A case study of online community of practice for teacher professional development on technology integration as cognitive tools in mathematics teaching

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2022-9-05
Çolpan, Dicle
While teachers’ participation in a teacher network is highlighted in effective professional development and online learning removes some limitations, online communities of practice (online CoP) have emerged as a promising way for teacher professional development. Considering the discrepancy between research suggesting integrating technology to improve students' understanding and metacognitive skills and teachers’ practices with teacher-centered approaches and a learning-from-medium perspective, online CoPs can provide the necessary support for teachers. Within a continuous and collaborative learning environment, teachers can gain the competencies required to incorporate technology as a learning partner and benefit from cognitive tools for students’ understanding mathematics. The purpose of this exploratory single case study was to explain the impact of an online CoP designed for mathematics teachers’ professional development about the integration of technology as cognitive tools. 24 mathematics teachers participated in this study. Interviews, lesson plans, and online discussion recordings were used to collect qualitative data. The findings demonstrated teachers’ experiences in integrating cognitive tools as well as the indicators of constructivist learning environments in their lesson plans. Furthermore, the study revealed teachers' experiences in an online CoP while learning how to integrate a cognitive tool into their practices, as well as their knowledge construction throughout the online discussions. Based on the findings, the study proposed a set of suggestions for designing teacher professional development programs and designing and implementing lesson plans integrating cognitive tools.

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Citation Formats
D. Çolpan, “A case study of online community of practice for teacher professional development on technology integration as cognitive tools in mathematics teaching,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2022.