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Greasing the Wheels: Facilitating Mentoring Within a Professional Development Community for Novice Science Teachers Through Social Network Tools
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, , , , , Texas A&M University, United States

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, in Charleston, SC, USA ISBN 978-1-880094-67-9 Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Waynesville, NC USA

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Abstract

Our study examines the evolution of mentoring groups in a professional development community, Professional Learning Community Model for Entry into Teaching Science (PLC-METS), focused on supporting novice science teachers. We describe the mentor groups in terms of the nature of the interaction of the group members and characterize how these interactions are facilitated by social networking tools including a wiki and social networking website. Our analysis shows a slow and steady evolution of members’ interactions in the online community. The mentor in the group plays a central role in the nature of the group’s interactions. The concentricity in the group network is centered on the mentor instead of the novice teachers, as we designed. The tendency to use the online communication tools depends upon mentor teacher’s preference and prior knowledge. Our findings highlight the potential role of Web 2.0 tools, including wikis and social networks, in facilitating the evolution of a learning community in teacher professional development programs.

Citation

Kim, H.J., Miller, H., Herbert, B., Loving, C. & Pedersen, S. (2009). Greasing the Wheels: Facilitating Mentoring Within a Professional Development Community for Novice Science Teachers Through Social Network Tools. In I. Gibson, R. Weber, K. McFerrin, R. Carlsen & D. Willis (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2009--Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 3162-3167). Charleston, SC, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved April 18, 2021 from .

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