3. 3
INTRODUCTION
The evolving role of the teaching profession and the role of teacher networks in
responseto changing skills needs in society. Itargues that teachers can be the
main change agents for reforms of education, provided that they are well
supported and enabled to do so. Recently, various teacher networks have
emerged at the local and international scale, and questions around their role in
supporting teachers, both in their Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and Continuous
ProfessionalDevelopment(CPD), havebeen raised. We consider teacher
networks as learning networks: technology-supported communities through
which learners shareknowledgewith one another and jointly develop new
knowledge. The ultimate aim of teacher networks is to contribute to both the
quality of the teaching profession and the learning experience of students, by
encouraging collaboration and knowledgeexchange at both teacher and student
level.
4. 4
CONTENT
The constructof teacher networks contains various elements. Teacher networks
can exist on many levels, e.g. within a schooland across-schoolsatregional,
national and international level. Moreover, thanks to the useof technology-
supported communication tools and social media, we can observethat the
intersection between online and offline cooperation is changing and that the
physicalworld is increasingly mixed with the digital one. Such blended
experiences are becoming the new norm. This trend is also acknowledged in our
definition of learning networks. Finally, various forms of teacher cooperation can
take place in teacher networks. According to the TALIS study, teacher cooperation
implies teachers working together in groups or teams to improveeducational
processes and outcomes . Teacher cooperation includes both teachers' exchange
and co-ordination for teaching, e.g. exchange of learning material and
professionalcollaboration, as in the projectcollaboration that takes place in
networks .
The unprecedented opportunities broughtabout by networking tools enable
teachers to network and collaborate with other teachers fromanywhere, at any
time. Such development in the profession of teachers is a significant aspect which
cannot be ignored when discussing the futureof education. Teachers tend to feel
isolated in their own schools and areoften confined to a single schoolexperience.
Tight timetables and overloaded curricula do not allow them much time to
explore innovative pedagogies. Various literature sources in education have
explored a vastarray of research addressing teachers’ professionaldevelopment.
Recently, some focus on alternative approaches of addressing professional
development can be observed.
5. 5
CONCLUSION
As in all sectors of society, the useof ICTis enabling changes in education and
training, and in particular, increasingly affecting the teachers’ work and
professionaldevelopment. A number of key trends have been identified in this
chapter. In the future, learning is expected to be more personalized,
collaborative, informal, competence-based and supported by flexible and dynamic
virtual environments and by a range of tools which facilitate learning inside and
outside school. Itis less clear, however, how this will affect the role of teachers.
