teacher community of practice: a social media solution

8/7/2019 Teacher Community of Practice: a social media solution

1/38


2/38

Yoseph Ayele 1/21/2011

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................... 2

TEACHER COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: A SOCIAL MEDIA SOLUTION ..... 3

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 3

PROBLEM DEFINITION .................................................................... 4

THESTATEOFTHE US EDUCATIONSYSTEM....................................................... 4WHYTEACHERSMATTER........................................................................... 5WHATINFLUENCESTHEQUALITYOFTEACHERS: PEDAGOGICALKNOWLEDGECONTENT............. 6HOWTHEYCURRENTLYLEARNWHATTOTEACH: INTELLECTUALDEVELOPMENT.................................. 7HOWTHEYCURRENTLYLEARNHOWTOBETEACHERS: INTERACTIONSWITHOTHERTEACHERS.................8

PROBLEM: LACKOFADEQUATEANDCONSISTENTTEACHERSUPPORT ............................. 9

ALTERNATIVES ............................................................................. 10

ALTERNATIVES SUMMARYTABLE................................................................ 11

PROPOSED SOLUTION: A TEACHERS COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE ...... 17

LEARNINGFROMCURRENTEXAMPLES............................................................ 18FEATURESOFTHEPLATFORM.................................................................... 20OPTIONSFORSETTINGUPTHEPLATFORM....................................................... 23

PROPOSAL TO THE GOVERNMENT BODY ........................................ 25

STAKEHOLDERS................................................................................... 27

LAUNCHING THE PLATFORM .......................................................... 28

TARGETINGTEACHERSAPPROACH 1: NINTHGRADEMATHTEACHERS............................ 29GETTINGTEACHERSTOUSEIT..................................................................................... 30TARGETINGTEACHERSAPPROACH 2: TEACHFOR AMERICA..................................... 31GETTINGTEACHERSTOUSEIT..................................................................................... 31TARGETINGTEACHERSAPPROACH 3: REPLACEMANDATORYTRAININGS.......................... 32GETTINGTEACHERSTOUSEIT..................................................................................... 33

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS ................................................... 34

RISKS AND CHALLENGES .............................................................. 34

CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 35

PROPOSAL SUMMARY............................................................................ 37

................................................................................................... 37

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................. 38

2


3/38


Teacher Community of Practice: a social media

solution

Introduction

The future of the United States of America in the twenty-first century heavily relies on

how well educated its citizens are. Education is key to the countrys economy and overall

success, and yet the education system faces many challenges. Student academic

performances are lagging, and the 6 million teachers in America can influence the results

either way. Teachers however lack a consistent support system to help them be better

teachers, and that has contributed to low quality of teaching around the country. Through

the help of technology, a support system can be developed where teachers create a

community of practice. This paper discusses technological solutions to challenges that

teachers face. It proposes several options for state governments to take in order to address

the lack of support for teachers. Using existing social media platforms as examples, the

state government can either develop and manage an online community, partner with an

organization that will create and run the community through a governments financial

backing, or support an independent initiative without government involvement. The paper

acknowledges the challenges involved in building a community of practice and advices

three possible ways to launch the platform and to get teachers using it: target 9 th grade

3


4/38


mathematics teachers, use Teach for America teachers as early adopters, or provide

mandatory teacher trainings online and use that approach to drive users to the platform.

Problem definition

The state of the US education system

The United States government spends $540 billion to send nearly 50 million students to

99,000 public middle and secondary schools in the country. Government spending on

education increased from 5.44% of GDP in 1970 to 7.02% of GDP today. The

governments education budget increased from $56.46 billion in 1970 to about $1,026

billion today.1 Even though the government spends on average $10,800 per student each

year, or on average $5.5 million per public school each year, schools lack resources to

improve the quality of education they provide. Furthermore, the average American

students ability to read has not improved much in the past 40 years. Students literacy

level has dropped between 1992 and 2003.2 More money is being allocated to improve

the education system at different fronts, but the results produced have not been

significant. Americans recognize that the education system should be improved. Teachers

play a significant factor in this process. We are now in tough times when governments

cannot afford to allocate significant resources to improve education and many are

struggling to maintain the status quo. IT-based solutions however show promise to

deliver the necessary services in a cost effective way.

1http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?

year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=s2http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=69

4
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=shttp://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=shttp://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=shttp://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=69http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=shttp://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=shttp://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1970_2015&view=1&expand=20&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Education%20Spending%20Chart&state=US&color=c&local=shttp://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=69


5/38


Why teachers matter

Teachers are expensive. It is important to recognize that a huge part of the

education expenditure in the country goes to teachers. On average about half of the

education costs in America are allocated to teachers salaries. For example, the California

Education Code Section 41372 requires that 60% of an elementary school districts

expenses should be for payment of classroom teachers and 55% for high school teachers.

