seminar
CITE Seminar: Engagement in Supporting New Teachers: A Role for Computer-Mediated Communication in Teacher Learning within Informal Professional Communities
This seminar will examine the possibilities and constraints of online communities in supporting teacher learning, both novice and experienced teachers, so addressing the national concerns for teacher retention and teacher quality in the USA. In particular, the speaker will focus on outlining a conceptual and methodological framework for characterizing interaction of experienced and novice teachers in informal network-based professional learning electronic or e-communities. The study has shown that integrating dialogic voices/utterances (Bakhtin, 1986) and using texts as ���thinking device[s]��� for generating new meanings (Lotman, 1990; Wertsch, 1991) are essential for effectively engaging practitioners. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, longitudinal discourse data, questionnaires, and interview responses were collected from public school teachers��� email communications and subjected to analyses from discourse analytic and ethnographic perspectives, resulting in a characterization of engagement and a taxonomy of e-communities for evaluations. The findings suggest proposals for sustainable learning in network-based environments and policy.
- Diane Hui has just completed her doctoral dissertation in Education at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA. She is a Spencer scholar awarded by the Spencer Foundation in the US. She has conducted collaborative research from a multidisciplinary perspective, both in the US and UK. These projected were funded by the McDonnell Foundation (US), government agencies (UK), and the European Communities. One project assessed the use and reflection upon an inquiry-based curriculum across subjects, with the use of information technology. The other research explored the representational connection between the logical aspects taught in sciences and the social aspects in the humanities. Other research examined sustainability education and adult dyslexia in employment. Diane grew up in Hong Kong. She has degrees from Edinburgh Univeristy (UK) and Stirling University (UK), and has taught in Hong Kong, Scotland, and the USA.