VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - Informing Policy and Practice: Research on the Best Practices of Virtual School Teachers

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

Research Practice and Policy with Online Teachers
Meredith DiPietro

Study overview
Method:

• 12 teacher interviews focus general, content specific, and technology questions.
• 2 layers of analysis-- 1. preliminary list of practices, 2. focused on distinctions.

Dimensions of Pedagogy

• Establishing environmental context
• Practices related to classroom management. structure-Virtual course classroom management needs to increase in focus. ALMOST UNEXPLORED from RESEARCH perspective
• Facilitative connections between teacher and student. Student and content. Teacher student
• Coaching content interactions (fluid practice and meeting students needs)
• Question: how is facilitating connections – connecting students and content different that coaching student content interactions????

Facilitating connections:

• Knowing student initially helps teachers adapt content and teaching. Core of teacher practice.
• Standard: teacher post info about self. Student posts too.
• accessibility issue – multiple means for contact. Helps form trust with students.
• Connecting students and content
• web-based and course based tools
• Pedagogical content knowledge
• Conversation: guided , redirected, directed student conversation. Used well designed prompts.

Experiential Context (what do to enhance, adapt course content)

• Structuring the experience (enhancing the environment)
• Observing the environment (delineating rules)
• Cheating- encouraged students to keep going overwhelmingly when caught. Not give up.
• Identifying students in personal crisis: discussion boards where found cues about student harming self or others. How address?
• Variations – Adaptive release of content – Can't get to the next phase until pass the first phase. “Hide assignments' and only open up when sure that students covered content so not overwhelmed.

Coaching Content Interaction

• Knowledge giver --> knowledge guide shift.
• Individualized learning experiences
• Mentor's role: intervened when change in performance. Filled in holes of F2F for students that needed that contact.
• Collaborative interactions
• group work.
• Practice considerations
• Diversity of students
• Uniqueness of content
• Affordances
• pacing had to change based on students
• course-based features/tools
• Policy Recommendations:
• Pre-service and inservice training in nuances of online learning. WHAT ARE THESE THOUGH?? Based on what she shared, seems the same as F2F.
• Research on best practices --> Action research with teachers involved.
• Caveat
• Variations and variability in V.S.
• Variation in instructor's situational context.
• Research areas
• Mentors
• Distinction in practice between content areas

TPCK Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (technology is considered in the teaching of content knowledge)

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education