As the governments education budget increased in the past decades, its expenditure on

teachers increased as well.

Teachers classroom practice influences student

performance. In a study conducted in 2002 with 779 elementary school teachers

and students, where a control group of teachers was given an intervention of professional

development training, the authors of the study found that teachers classroom practice

affects student learning, and that a better teacher practice can improve student learning.

This study shows the great effect that teachers have on student performance, and that an

intervention at the teacher level can yield improved student performance (McCutchen et

al., 2002). Stagnant student performance over the past decades can be attributed to many

factors (e.g. shortage of resources in schools, lack of parental involvement in their

childrens education, etc), but as teachers have a huge influence on students learning

experiences, their classroom practices affects those performances. Furthermore, a

research conducted by the Gates Foundation indicates that teachers who lead students to

5


6/38


achievement gains in one year or in one class tend to do so in other years and other

classes.3 The research also discusses that student perceptions of a given teachers

strengths and weaknesses are consistent across the different groups of students they

teach. This validates that teachers classroom performance is quite consistent, and quality

teachers continuously lead their students to higher achievement ratings. Therefore,

improving teacher quality produces better student performance, and this paper focuses on

an important variable that affects teacher quality: consistent support for teachers.

What influences the quality of teachers: pedagogical

knowledge content

Two major factors affect a teachers classroom performance. The first is his/her mastery

of the subject(s) being taught. Teachers who have mastered a topic they teach are able to

explain it better and present the correct materials to their students. The what to teach is

defined by whether the teachers know or dont know their subject(s). The second factor is

how to teach. This is less tangible and measurable than the first but makes a big

difference. Knowing how to teach includes fostering pedagogical learning, dealing with

different kinds of learners, explaining materials in ways that the students can absorb and

learn how to think on their own. If a teacher doesnt know how to teach, his/her mastery

of the material will not be of great help. These two components create what the Gates

Foundation research calls a pedagogical knowledge content where teachers develop

3 Learning about teaching: initial finds from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project, 2010,Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation

6


7/38


content knowledge and knowledge for teaching.4

The federal government defines a highly qualified public school teacher through the

following criteria: having at least a Bachelors degree, having a valid state certification,

and demonstrating content expertise in the core academic subject(s) they teach. The state

certification generally includes a test, a prerequisite coursework, and teacher preparation

training (short-term education program approved by the state). These criteria ensure that

only teachers who have the knowledge and academic credentials in the subjects they will

teach but emphasize very little on teaching them how to teach. The major flaw here is

that the definition considers teacher qualification reaching set benchmarks and disregards

the processes through which an individual becomes a teacher. These processes consist of

a teachers continuing intellectual development and learning how to be a classroom

teacher. These two factors have an actual influence on whether an individual is

qualified or not qualified to be a teacher.

How they currently learn what to teach: intellectual

development

Traditionally, teachers develop their own knowledge outside the school walls by going to

summer institutes and participating in intellectual training programs. For many, this

makes learning a summer activity, an activity done outside their normal working hours

rather than part of their professional life (Grossman, Wineburg, and Woolworth, 2001).

4 Learning about teaching: initial finds from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project, 2010,Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation

7


8/38


Moreover, these training programs are mostly voluntary and attract those who have the

passion, time, and ability to pay the tuitions. Furthermore, there is evidence that short-

term professional development workshops foster little lasting change in teacher practice.

The research of Miller and Lord (1995) found that the most common form of school-

based teacher learning does not provide effective professional development. Professional

development is most effective when it is continuous and provides an on-going support,

including from sources that are external to the to the school (Miller & Lord, 1995).

How they currently learn how to be teachers: interactions

with other teachers

Teachers learn how to be teachers through their interactions with their peers. Teachers

interactions are limited to fleeting encounters at lunchtime or during the rushed minutes

before or after school. There are administrative staff members that teachers can go to for

some advice, but they learn the how to through their limited interactions with their

peers. Teachers who need support dont often get it or have little access, and teachers

who have the experience to help others are not given much opportunity to do so. These

are not necessarily two separate classes where one group of teachers needs help and

another has all the experience and expertise to help everyone else. But rather there is a

lack of an avenue where teachers can help and can be helped by others. Furthermore,

when a teacher needs a specific kind of support, that teachers access is limited to other

teachers available within his/her school. This creates a physical boundary on what is

available to that teacher. Sometimes, not the best information is supplied this way.

