Online Communities of Practice:

Sustaining Teaching Projects Overseas

Presented by: Alan Fletcher

USQ Contemporary issues conference 2012

Presentation Overview:English Language teaching (ELT) projects overseasContinuing professional development (CPD) for sustainability: a strategic perspective

Literature review on communities of practice (CoPs)

From theory to practice: management & collaborative approaches

Global English

United Arab Emirates

Oman

Malaysia

Brunei

Singapore

Hong Kong

Large Scale English Language Projects

Let’s hope your exit strategy is more effective …

Ministry targets

Student results

Failure to renew the project contractWhat’s the main threat to

project sustainability?

How do we secure a new contract?

Impress the client

How do we Impress the client? Improve learning

outcomes

How do we improve learning outcomes? Improve teaching

How do we improve teaching?

Provide continuing professional development (CPD)

Sustainability: a strategic view

The sustainability loop. Effective CPD improves learning outcomes necessary for project sustainability.

Teacher CPD

Improved pedagogy

Improved learning

outcomes

Education project contract renewal

Client Satisfaction

Project security and sustainability

What’s the most effective way of

providing professional

development?Communities

of practice

Why CoPs?

The literature supports their

benefits

The literature suggests ...Constructivist approaches to learning (applies to teachers as learners).

Communities of practice are social environments.

The social aspect applies to virtual communities.

Learning happens best in social environments.

ICT enables more collaboration between professionals.

From theory to practice: implementing and sustaining CoPs200+ 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.

ICT connecting professionalsConnecting schools through online CoPs

Practical management considerations

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).

Culture

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.

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

Implementing and sustaining CoPsSWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Risk mitigation

Implementation schedule

Collaborative ideas onlinelearning 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).

Global professional communities

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.

Senge, P., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Smith, B., & Kleiner, A. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building A Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday).

Palloff, R.M., & Pratt, K. (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Sergiovanni, T.J. (1994). Building community in schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Swan, K. (2005). A constructivist model for thinking about learning online. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.), Elements of Quality Online Education: Engaging Communities. Needham, MA: Sloan –C.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Waddell, K. M., Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2000). Organisation development and change (Pacific Rim ed.). South Melbourne, Australia: Nelson Thomson Learning.

Walkington, J., Christensen, H.P. & Kock, H. (2001). Developing critical reflection as a part of teacher training and teacher practice,’ European Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 343–50.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & Snyder, W.M. ( 2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of Practice: a brief introduction. Accessed 15th April, 2012. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm