This meta-synthesis research analyzed 17 primary data sets to investigate the impact of a VCoP on the professional development of online instructors. The findings unveiled an interesting discernment of the faculty experiences and how learning through social constructivism can occur within a VCoP. Based on the research findings and 10 emergent themes, five overarching dimensions were compiled to synthesize and discuss the results further. These are (1) social nature of online learning; (2) faculty participation in a VCoP; (3) acquisition of knowledge and skills; (4) enhanced teaching and learning practices; and (5) overall impact of a VCoP on FPD. These overarching dimensions specifically accentuate on my theoretical framework, independent …show more content…
Social presence enacts substantiate role in the construction and enhancement of faculty teaching effectiveness. This study demonstrated how social presence in a VCoP promotes a high sense of connectedness and belonging while bridging faculty isolation issues. In addition, through online collaboration and social interaction, instructors connect with their like-minded colleagues to share and create new knowledge. Therefore, the social aspect of constructivist theory influences instructors to construct their own knowledge through a dialectic process and then disseminates their perceived knowledge to the rest of the community in order to create a better and more meaningful learning …show more content…
Online learning crosses the boundaries of time and place offering instructors access to different online teaching materials from anywhere at anytime. Likewise, this flexibility enables instructors to take charge of their own learning and build awareness of contemporary technologies in order to assimilate best approaches. Within the online discussions, instructors are challenged to learn with their colleagues and reflect upon their learning through social discourse. The informal nature of online learning was recognized to be a core augmentation to the FPD of online instructors. Thus, it is through the integration of social constructivism in a VCoP that instructors go through learning transformation and become more critical and creative thinkers, analyzers and knowledge creators. The results of this study pointed that a VCoP may provide optimal experience between community support and addressing the practicality of time constraints and sustained critical reflection and discourse about their teaching
I identify with being a white, Catholic, straight, teenager girl living in Owensboro, Kentucky. I considered those my cultural and societal groups. There is no objective way to pick my real group. With my taste, opinions, characteristics and age constantly changing so are my cultural and societal groups.
Empiricists and rationalists have proposed opposing theories of the acquisition of knowledge, which appear unable to coexist. Each theory holds its own strengths but does not demonstrate a strong argument in itself to the questions, “Is knowledge truly possible?” and “How is true knowledge obtained?”. Immanual Kant successfully merged the two philosophies and provided a convincing argument with his theory of empirical relativism, or what some may call constructivism. His theory bridges the gap between rationalism and empiricism and proves that empiricists and rationalists each present a piece of the full puzzle. In order to truly understand Kant’s epistemology, one must first review and understand both empiricism and rationalism on an impartial basis.
In a study conducted with 358 African American adolescents, Neblett (2009) studied the racial construction of the high school students and the influences race had on their identity. This longitudinal study identifies patterns of adolescent-reported racial socialization from a medium-sized public school district in the Midwestern United States. There were 144 male (40%) and 214 female (60%) participants and they ranged from 11 to 17 years of age. The study observed two important things: self-definition of race and the importance of this meaning to the respondent.
Using a constructivist approach, teachers facilitate learning by encouraging active inquiry, guiding learners to question their tacit assumptions, and coaching them in the construction process. This contrasts with the behavioralist approach that has dominated education, in which the teacher dissemina...
Wilson, B., and Lowry, M. “Constructivist Learning on the Web.” In The Strategic Use of Learning Technologies. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 88, edited by E. J. Burge, pp. 79-88. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
As discussed above, the literature showed that more studies are needed on learners use of technology and their preferences, on the skills they bring to the course and on their perception of experts; what I mean hear is not any expert but teacher(s), irreplaceable in such online learning environment of “freedom and chaos” where there is no certainty that if “one connect one will learn”.
..., Google, and the Apple Learning. Interchange resourceful models by adopting successful strategies to promote teacher on-line collaboration. Furthermore, Wellings and Levine (2009) also suggested that teachers develop a setting for suitable and receptive learning where students construct meaning by linking their existing skills to acquired skills. Conduct sessions to prepare for state mandated assessments. To prepare diverse learner with state mandated assessments, differentiate instructional practices through interactive software, games and activities (Wellings & Levine, 2009). Therefore, differentiating instructional practices effectively demands a change of attitude of reluctant teachers to accept technology usage in their instructional practices (Su Luan & Teo, 2009) and apply the concept of social constructivism (SC) to promote constructive social change.