8


9/38


Problem: lack of adequate and consistent teacher

support

Education costs the US government a lot of money, both at the federal level and state

level, and the results have not been seen in student performances. Teachers are key to

solving this problem, but they dont get enough support to enhance their intellect and to

learn how to teach. Effective learning of both what to teach and how to teach takes place

throughout their professions, not necessarily during short workshops and summer

programs. The learning is a process that takes place while they teach in classrooms and

not a one-time activity. For teachers to learn and improve their classroom practice, they

require support system that enables them to continuously learn and develop their intellect

9


10/38


and their ability to teach. The problem this briefing paper tackles is the lack of a support

system that is available to teachers throughout their professional careers. Addressing this

problem will improve their classroom practice, which as discussed above can improve

student performance.

Intervention

Alternatives

This paper presents five alternatives that can address the lack of teacher support. Each of

the alternatives are explained below by the objectives they try to achieve, the

consequences that may result through their implementations, the costs, benefits, and risks

association with their implementation, identify examples that are similar to the alternative

proposed and may serve as potential models to learn from, and the magnitude of change

that each alternative will incur on the existing work process. The four areas that will be

affected the most by the magnitude of change on the work process are:

The delivery of service

The production of content and materials

10


11/38


The extended value chain within the education sector

Infrastructures that are created and/or removed

Alternatives Summary Table

11


12/38


Alternatives Objective Consequences Costs, benefits, and risks Key examples Magnitude of work

process change

Do nothing Avoidgovernmentinterventionand allow each

school tohandle theproblems on itsown.

- High performingand satisfiedteachers stay, thosewith little support

and unsatisfied quit.- Teachersclassroom practicestays the same.- Studentperformance staysthe same orworsens.

Costs: No short-term costsincurred.Benefits: Save short-termexpenses that may be

incurred to address theproblem. Createopportunity for bottom-upsolutions to emerge withinthe space.Risks: student performanceworsening if nothing isdone about the lack ofconstant teacher support.Potential increase inteacher salary to retainyoung teachers who lacksupport.

N/A No work processchange

Create

regional

teacher

communities:

Create teachercommunitiesin each school pay teachersto use 1-2

Create animprovedsupport systemthroughcommunitiesof teacherswho meetregularly todiscuss their

- Teachers by theclass year andsubjects they teachmeet on a regularbasis and create asupport system forone other.- More time andformalized

Costs: High overhead costof facilitators as suchcommunities have to besmall to be effective. Costof physical space to meet ifuse school premises. Timeof teachers involved.Benefits: real communitiescan be formed through

Communities forelementarymathematicsteachers werecreated in a 1996research whereteachers relearn theelementary schoolcurriculum and

The delivery ofteacher supportbecomes more ofpeer-peer activityand less top-down.Such restructuringaffects the entirevalue chain of wheresupports comes from

12


13/38


hours a weekforprofessionaldevelopment.Sit and haveface-to-facediscussions

with eachother on thematerials theyteach, sharebest practices,and answereach othersquestions.

curricula, sharebest practices,and be of helpto each other.

approach forteacher interactionswhere they learnfrom each othersexpertise andexperiences.- Learning and

relearning ofsubjects they teachin their groups promote self-service.- Teachers in thesame school sharebest practices mostrelevant to themand the studentsthey teach.

face-to-face interactions.Instant responses toquestions people have.Privacy can be maintained.Risks: Require highmaintenance as thecommunities will be

interdependent. Limited tophysical proximity toteachers and a teacher hasaccess to support from onlythose in the meeting room.Needs time andcommitment from allinvolved teachers tomaintain the group. Risk ofhigh-tension momentsduring their meetings.

deepen theirknowledge on howtheir students learnmathematics.Through theexperimental study,the researchers

found that teachersbeliefs andpractices changed.(Carpenter,Fennema, &Franke, 1996)

and goes to.Teachers areorganized into smallgroups by region,class years theyteach, and theirsubjects stronger

within group bondsare created and linksbetween groups areweakened.These teachercommunities havethe ability to developtheir own guides thatcan be shared withother groups.Otherwise, littlechange in theproduction ofcontent. No physicalor technologicalinfrastructurenecessary.

Hire teacher

supporters:

Increasefunding to hireteachersupporters to

To address thelack of teachersupport systemby providingexpert on-the-job support to

- Each school willhire one or moreexpert teachersupporters thatassist in the contentmaterial that

Costs: very high costswhen hiring teachersupporters. Even withsupporter sharingprovisions betweenschools, tens of thousands

None at a largescale.

