Do blended virtual learning communities enhance teachers' professional development more than purely virtual ones? A large scale empirical comparison
ARTICLE
U. Matzat
Computers & Education Volume 60, Number 1, ISSN 0360-1315 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
This article examines whether a mixture of virtual and real-life interaction—in contrast to purely virtual interaction—among some members of online communities for teachers is beneficial for all teachers' professional development in the whole community. Earlier research indicated that blended communities tend to face fewer trust and free rider problems. This study continues this stream of research by examining whether blended communities provide more practical benefits to teachers, both in terms of perceived improvements to their teaching capabilities as well as for their substantial understanding of their core topic. In addition, it is tested whether blended communities provide more information about vacancies, as teachers' mobility is regarded as too low in the EU. The analysis uses survey data from 26 online communities for secondary education teachers in The Netherlands. The communities are part of a virtual organization that hosts communities for teachers' professional development. The findings indeed show beneficial effects of blended communities. Moreover, the results modify earlier claims about the integration of online communication with offline interaction by showing that complete integration is unnecessary. This facilitates a scaling up of the use of online communities for teachers' professional development.
Citation
Matzat, U. (2013). Do blended virtual learning communities enhance teachers' professional development more than purely virtual ones? A large scale empirical comparison. Computers & Education, 60(1), 40-51. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved June 10, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/132182/.
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Keywords
- Blended community
- blended learning
- communities of practice
- Comparative Analysis
- computer mediated communication
- Computer Uses in Education
- Conventional Instruction
- distance education
- e-learning
- electronic learning
- Embeddedness
- Faculty Mobility
- Foreign Countries
- Inservice Teacher Education
- interaction
- internet
- Job Search Methods
- knowledge sharing
- learning community
- online community
- Program Effectiveness
- secondary education
- Secondary School Teachers
- social networks
- teacher education
- Teacher mobility
- Teacher Surveys
Cited By
View References & Citations Map-
Twitter + Voxer: Educators’ Complementary Uses of Multiple Social Media
Jeffrey Carpenter, Elon University, United States; Tim Green, California State University Fullerton, United States
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2018 (Mar 26, 2018) pp. 2236–2244
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PK-12 Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Professional Learning Networks
Jeffrey Carpenter, Elon University, United States; Daniel Krutka, Texas Woman's University, United States; Torrey Trust, University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (Mar 21, 2016) pp. 1936–1942
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Blended Learning for In-service Teachers’ Professional Development: A Preliminary Look at Perspectives of Two Singapore Chinese Language Teachers
Yan Ni Tan & Yuh-Huann Tan, Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, Singapore
E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2015 (Oct 19, 2015) pp. 670–675
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