I believe online learning has equal integrity and effectiveness compared to classroom settings. Furthermore, the engagement online is very comparable to classroom debate and learning. My experience with online learning including my doctoral of ministry project entitled: E-vangelism; Developing and Implementing a Social Media Ministry for Outreach which using social media to engage and connect with people online. I consider myself an expert in the field of social media and have been an advocate and proponent of online learning and social
Constructivism is a defined, when referring to the learner, as a "receptive act that involves construction of new meaning by learners within the context of their current knowledge, previous experience, and social environment" (Bloom; Perlmutter & Burrell, 1999). Also, real life experiences and previous knowledge are the stepping stones to a constructivism, learning atmosphere. (Spigner-Littles & Anderson, 1999). Constructivism involves the learner being responsible for learning the material and, not necessarily, the teacher (Ely; Foley; Freeman & Scheel, 1995). When learning occurs, the goals, values, and beliefs of the individuals need to be linked to the new data. Also, in constructivism, the person, who is taking in the knowledge, can somehow filter, amend, and reformat the information that he or she feels is important to the schema (Spigner-Littles & Anderson, 1999). A constructivist learner uses the creative approach to apply their own meaning to a topic using the social and cognitive circumstances around themselves (Bloom; Perlmutter & Burrell, 1999). A short and sweet summary of constructivism is "how one attains, develops, and uses cognitive processes" (Airasian & Walsh, 1997).
To build an online course there must be a process; this process needs to incorporate the methods of instructional design and applying these components into an online format. The overall end result is that the student learning outcomes are developed into instructional activities used for learning. Key decisions were made into developing the online design. Part of the process included documentation as to the online design, methods for interactivity, number of contacts with the faculty-member, and methods for online assessment and evaluation. One thing that was important to realize was that developing an online courses was different than developing a traditional face-to-face course. An article written by Nanette Johnson-Curiskis, a faculty member from Minnesota State University has provided some additional cons...
Among many teaching styles and learning theories, there is one that is becoming more popular, the constructivist theory. The constructivist theory focuses on the way a person learns, a constructivist believes that the person will learn better when he/she is actively engaged. The person acts or views objects and events in their environment, in the process, this person then understands and learns from the object or events(P. Johnson, 2004). When we encounter a certain experience in our life, we think back to other things that have occurred in our life and use that to tackle this experience. In a lot of cases, we are creators of our own knowledge. In a classroom, the constructivist theory encourages more hands-on assignments or real-world situations, such as, experiments in science and math real-world problem solving. A constructivist teacher constantly checks up on the student, asking them to reflect what they are learning from this activity. The teacher should be keeping track on how they approached similar situations and help them build on that. The students can actually learning how to learn in a well-planned classroom. Many people look at this learning style as a spiral, the student is constantly learning from each new experience and their ideas become more complex and develop stronger abilities to integrate this information(P. Johnson, 2004). An example of a constructivist classroom would be, the student is in science class and everyone is asking questions, although the teacher knows the answer, instead of just giving it to them, she attempts to get the students to think through their knowledge and try to come up with a logical answer. A problem with this method of learning is that people believe that it is excusing the role of...
Constructivism postulates that the key player in a learning activity is each individual student, not the educators who give information or set up the learning environment (Inoue, 2012). The recorded class is a typical student-centered constructivism class. Although the teacher in the video not only conduct constructivism teaching style into her class, she also steered the dark side of constructivism skillfully.
Wang, A. (2001). Online Lectures: Benefits for the Virtual Classroom. Retrieved April 12, 2005, from, http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3562C.cfm
Vrasidas, C. (2000). Constructivism versus objectivism: Implications for interaction, course design, and evaluation in distance education. International Journal of Telecommunications, Educational Telecommunications, 6(4), 339-362. Retrieved on April 22, 2011 from http://www.cardet.org/vrasidas/pubs/continuum.pdf
"The Teacher's Role in Developing Interaction and Reflection in an Online Learning Community." (n.d.): n. pag. Taylor and Francis. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.