Delivery of teachersupport comes froma select few experts.Reorganization ofadministrative rolesin each school and

13


14/38


be deployed inschools. Theseteachersupporters(experts) coachand trainteachers on the

job. A teachersupporter willwork full timein a school andprovide year-long assistanceto teachersacross theboard.

assist teachers. teachers use (bysubject) and inproviding teachingguidance.- Teachers willhave a designatedexpert to-go-to

person.

of experts will need to behired, and that creates aheavy overhead burden onthe states and schooldistricts. Heavyadministrative costs to run,train, and coordinate a

labor-intensive supportsystem.Benefits: access to expertadvice and coaching for allteachers. Reduce costs oflarge and short-termtrainings.Risks: high dependence onsupport from limited higherauthority figures.

incorporation ofexperts into existingorganizationalstructures. Changeof systems androutines on trainingand professional

developmentprograms if there ishigh dependence onexperts. Newphysicalinfrastructure maybe necessary tocreate office spacefor all the newemployees.

Disseminate

teaching

resources: Acentral

authority (theDepartment ofEducation)develops anddistributesprint/onlineteachingguides, usefulcurriculumtips, and

To improvesupport toteachers byregularly

developing anddistributingusefulresources thataddressproblemsteachers face intheirprofessions.

- Teachers are ableto read and accessvalidated resourcesthat are fully

dedicated tosupport them.- Creates self-service.- New teachers willhave an accessibleresource library.

Costs: Overhead costs ofthe experts who regularlydevelop the resources.Publishing and distributing

expenses.Benefits: distribution ofapproved, researched, andstandardized resources toall teachers. Equal accessto the same resources forall teachers. Low marginalcost once each material isdeveloped.Risks: resources developed

Currently DoE hasseveral resourcesand materials thatwill be useful for

teachers on itswebsite. Suchpractice with higherfrequency andreach is what thisalternativeproposes.

Little change in theoverall workprocess. Theresources that are

disseminated serveas added value toteachers. A newadministrative bodyis created in order tocoordinate theresourcedevelopment anddissemination.

14


15/38


regular articlesthat willenhance ateachersintellect andshare withhim/her best

teachingpractices.

will not be tailored to mostteachers needs and willnot be applicability for all.Great chance that teacherswill not use the resourcesthat are being produced.Teachers will not interact

with the producers of thematerials since it is a one-way conversation.

Create a

teachers

community of

practice

through a

social media

platform

To provide astronger andconsistentsupport systemfor all teachersand developvirtualcommunitiesof practice thatallow teachers

to interact.

- Teachers use asocial mediaplatform to developteaching resources,answer each othersquestions, andsupport oneanother.- Fast informationsharing tool.

- Promote self-service.- Improvedinformation andequitable resourcesharing.- Transparentdiscussions aboutchallenges teachersare facing.

Costs: communitydevelopment andmaintenance, awarenesscreation, teachers time(part of their overhead),and user trainings to aproportion of teachers.Benefits: Teachers gainaccess to a large pool ofteachers without physical

limitations. Centralizedavenue to access validatedteaching resources. Equalaccess to resources andsupport for all teachers.Long-term cost savings inteaching resources printand mail costs, teachertraining and supportoverhead, and time of

Classroom 2.0: afree socialnetworking site forteachers who have acommon interest inincorporating socialmedia in education.Website has51,000+ registeredmembers. 14,000

Americans visitedthe site between11/13/2010 and12/27/2010.

TeachAde ateacher communitythat fostersinteraction,resource sharing,

Delivery of teachersupport isoutsourced toteachers fromdifferent regions.Teachers produceeducationalresources and theseare moderated by acentral authority.

The value chain ofteacher supportprovision isreorganized into anetwork structure.Information andsupport does notnecessarily comefrom administrativepersonnel or an

15


16/38


school administrators spentanswering teachersquestions.Risks: such platforms areuseful only when there is alarge participation base.Challenges in raising

awareness and getting thewebsite started. Gaps intechnology understandingby teachers.

and networkingwith other teachers.Available toteachers andstudents. 20,000+registeredmembers, 58,000+

resources online,and 1,767educationalinstitutionsrepresented.

Govloop anonline communitythat connects andfosters informationsharing betweengovernmentemployees fromacross the country.Government ownedand run platformand has corporatesponsors. It hasover 35,000members.

expert trainer, but apeer who may be inthe same school orfrom a different sideof the state orcountry.There will need to be

a social mediaplatform created andmaintained by acentraladministration.

