eModule 5: The Teacher Community Portal and SOAR’s Research Basis
Objective:
- In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Teacher Community portal for ongoing online professional development.
Online learning community groups help teachers engage in ongoing professional development, especially when teaching with the Student Toolkit in their classrooms. In these groups, two or more teachers come together virtually to share ideas and support instruction.
SOAR’s Teacher Community portal gives teachers access to an online learning community as they implement the strategies. The portal provides a place to share and receive resources, and to take part in synchronous (chats) and asynchronous (collaborative forum) discussions with other teachers.
You can navigate to the portal by opening a new tab, and then opening the main S-SOAR website. Select Teacher Community in the menu bar.
To learn more about the features of the Teacher Community portal, click on each:
To familiarize yourself with the Teacher Community portal, try these activities:
- Using the chat feature, type a simple message (such as: "Hello, I’m joining the community!"), either to one member or to the group.
- In the forum, create a post by introducing yourself in the "Teacher Introductions" folder.
- Click on the "Upload a File" feature and view one resource.
Objective:
- In this lesson, you will discover how learning community groups can support instruction at local and global levels.
Online learning communities have many benefits, especially for implementing the Student Toolkit — if they are used according to best practices.
Blitz’s (2013) review of the literature on online learning community groups found that some components are especially effective. The Teacher Community portal facilitates interactions at local (school, district) and global levels, and in small or large groups. Review these components of learning communities in the contexts of both small and global community interactions:
Components of Learning Communities
| Best Practice | Evidence Basis | Use with the Teacher Community |
| Desire to build teacher community | (e.g., Brooks, 2010) | Decide whether teachers at your school/district prefer their own community, or want to be part of the larger global group. |
| Membership with different types and levels of expertise, which supports skill development with instructional technologies | (e.g., Baran & Cagiltay, 2010) | Contribute your own expertise by sharing; download others’ resources to learn about unfamiliar content/areas. |
| Shared vision of specific goals | (e.g., Hargreaves & Fink, 2006) | Using the chat and forum features, identify short- and long-term goals. |
| Facilitation or direction (e.g., members set up meeting times, track outcomes) | (e.g., Gray & Smyth, 2012) | Determine roles within the group (if a small group), such as who should schedule meetings, track outcomes, and complete other tasks. |
References:
Baran, B., & Cagiltay, K. (2010). The dynamics of online communities in the activity theory framework. Journal of Educational Technology & Society 13(4), 155-166.
Blitz, C. L. (2013). Can online learning communities achieve the goals of traditional professional learning communities? What the literature says. (REL 2013-003). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs
Brooks, C. F. (2010). Toward "hybridised" faculty development for the twenty-first century: Blending online communities of practice and face-to-face meetings in instructional and professional support programs. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 47(3), 261-270.
Gray, C., & Smyth, K. (2012). Collaboration creation: lessons learned from establishing an online professional learning community. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 10(1), 60-75.
Hargreaves, A., & Fink, D. (2006). Redistributed leadership for sustainable professional learning communities. Journal of School Leadership, 16(5), 550-565.
Learning communities are especially helpful for sharing ideas about instruction with students who have learning difficulties. For example, a special education teacher may have insights for general education teachers who have students with learning difficulties in their classrooms, which may be conveyed via the forum, chat, or resource-sharing features. The portal provides a way for busy teachers to collaborate at their convenience.
Think of other ways that you and other teachers may benefit from the Teacher Community portal. How can you use it to make your teaching of the strategies more effective? Write your comments in the teacher forum.
25 Years of Development and Testing
Students who learn how to conduct research with the Student Toolkit are receiving an effective curriculum based on 25 years of research and development. Here is a quick look at the research—click on each part to learn more.
Timeline of Strategies and Student Toolkit Research
| 1990 | 2000 | 2009 | 2010 | 2012 |
Current Project (Stepping Up to SOAR)
The current project continues to refine and test the strategies and Student Toolkit. It also has developed a professional development program, and is currently testing and refining it to prepare teachers to use the strategies and toolkit in their classrooms.
The project has completed three case studies. Results of the three studies combined show that the Student Toolkit was feasible to implement, and helped students master online research skills.
The next step in this project is a study in eight middle schools to test the impact of the combined professional development program and Student Toolkit student curriculum.
At the end of the current study, the professional development program and classroom curriculum will be disseminated to 10 middle schools. Researchers will track fidelity, feasibility, and academic performance results.
You are invited to take advantage of these tools to support your students in conducting online academic research.
