1. Online Communities of Practice:
Sustaining Teaching Projects Overseas
Presented by: Alan Fletcher
USQ Contemporary issues conference 2012
2. Presentation Overview:
English Language teaching (ELT) projects overseas
Continuing professional development (CPD) for
sustainability: a strategic perspective
Literature review on communities of practice
(CoPs)
From theory to practice: management &
collaborative approaches
6. Sustainability: a strategic view
What’s the main threat to
Failure to renew the
project sustainability?
project contract
How do we secure a new Impress the client
contract?
How do we Impress the Improve learning
client? outcomes
How do we improve
learning outcomes? Improve teaching
Provide continuing
How do we improve professional
teaching? development (CPD)
7. The sustainability loop. Effective CPD improves learning
outcomes necessary for project sustainability.
Improved
Teacher pedagogy
CPD
Project Improved
security and learning
sustainability outcomes
Education project Client
contract renewal Satisfaction
8. What’s the most
effective way of
providing
professional Communities of
development?
practice
Why CoPs?
The literature
supports their
benefits
9. The literature suggests ...
Constructivist approaches to learning (applies to teachers as learners).
Learning happens best in social environments.
Communities of practice are social environments.
The social aspect applies to virtual communities.
ICT enables more collaboration between professionals.
10. From theory to practice:
implementing and sustaining CoPs
200+ English Language teachers on this project
Teachers widely dispersed in different schools
around the country. Some isolated.
Collaboration happens within schools but not
so much between them.
12. Practical management considerations
Culture
Previous CPD efforts met teacher resistance.
Restrictive influences caused by:
teacher immersion into the local culture,
local management cultures promote “permissive
individualism” (Hargreaves, 2003, p. 163)
Successful implementation and sustainability of CoPs may depend on
effective “re-culturing ” so innovations are adopted. (Fullan, 2000, p. 3).
13. Dealing with resistance …
Waddell, Cummings & Worley (2000: ) suggest three strategies:
empathy and support ( employer-employee relationship
based upon trust and featuring active listening)
effective communication (to reduce speculation and anxiety)
participation and involvement in the decision-making
process (which improves motivation).
The IDEAS model’s four ‘categories of individual and/or group action’
(Crowther, Hann, & McMaster, 2001) reflect these strategies and could
contribute to more effective project implementation.
14. IDEAS model’s four ‘categories of individual and/or group action.
(Adapted from Crowther et al., 2001, Section B, p. 8).
Interpersonal: engendering a sense of belonging and participation • focusing
discussion on processes, not people or positions • facilitating communication across diverse
communities of interest • knowing when to ‘step back ’and let others lead • respecting and
recognizing individual initiative and contributions • building heightened expectations and goals
through shared learning.
Educative: being passionate about quality teaching and learning in all
colleges • justifying personal values in terms of a better world • being motivated to action by
complex educational issues • generating new educational meaning from individual
contributions • interpreting organisation-wide pedagogy (SWP) from successful practices •
confronting organisational barriers with confidence and conviction.
Strategic: articulating ‘big picture’ trends and understandings • linking ideas stages
logically and purposefully • encouraging the formation of links with outside agencies • encouraging
innovation • enabling staff to conceptualise holistic images of the organisation
Operational: being well organised · establishing realistic
expectations · attentive to detail
18. Collaborative ideas online
learning teams and circles (planning meetings, problem
solving or structured discussion)
scaffolded learning conversations; skillful discussion
(Senge, Roberts, Ross, Smith &Kleiner, 1994);
constructive conversations; focused conversations.
case studies; portfolios and projects (Muilenburg and
Berge, 2000).
Keeping and sharing, diaries and journals, personal
portfolios, student evaluations and peer reviews
(Walkington, Christensen &Kock, 2001).
20. References
Amidon, D.M. (2003). The innovation superhighway. Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Crowther, F., Hann, L. & McMaster, J. (2001). Leadership; in Cuttance, P. School Innovation: Pathway to the knowledge society
(Canberra, ACT: DETYA).
Fullan, M. (2000). The three stories of education reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 81(8), 581–584.
Fullan, M. (2002). The Change Leader. Educational Leadership 59.8 (2002): 16-20.
Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society: Education in the age of insecurity. London: Teachers College Press.
Hargreaves, A., Fullan, M. (1998). What’s worth fighting for out there, Teachers College Press.
Hord, S.M. (1997). Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement. Austin, Texas: Southwest
Educational Development Laboratory.
Jackson, D. and Tasker, R. (2002). Professional Learning Communities, Nottingham, National College for School Leadership.
Johnson, C. M. (2001). A survey of current research on online communities of practice. Internet and Higher Education 4 (2001) 45–60.
Louis, K.S. & Kruse, S.D. (1995). Professionalism and community: Perspectives on reforming urban schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Muilenburg, L,. and Z. Berge. (2000). A Framework for Designing Questions for Online Learning. DEOSNEWS 10 (2).
http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/muilenburg.html
Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday.
Editor's Notes
Brief overview of the paper’s literature review.
Could be used to underpin the approach to managing change. Designed for whole school improvement programmes but many of the suggested approaches seem to be more widely applicable.