16


17/38


Proposed solution: a teachers community of

practice

A teachers community of practice is the best and cost effective alternative that is able to

address the problem of lack of teacher support. Looking back at the kind of support

teachers can best use, continuous support that develops both their content knowledge and

knowledge of teaching is an important factor in improving the quality of teachers. The

social media platform meets the following needs:

What to teach. A teacher community provides an ongoing venue for teacher

learning (Grossman, Wineburg, and Woolworth, 2001). Rather than depending on

summer trainings and workshops, teachers can broaden their horizons and further develop

their intellect by reading resources that their peers create, by going through articles,

participating in online discussions, reading/watching/listening to media posts made on the

subjects they teach, and by interacting with teachers who teach the same subject. Instead

of a one-time information dump through workshops, teachers can continuously enhance

their knowledge and learn more through interactive tools. This is a platform that can

stimulate intellectual development and support teachers continuously learn their content

knowledge.

How to teach. A social media solution provides an avenue for teachers to interact

with each other and ask all kinds of questions, read each others thoughts, share best

17


18/38


practices, and use one another continuously to learn to be better teachers. Teachers gain

exposure to how different individuals approach teaching and handle classroom situations.

The interaction widens a teachers horizon and gives him/her access to a large pool of

insights that may not be available within a schools reach.

Consistent support. The World Wide Web is accessible twenty-four hours a

day and seven days a week. Teachers can go online whenever they wish, publish a blog

post or access what others have written. Contribution and usage are not limited by

physical proximity or timing. A website that supports teachers can be accessed whenever

and from wherever. With a large pool of participants user activity can be expected to be

constant, and resources posted will be available at all times.

Recognition of teachers. A teachers community of practice also enables all

teachers an opportunity to contribute their knowledge and be recognized for their

successful approaches and expertise. Such a platform provides an avenue for teachers to

attain recognition beyond the hierarchies that exist in their school districts.

Learning from current examples

There are a number of independent online communities set up for teachers and other

professions that serve as appropriate examples. First, Classroom 2.0 and TeachAde are

websites primarily targeting teachers and provide a platform where users can interact,

share knowledge and resources, answer each others questions, and build a community of

18


19/38


practice. These websites have a goal of supporting educators by allowing them to interact

with teachers and other stakeholders (including students). Classroom 2.0 targets a

specific type of teachers (those interested in using social media in education) while

TeachAde aims to cater to all types of educators (elementary, secondary, and college) and

students. Each website has a significant number of users (50,000 and 20,000 respectively.

These two examples indicate that teachers find value in an online community platform to

help them in their profession, and both types of solutions - targeted to a specific group

and open to all can work.

Other similar platforms that provide communities of practice can also offer useful

insights for the solution this paper proposes. Govloop.com and sermo.com are two

communities of practice that were developed to create value in specific professions.

Govloop.com is a community for government employees from around the United States,

where individuals share best practices, connect with each other, and participate in

discussions relevant to their profession. Started by a government employee and later

sponsored by the Federal Government, it has over 35,000 members and maintains active

participation. Sermo.com is an online community for physicians and has over 115,000

members. It allows physicians from around the US to collaborate on difficult cases and

exchange observations about drugs, devices, and clinical issues. It also provides a

proprietary technology to verify physicians credentials in real-time. The website even

sells physicians contributions to healthcare organizations and government agencies,

where members have the opportunity to earn money by sharing clinical insights. These

two cases provide examples of successful community of practice applications and bring

19


20/38


to light features that can be adopted for a teacher community.

Features of the platform

The social media platform will have key features that satisfy the following three criteria:

serve the original purpose of creating a support system for teachers, build a community to

attract users and develop strong membership, and empower the users to give them a

greater sense of responsibility concerning the education system and share the ownership

to make it better. Using these three criteria, below are some of the features that will

appear on the social media platform:

My page profile (basic information, friends, interests, and group memberships).

This enables teachers to create an actual community of authentic individuals

rather than names. It allows users to create friendships and network with one

other.

Blog posts by teachers and other experts. This tool helps facilitate conversations

on specific topics, allow interaction between teachers but also incorporate expert

views in discussions.

Groups: by school, region, state, interest, subject areas, class year they teach, etc.

Teachers will be able to identify with those they can relate with the most, and

share useful insights that are relevant to each other while developing smaller and

focused communities within a larger community.

Resources page: resources uploaded by DoE, school administrators, teaching

20


21/38


guides developed collaboratively by teachers, journals, curricula, research, e-

books, articles and other teaching resources. This page serves as an online library,

designed to be very user-friendly, where teachers can access information and

resources relevant to them whenever they wish.

Forum: general discussions on topics of interest and questions teachers pose.

