Planning and sharing learning designs: cross-cultural use of a learning design support tool

Abstract

In order to facilitate their teaching design, more teachers are beginning to engage in collective efforts, with some Chinese teachers also now sharing their resources online to plan their teaching. The learning design support tool described here (the Learning Designer), resulting from an interdisciplinary research project in the UK, provides a new form of collaboration between teachers. This paper tests the value of the tool for cross-cultural sharing of learning designs. It documents the process of a Chinese teacher who tries to represent and share his language teaching planning by using this innovative web-based prototype. The paper reflects on the issues that arise from this cross-cultural study, and the implications for the future of pedagogical innovation.