Enhancing teacher competence through online training

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Department/Unit

Science Education

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Asia-Pacific Education Researcher

Volume

19

Issue

3

First Page

371

Last Page

386

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

An increasing number of educational institutions and organizations around the world employ online training to address emerging challenges in teacher competence. Research literature, however, showed that few studies have been conducted that followed teachers in their respective schools after training to evaluate their classroom performance. Enthused by this lack of empirical proof, this study was conducted to assess the modifications on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) – an accepted construct in educational lexicon – of nine non-major science teachers who were given a month-long, fully online training. Using a multi-method assessment procedure (e.g., achievement testing, concept mapping, lesson planning, and demonstration teaching), results disclose substantial alteration in two knowledge-based PCK components in science teaching – knowledge about science curriculum and students’ understanding of science. A significant increase in achievement scores, better concept map structure and corrected misconceptions were observed after the training. Contrastingly, only little improvement was noted in the other two skill-based components – knowledge about instructional strategies and assessment in science. Few changes were noticed in teachers’ topic-specific strategies and science learning assessment skills. Based on these findings, it appeared that fully online teacher trainings were insufficient in enhancing all facets of the complex nature of science teaching.

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Disciplines

Teacher Education and Professional Development

Keywords

Teachers—Training of; Teacher effectiveness

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