Polls: gauge teachers opinion on various events, policies, or general questions that

affect the education sector as a whole and the teachers themselves. Such a feature

gives teachers an outlet to voice their opinions and to take stances. The online

community here serves as a tool to help them communicate with outside

stakeholders, but also give them insights on where their peers stand on specific

issues.

Online training programs: videos and tutorials on how-to deal with different

kinds of situations in the classroom, classes that teach their subject areas. Online

trainings make various types of validated and pre-approved trainings available to

all teachers at anytime during the year. This tool can reduce costs for school

districts that might sometimes ask teachers to come together for trainings. By

combining such trainings with discussion groups, teacher trainings can become

highly interactive and improve significantly. Teachers will be able to ask each

other questions throughout the trainings, answer clarification questions, and

retake trainings if necessary. They can rate their lessons, request for other kinds of

lessons, and take tests.

Events for teachers: if there are events that can add value teachers may share them

online and invite their friends and colleagues.

21


22/38


Job openings for teachers.

Topics: by subject, topic of teaching, etc. Here, teachers are provided with another

way of creating focused communities in ways that will be relevant to the

participants.

Awards system for participants (best blog, post, comment, contribution to

resources, most useful resources, etc). Positive reinforcements for participation

and recognition of teachers who wouldnt necessarily be noticed in their schools

has a huge effect in the maintenance of the community but also increasing

teachers morale.

Celebrity guest speakers (TedX style available online), columnists, and editors.

Such features aim to widen teachers horizons and expose them to insights that

are significant to their fields.

Feedback groups: adopting the research from the Gates Foundation, a feature

where teachers can record their classrooms or post their teaching materials and

seek feedback from other teachers can significantly improve their abilities to

teach. To make this effective, teachers can join small closed groups of 2-5

participants, where they choose their partners and have a secured page for each

feedback group. Under a mutual agreement to comment on one anothers

postings, participants can benefit from getting a higher level of attention.

The online platform will have the following organizational structure to ensure it is

continuously managed and remains useful to all members:

22


23/38


Moderators - the contracting company or a select group of government employees

that moderate discussions, postings, and forums to avoid profanity and ensure

contributors stay on track. This maintains the professionalism and usefulness of

the platform.

Resource certifiers selected by superintendents to decide accuracy of resources

and educational materials posted on the website. These certifiers will not need to

go through all posts and discussions, but only documents flagged as a resource.

Through such a system, the quality of resources can be maintained at a high

standard to make them useful for all users.

Teacher Ambassadors leaders who contribute regularly and engage other

teachers to participate. Ideally, it is effective to have Teacher Ambassadors in

each school district. Such leadership positions become useful when getting new

members to use the platform and regularly come back to it.

School Ambassadors teachers that represent their local schools on the website.

Assigning roles to those who find the platform highly beneficial can be useful for

outreach to various schools, efforts to attract new users, but to also maintain a

base number of regular contributors.

Options for setting up the platform

Option 1: create a new platform from scratch. This option is

23


24/38


ideal to customize the platform as needed and to modify it at any point in time. However,

it will be hard to attract users to a new platform for the first time and even harder to get

continued usage.

Option 2: use an existing platform. Existing platforms such as

Facebook can be attractive as it has a large base of users and will not require directing

teachers to a new website. However, a community of practice will be limited to the

features available on such platforms, and it might not be easy to create a closed

community.

Option 3: integrating a new platform with existing

websites. This option offers to be most appealing as it brings the best of two worlds.

A new platform is customized to the needs of teachers and the community, but it also

allows users to access their existing networks and use features available in other

platforms. For example, an existing community for young entrepreneurs called Sandbox

(approximately 400 members who join through an application process), follows such an

approach where it has its own independent website but links several of its pages and

features with Facebook and twitter.5

Whichever platform is used for the teacher community of practice, it is essential to make

the site available on desktop computers in libraries, online, and through mobile

technology in order to provide maximum access to all teachers who wish to use it at any

point in time.

5 The Sandbox Network can be accessed here:http://www.sandbox-network.com/

24
http://www.sandbox-network.com/http://www.sandbox-network.com/http://www.sandbox-network.com/


25/38


Proposal to the government body

This paper seeks an endorsement from government bodies to agree that a stronger and

consistent teacher support system is necessary to improve the quality of public schools in

the country and to improve student academic performance. It seeks support from local

and state-level government for an online solution to address this problem. A government

support means:

Superintendants and local school districts encouraging teachers to join the

community. Such encouragement can take several shapes, including an incentive

mechanism where participating in this website can fulfill teachers professional

development requirements, both contributing and reading relevant discussions.

School districts allow and support teachers to try the new ideas they learn from

the community in their schools.

