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Online Sharing of Knowledge Among In-service Teachers for Professional Development Purposes

Published: 20 December 2017 Publication History

Abstract

New technologies and online resources for educational purposes inspire researchers to approach Professional Development (PD) from a different angle with the aim to professionally improve teachers' practices and methodologies. From this perspective, the broad use of online communities of practice (COPs) among teachers seems to be a common training model for in-service professional teachers. The utilization of communities of practice facilitates teachers' sharing of knowledge by creating opportunities for its members to interact and exchange good practices. The present study explores (a) the patterns of knowledge sharing amongst teachers in an official online community for PD purposes and (b) teachers' perceptions and motivation to participate in such online community. Data were collected through the analytics of the online community, in conjunction with questionnaires and interviews with community members. Results demonstrate that the most important motivation of teachers to participate in online community is the opportunity to share knowledge, ideas and successful practices. The paper discusses the potential training model through online communities of practice based on sharing of knowledge, aiming to contribute to PD research, shedding light to new challenges related to the PD of in-service teachers.

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Cited By

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  • (2023)Teacher Knowledge Sharing and Reflection as Predictors of Teacher Professional Development: A Case of Iranian TEFL Faculty MembersJournal of Psycholinguistic Research10.1007/s10936-023-09982-z52:6(2007-2026)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2023
  • (2022)Incorporating Embodied Learning Activities into the Instruction of will and be going toEnglish Teaching & Learning10.1007/s42321-022-00136-348:3(417-438)Online publication date: 19-Dec-2022
  • (2021)Computer science teacher professional development and professional learning communities: a review of the research literatureComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2021.199366633:1(29-60)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2021
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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    ICETC '17: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Education Technology and Computers
    December 2017
    270 pages
    ISBN:9781450354356
    DOI:10.1145/3175536
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Publication History

    Published: 20 December 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. Communities of practice
    2. online
    3. professional development
    4. sharing of knowledge
    5. teachers

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    View all
    • (2023)Teacher Knowledge Sharing and Reflection as Predictors of Teacher Professional Development: A Case of Iranian TEFL Faculty MembersJournal of Psycholinguistic Research10.1007/s10936-023-09982-z52:6(2007-2026)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2023
    • (2022)Incorporating Embodied Learning Activities into the Instruction of will and be going toEnglish Teaching & Learning10.1007/s42321-022-00136-348:3(417-438)Online publication date: 19-Dec-2022
    • (2021)Computer science teacher professional development and professional learning communities: a review of the research literatureComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2021.199366633:1(29-60)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2021
    • (2021)Analyzing the relationship between principals’ learning-centered leadership and teacher professional learning: The mediation role of trust and knowledge sharing behaviorStudies in Educational Evaluation10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.10097068(100970)Online publication date: Mar-2021
    • (2020)Creating the Profile of Participants in Mobility Activities in the Context of Erasmus+: Motivations, Perceptions, and Linguistic NeedsLearning and Collaboration Technologies. Designing, Developing and Deploying Learning Experiences10.1007/978-3-030-50513-4_37(499-511)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2020
    • (2019)Words in action: investigating students’ language acquisition and emotional performance through embodied learningInnovation in Language Learning and Teaching10.1080/17501229.2019.160735514:4(317-332)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2019

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