Sharing Professional Practice – Tutors have their say

Michael Hallissy

doi:10.22554/ijtel.v2i1.12

Abstract

This paper analyses the theoretical construct of professional practice knowledge; the ‘tacit knowledge’ that all teachers use when engaging with digital technologies. To reach this end and to gather the views of tutors, a framework developed by Mishra and Koehler –Technological Pedagogical and Content Framework (TPACK) – was employed. This was used in parallel with the Flanders Interaction Analysis Category (FIAC) Framework to collect semi-structured interview and interaction analysis data. This paper will present a selection of the data gathered and analysed using the TPACK framework.The research found that faculty need ongoing training opportunities where they can develop their professional practice in order to use Synchronous Computer Mediated Conferencing (SCMC) tools to design interactive sessions that are not teacher dominated. The paper recommends that HE institutions design a signature pedagogy for academic staff and students on how SCMC technology can be used within specific online interactive programmes.It also found that there is a need for academic staff to capture their own professional practice; to sit back and ask, what is going on here? Having reflected on their practice, tutors should then be encouraged to share their own experiences, or their tacit knowledge, with their peers. Institutions can then begin to capture and reflect on this ‘hot action’ around the use of SCMC technologies. Ultimately this information may help faculty to design learning experiences that will improve student-learning.

Highlights

There is growing evidence (Allen & Seaman, 2015) that many higher education (HE) institutions are moving some or all of their course offerings online
I will illustrate some the main themes that emerged during the interviews by sharing some of the views of two tutors, Tutor 1 (T1) and Tutor 2 (T2)
This study has found that the espoused theory of online tutorials, that of a dominant social constructivist approach, is not always present in such events

Summary

Introduction

There is growing evidence (Allen & Seaman, 2015) that many higher education (HE) institutions are moving some or all of their course offerings online. Over the past few years, there has been a growing trend, of HE institutions offering live online learning opportunities to their learners. These online sessions are made possible by the use of synchronous computer mediated conferencing (SCMC) technologies, such as Adobe Connect and Blackboard Collaborate. This paper attempts to capture the practices colleagues engaged in during a series of online live tutorials and to consider how they and their educational institutions could potentially enhance professional practice in the future. Opportunity for students to present their work to colleagues These responses seemed at odds with much of the literature associated with teaching online, that advocated the use of social-constructivist teaching approaches (Rovai, 2004; Pallof and Pratt, 2007 and 2011; Stavredes, 2011). Other professions, such as medicine, place great store on codifying and sharing such knowledge, it appears that education places less value on this type of knowledge (Loughran, 2010)

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Conclusion