Making school computer facilities available for all teachers to use to participate in

the online community.

Looking for ways to integrate officially conducted training programs with the

online community and making them available online.

Ensure that existing online resources available in schools and the website of the

Department of Education are available to all other teachers through the online

community.

25


26/38


This paper proposes three possible actions that a government body can take to create a

teachers community of practice:

Proposal 1: a government sponsored and owned

community. This proposal asks that the government sets up and runs the teacher

community of practice social media solution by collaborating with the Department of

Education and its local school districts. Using the features discussed above and learning

from the key examples mentioned, the state government sets up an official teachers

community platform by creating a website and paying for moderation and maintenance.

The benefits of this proposal are that the government will have greater control over how

it is set up and that it is created to add value for all users. However, it may lack flexibility

due to procedural requirements on how the website is set up, may incur high costs for the

government entity, and a government website may come with a stigma where some

teachers might not want to use the platform.

Proposal 2: a public-private or a public-nonprofit

partnership model. The government may support and provide financial

resources for the platform but hire an independent entity to create and manage the

teachers community of practice. The government should allow organizations or

individuals with a track record in building online communities to bid for such a contract.

Classroom 2.0 or TeachAde could be one of the bidders for this contract. The benefits of

this approach are that the costs are going to be low for the government it will not incur

overhead costs setting up and running the platform, and has the option to terminate a

26


27/38


contract if the website is unsuccessful. At the same time, it will need to provide set

guidelines on privacy and copyright related issues in making the website legitimate.

Proposal 3: an independent initiative without government

involvement. This proposal will only have the government providing the support

mentioned above but give ownership and financial control to an independent entity. The

government will be a beneficiary in this process and may have little control over the

product. Such an approach is cheaper for the government, but the community may not be

set up and run in a way that addresses the problems discussed above.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders that need to be involved and are valuable for a successful development

of a teachers community of practice are:

Chief Executive Officials: it is important to have support from the top. A

governor or a mayor who has made education one of his/her top priorities and

wishes to bring some major changes in this sector is more likely to be receptive to

such a proposal. A CEOs support is crucial in pushing such a solution. Having an

individual with that authority behind it will increase the possibility of getting

support from other stakeholders and reduce conflict.

Chief Information Officers: CIOs who can influence the governor and push

technology-enabled strategic realignment of government services will be the best

27


28/38


advocates for such a proposal.

Budget directors: technology planning is related to budget planning, and if any

support is to come from the government, a budget directors involvement in the

development process is critical to the success of the project.

Secretary of Education: any support from the Secretary of Education gives such a

platform the legitimacy it needs to be successful.

Superintendents: as the highest ranking officials within the education sector,

superintendents ought to be behind the proposal to ensure that it can be integrated

within the education system (even if minimally). If the governor supports it and

budget directors are interested in it, superintendents are necessary in the

implementation and design process of the technology solution.

Launching the platform

A community does not start and build momentum on its own. Creating a contained

community rather than an open community is important during the launch of the social

media platform. There is a strong sense of identity and common values within members

of the same profession: they share a common language (Grossman, Wineburg, and

Woolworth, 2001). When launching the social media platform, a targeted group is more

effective in generating strong momentum for the website and can demonstrate that it is

useful to teachers. The ultimate goal is to have all teachers in a specific state using the

platform, but a launching strategy is critical.

28


29/38


Targeting teachers approach 1: ninth grade math

teachers

Elementary vs. Secondary school. Elementary school teachers are not

expected to be experts in all the subjects that they teach, but are required to have

adequate knowledge on most of their subjects. A community of practice will provide

greater support in mastering the subjects that they teach in their classrooms. However, if

the community is not defined to a specific subject area or field, the intended value can be

dissolved. For example, research finds that most developed models of teacher community

originated in elementary mathematics (Grossman, Wineburg, and Woolworth, 2001), and

this could be a good model for targeting an audience when launching the platform.

Secondary school teachers on the other side specialize in specific subject areas and are

more likely to join a community of practice with other teachers in their fields. With this

rationale, initially targeting secondary school children is most appropriate.

Subject areas. Focusing on a subject area makes the discussions, resources, and

community as a whole relevant to all who join the website at the beginning. The most

effective subject area choice is one that will be the most consistent between schools and

has the least variance across the board. The sciences and mathematics qualify these

criteria as the curricula taught are most similar compared to the humanities and arts. For

the launch of the platform, focusing on mathematics teachers can produce high results.

29


30/38


The Gates Foundation research reports that teachers have larger effects on math

achievement than on achievement in reading or English Language Arts, at least as

measured on state assessments.6 Using their finding and noting that math is used as one

of the key student performance measurements, this paper proposes to focus on math

teachers for the launch of the online community.

