Teachers' collaboration supports expanding their expertise in several ways: 1. Sharing ideas and experiences with other teachers exposes one to new perspectives and approaches to teaching. This prevents sticking to familiar routines and encourages continuous learning. 2. Discussing teaching practices with colleagues allows for reflection on and improvement of one's own methods. Feedback and fresh viewpoints can help one strengthen weaker areas. 3. Collaborating on projects, lessons or problem-solving provides opportunities to learn from others' strengths and expertise. Taking on new roles alongside more experienced teachers facilitates skills growth. 4. Participating in a community of practice promotes experimentation and a culture of lifelong learning. Networking internally and externally expands sources for developing expertise.

1. Teachers’ learning
4.10.2012
Niina Impiö
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

2. Content
• Teachers’ knowledge
• Teachers’ collaboration
• Teachers’ technological pedagogical
content knowledge
niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

3. Changes at teachers’ work
• There is ongoing pressure for developmental changes in education (e.g.
educational innovations, technology-enhanced learning).
• This require both changes in teachers’ ways of thinking about student
learning and changes in their teaching practices.
• There is a need for changes in knowledge, beliefs, emotions and teaching
practices (Bakkenes, Vermunt & Wubbels, 2010).
• These changes require continuous teacher professional development (e.g.
Sahlberg & Boce, 2010).
• Too often educational innovations have failed because they did not
recognize the need for teacher learning (c.f Lieberman & Pointer
Mace, 2008)
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
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4. • When there is need to change the pedagogy of the school, teachers are
expected to adapt their way of teaching accordingly. They have to
– develop another vision on learning and teaching
– be motivated to learn about the new pedagogy
– understand what the innovation is good for
– develop skills to bring the innovation into practice
– form experiments with the new pedagogy in order to learn
– form part of a community of teachers who all are learning new things
 Teaching is highly demanding, high-performance profession in which
teachers must rapidly make many decisions in a highly complex and time-
pressured conditions
 We have to see teachers as the adaptive expertisers
(e.g. Crawford, Schlager, Toyama, Riel & Vahey, 2005)
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

5. Teachers’ Learning
• In recent years, teacher learning has become an
important topic in educational research.
• How teachers learn at work?
– learning by experimenting
– learning in interaction
– using external sources
– consciously thinking about one’s own teaching practices
(Kwakman 2003, Lohma & Woolf 2001, Van Eekelen et al. 2005)
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

6. Teachers’ Learning
• Teachers’ conceptions of learning direct their teaching practices, it
providing a pedagogical frame for teaching methods they use.
• Conceptions of learning relate closely to the concept of pedagogical
content knowledge (PCK) (Shulman 1986; 1987)
– Three components of knowledge
Pedagogical knowledge (PK)
Content Knowledge (CK)
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
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7. • Pedagogical knowledge (PK)
– is teachers’ deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of
teaching and learning
– applies to understanding how students learn, general classroom management
skills, lesson planning, and student assessment
– A teacher with deep pedagogical knowledge undestands how students
construct knowledge and acquire skills and how they develop habits of mind
and positive dispositions towards learning. As such, pedagogical knowledge
requires an understanding of cognitive, social, and developmental theories of
learning and how they apply to students in the classroom.
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
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8. • Content Knowledge (CK)
– is teachers’ knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught
– would include knowledge of concepts, theories, ideas, organizational
frameworks, knowledge of evidence and proof, as well as established practices
and approaches toward developing such knowledge
• Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
– transformation of the subject matter for teaching
– transformation occurs as the teacher interprets the subject matter, finds
multiple ways to represent it, and adapts and tailors the instructional materials
to alternative conceptions and students’ prior knowledge
– covers the core business of teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment and
reporting, such as the conditions that promote learning and the links among
curriculumn, assessment, and pedagogy
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

9. • Collaboration and it’s impact on pedagogical practices is important for
teachers’ professional development.
(Barab & Squire, 2002; Barab, Makinster & Scheckler, 2003; Goddard, Hoy & Woolfolk Hoy,
2004 Yuen, Law & Wong, 2003).
• Despite increased collaboration between teachers and between schools, it
seems that teachers’ collaborative working culture still needs to be
developed (e.g. Ilomäki, 2008).
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

10. COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
(e.g. Dillenbourg, 1999; Roschelle & Teasley, 1995)
• “a coordinated synchronous activity that is the result of continued
attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem”
(Roschelle & Teasley, 1995)
• “is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn
something together” (Dillenbourg, 1999)
• Activities characterized as teachers collaboration
– Joint teaching and collaborative teaching methods
– Interaction between colleagues and others
– F2f and computer-mediated interaction
– Joint problem solving processes  pedagogical innovations
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

11. E6
Asking and explaining
Knowledge sharing
Collaborative working
starts effective
learning mechanism.
Learn from others
Argumentation and learning and teaching
giving feedback strategies
(esim. Dillenbourg, 1999; Roschelle & Teasley, 1995)
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

12. Learn to work collaboratively!
Teachers are more willing and Teachers feel that due to
Teachers’ attitudes toward being familiar with
feel more capable to use
collaborative work has collaborative learning both in
collaborative teaching methods in
changed, which has theory and practice, they are
their work after they have had
influenced to their work more confident to
own experiences from
both in teaching methods recommend
collaborative learning, and after
and collaboration with collaborative working
they have studied theories of
colleagues. methods while working
collaborative learning.
together with colleagues.
(Impiö, 2011)

