Teacher education MOOCs: Re-thinking professional development of teachers according to the MOOC experiences of preservice teachers and teacher trainers

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to identify the possible roles of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in faculty-based teacher professional development (TPD). In line with this aim, the MOOC experiences of preservice teachers and teacher trainers were examined. This study uses a qualitative single case holistic design. The participants of the study were 58 preservice teachers and 8 teacher trainers. The data were gathered through the semi-structured interviews in 2018-2019 Fall Semester. Before the interviews, a two-day briefing and orientation about MOOCs were held to inform the participants. After enrolling at least one of these upcoming MOOCs, interviews were carried out in the upcoming two months. The content analysis was used to examine the data collected. According to content analysis, TPACK acquisition and its sub-themes were found to be dominant with regards to participants’ views. The preservice teachers mostly enrolled in MOOCs which were related to their “professional field and technical development” domains and mostly suggested TPD MOOC topic by teacher trainers is “effective communication and presentation techniques”. It was noticed in the findings that preservice teachers have lack of confidence about the issues related to classroom management. Some negative views of preservice teachers about the MOOCs are concerned with two specific views; language constraints and costs of certain courses. Overall tendency concerning the use of MOOCs for TPD was found to be positive among the participants. However, most of the participants were uninformed or underchallenged about the MOOCs. Results of this study may help to open a new door for integrating MOOCs into teacher training programs.