, their reported reconstruction of beliefs and practices and the reported effectiveness of their training experience in relation to their teaching practice. The findings contribute to furthering our understanding of effective implementation of online CoPs in the context of continuing professional development.

Investigating Greek EFL Coordinators’ Involvement in Online Elteachers Communities of Practice as a Means of Professional Development

“…As the international educational policy increases expectations for improved educational outcomes, a more comprehensive understanding of teacher professional development experiences that can enhance their knowledge and can support teacher growth and change proves indispensable to policy decision makers and training course designers. Since traditional teacher professional development policies have been largely found to be ineffective, recent research findings confirm that online CoPs with their technological affordances and properly designed implementation schedules have a real potential to be an effective model for the professional development of teachers (Kourkouli, 2018). The present paper provides evidence in the direction of evaluating the effectiveness of this innovative teacher education model and highlighting this perspective in terms of the Coordinators' reports while recognizing their key role.…”

“…The implementation of this model in EFL teachers' continuing professional development in Greece took shape in the form of ELTeachers online CoPs set up and officially launched in the academic year of 2014-2015. The investigation of the teachers' participation has confirmed that teachers can benefit from membership in supportive online Communities of Practice and has also provided evidence on the central role that online Communities of Practice can play in the teacher education field in Greece as an effective catalyst for the professional development of teachers (Kourkouli, 2018). Therefore, it is the purpose of this paper to investigate a different aspect, the involvement of the four (4) Greek EFL School Advisors who acted as Coordinators of the four (4) online CoPs under research, training fourty-nine (49) EFL teachers.…”

“…Therefore, in order to enhance the effectiveness, a number of general principles are put forward for the design, organization and implementation of teacher education courses (Kourkouli, 2015). Under the prism of adult learning principles such as the exploration of teachers' personal practical theories and beliefs (Levin & He, 2008) at the pre-training stage, relevance of topics, restricted use of the lecture mode for presenting new information, emphasis on reflection, experiential elements such as micro-teaching, self and peer-observation, demonstration techniques, collaborative learning in pairs or groups, exploratory learning in workshops and provision of continuous follow-up support to equip trainees with the knowledge and confidence required to implement new theories in their everyday teaching practice are among the predominant ones (Kourkouli, 2018).…”

Critical Factors that Enhance the Effectiveness of Online Communities of Practice: EFL Coordinators’ Patterns of Involvement - The Greek EL Teachers Cops Professional Development Paradigm

“…The investigation of the teachers' participation has confirmed that teachers can benefit from membership in supportive online CoPs and has also provided evidence on the central role that online CoPs can play in the teacher education field in Greece as an effective catalyst for the professional development of teachers. In addition, the study highlighted specific factors that supported teachers' reflection, their reported reconstruction of beliefs and practices and the reported effectiveness of the training experience in relation to their teaching practice (Kourkouli 2018a). Further research has also confirmed that ELTeachers online CoPs constitute a teacher training model that empowers teacher trainers themselves to engage in "reformed" training practice.…”

“…The CoP training schedule and material was based on reported teachers' needs and was given to most Coordinators as a "guidebook" for further development. Coordinators posted one monthly activity in each CoP's forum divided in two fortnight sections with strict deadlines and specific ground rules designed to multiply interaction, foster reflection, development of open discussion, connection with teachers' everyday practice, provision of feedback and open interaction among the participants (Kourkouli, 2018a).…”