13. Collaboration among teachers
(Little, 1990; Rosenholtz, 1989)
• FIRST LEVEL ”storytelling and scanning”
– occurs in staff rooms or in hallways
– moment-by-moment exchanges
• SECOND LEVEL ”aid and assistance”
– critically look one’s teaching practice
• THIRD LEVEL ”sharing” or ”exchaning instructional materials and ideas”
– regularly sharing materials, methods an opinions
– allow teachers to make their daily teaching routines accessible to other teachers which
promotes productive discussions of the curriculum
• FOURTH LEVEL ”joint work” or ”instructional problem-solving and planning”
– teachers feel a collective responsibility for the work of teaching
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Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

14. Multilevel model of The goals of the school 5
an innovative, The content of the vision,
The vision of using ICT,
knowledge-creating The content of school's strategy for using
school ICT,
The importance and centrality of the visions
and strategies.
Expert-like working culture in Pedagogical practices The ICT resources
the school Pedagogical conceptions in Adequateness of the ICT-
Practices for sharing knowledge general, resources,
and distributing expertise, Conceptions of the pedagogical Technical equipment,
Networking: principal, teachers use of ICT, The level of students’ and
and students; both internal and Learning tasks that exploit ICT, teachers’ skills and use of
external, Support for knowledge ICT,
Commonly agreed and management skills, Technical and pedagogical
appropriate ways of working, ICT as school's common support available
Community's collective pedagogical tool
memory,
common development projects.
Leadership
Teacher community's working culture
The role of the principal,
Uniformity of the visions,
Pedagogical collaboration and its density, Shared leadership and
Sharing of expertise, responsible teams,
Community’s internal networking, Principal's networking.
Discussion culture,
Development culture.
Ilomäki and Lakkala, 2005

15. TEACHERS’ NETWORKS
Example 1
Kaisto, Hämäläinen & Järvelä. (2007)
http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514286780/

16. Example 3
Example 2
Kaisto, Hämäläinen & Järvelä. (2007)
http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514286780/

17. Technology has increased
networking and
collaboration among
teachers
E4 E5
LET.OULU.FI niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

18. TPACK Framework (Koehler & Mishra 2009)
• describe how
teachers’
understanding of
educational
technologies and
PCK interact
with one
another to
produce
effective teaching
with technology
http://tpack.org/
LET.OULU.FI niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

19. 1. Technology knowledge (TK)
– is knowledge about standard technologies such as books and
chalk and blackboard, as well as more advanced technologies
such as the Internet and digital video
– indicates teachers’ skills to use different technologies and
awareness of the different possibilities and constraints that
technologies have
– indicates also interest in technological development and different
technologies
– knowing what kind of software there are, for what purposes and
how to use them
niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

20. 2.Technological content knowledge (TCK)
– is knowledge about the manner in which technology knowledge
(TK) and content knowledge (CK) are reciprocally related to each
other
– refers to understanding of the connection between different
technologies and knowledge about the content area
– means teachers’ understanding of which technologies and
software work with certain topics, how the technology used and
content to be taught influence and possibly constrain each other
niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

21. 3.Technological pedagogical knowledge
– an understanding of various technologies as they are used in teaching and
learning settings, and conversely, knowing how teaching might change as the
result of using technologies
– means understanding how teaching and learning changes when introducing and
using different technologies
– refers to understanding of the benefits and constrains of different technologies
when using them in teaching, indicating deep understanding of the
characteristics of technologies available.
• This area of knowledge is important when we consider software used in
teaching. Software such as social software or office tools is rarely designed
specifically for teaching. This leaves the teacher to decide and apply them
in teaching based on his or her judgment on the benefits of different tools
for learning (Valtonen, 2011).
niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

22. LET.OULU.FI niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

23. THANK YOU!
Niina Impiö
(niina.impio@oulu.fi)
niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

24. References
• Fullan, M. (2002). The Role of Leadership in the Promotion of Knowledge Management in Schools. Teachers
and Teaching: theory and practice, 8(3/4), 411-419.
• Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing Teachers, Changing Times:Teachers Work and Culture in the Postmodern Age.
London, Cassell.
• Hargreaves, D. (1999). The knowledge-creating school. British Journal of Educational Studies, 47(2), 122-144.
• Ilomäki, L., & Lakkala, M. (2005, August). A framework for investigating school development through ICT. A
paper presented at the 11th Biennial Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Nicosia,
Cyprus.
• Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2005). What happens when teachers design educational technology? The
development of technological pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32
(2), 131-152.
• Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in
Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. Retrieved from:
http://www.citejournal.org/vol9/iss1/general/article1.cfm
• Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for integrating
technology in teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
• Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-
14.
• Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harward Educational Review,
57(1), 1-21.
niina.impio@oulu.fi
Learning and Educational Technology Research
Unit

25. What is the role of ICT in teachers’ collaborative practices?
CONTENT
Example 3:
“We have a very small community in our school, and we all use ICT in
our work. When we have been doing together projects it has advanced
togetherness. We have like a special group’ in our school, because we
have something to share.”
___
Example 4:
“I can say that when two teachers, who have used ICT in teaching, get
together, there is always something to discuss.”

26. What is the role of ICT in teachers’
collaborative practices?
TOOL
Example 5:
“We got Reissuvihko (management system for register e.g. absences,
schedules and homeworks) last autumn. [...] it has been incredibly
good, a huge step in promoting collaboration between home and
school, and unexpectedly also, and may be more, inside our school,
promoting communication between workmates. […] Unexpectedly
this same application has increased information sharing between
children and teachers.”

27. How teachers’ collaboration supports them expanding their
expertise?
Example 6:
“I like to have collaboration because it gives me
opportunities to share ideas.
I will repeat same things easily in my teaching without new
ideas. For the reason to develop my work, I have to be
active and communicate with my colleagues.”