Grades. It is advised to chose 9th grade mathematics teachers for the launch of the

website. 9th grade teachers face the challenge of helping students transition from middle

school to high school while the difficulty of the materials increases. Teachers at this level

are more likely to seek out help and advice when they have a new group of students and

are teaching them one of the most important and harder subjects.

Getting teachers to use it

First, determine how active the targeted group of teachers is with other social media

platforms. This data can be collected through surveys, searches on current social media

platforms (e.g. facebook), or utilize past research. Second, ask teachers if they are

interested a community or practice, survey their interests and what they will find useful.

Third, define the key features of the platform that will attract the most usage and develop

other useful features discussed above alongside them. Fourth, recruit Teacher

Ambassadors and School Ambassadors before launching an awareness and promotion

campaign in each school. This is done through collaboration with superintendents and

6Learning about teaching: initial finds from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project, 2010,Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation

30


31/38


local school districts. Fifth start enlisting members and get the Ambassadors to start using

the features and creating conversations online. The challenge with this approach will be

that the site might not see a significantly large number of members signing up at the

beginning, and that might slow down the momentum or potentially kill it.

Targeting teachers approach 2: Teach for America

The third approach that this paper proposes is to start a teachers community of practice

with an existing and highly suitable teachers network: Teach For America (TFA). TFA

teachers are young adults out of college who predominantly use social media platforms to

communicate with their friends. That generation of individuals does not need convincing

on the value of social media and will also not require training on how to use new social

media platforms. Furthermore, TFA teachers are brand new to their profession where

most of them will be teaching a classroom for the first time in their lives. They do not

have experience in that kind of a setting, and the fact that they are assigned to struggling

schools makes their experiences even more challenging. They are very likeminded and

likely to need peer support and find it useful. Such teachers can be the early adopters of

the community of practice platform.


This approach will require partnership with Teach for America and its senior

31


32/38


management to acquire its consent and support promoting it within its teacher base. As

TFA recruits teachers every year, the platform can be heavily promoted to a new class

and attain a large pool of members in a short period of time. Inviting other TFA teachers,

posting useful resources early on, running different discussions, and making it a tool

where 2nd year TFA teachers can give advice to the newly recruited ones can create a

momentum within this group. The challenge however, will be to show that a website will

also be useful to teachers who are not under the TFA program.

Targeting teachers approach 3: replace mandatory

trainings

The third and preferred approach is to replace annual statewide mandatory trainings for

teachers with online lessons. Such an entry point has potential to save costs for the

government, improve the quality of the trainings, and get teachers using the community

of practice platform. The mandatory trainings that are done face-to-face in large

conferences can be replaced by online courses through the use of multi-media. An

example for such training is AlcoholEdu that is provided by a non-profit organization

called Outside The Classroom. This organization has provided alcohol prevention

education for 2 million first-year college students by partnering with hundreds of

educational institutions in the United States. The trainings are mandatory for all freshmen

in the partner institutions, and the organization tracks down each participant and their

progress. The training lasts three hours, and it includes 2-5 minutes long videos, very

short texts, and three tests at the end of each module. Students who do not answer 80% of

32


33/38


the questions correctly are required to re-take the training. Providing such courses online

has been effective even for students with low attention spans. The government may adopt

a similar strategy to conduct annual mandatory trainings online and utilize multimedia to

make it engaging. Furthermore, adding an interactive component where teachers can join

discussions during the training, pause as they wish, and ask questions to peers who are

taking the training at the same time can enhance the quality of those trainings. The one-

way conversations and lectures that take place in large trainings are removed in online

trainings.


A survey may be sent to all teachers before the online trainings are created to understand

their professional needs and the skills they believe will be useful for them to do their jobs

effectively. If for example, that survey produces a list of 100 different areas teachers want

to learn about, and the online trainings focus on 2-5 of them, the value of a continued

conversation to address the remaining 95 through a community of practice is justified to

all teachers. Having the mandatory training on the same website as the online

community, where teachers have to create an account to access the training will bring

them all to the website. The discussions during the training get teachers started on talking

with each other using the online platform as well. From the time the training ends, a

momentum to continue using the website until the next training season will ne necessary.

One way to maintain that is to continue the conversations about the trainings that teachers

found most engaging (can be found through a rating tool after each training is over).

33


34/38


Another approach is to jumpstart on the other issues that teachers have noted in the initial

survey, and create a discussion group for each. The community managers may ask

teachers who proposed the other 95 issues to start a discussion forum and seek others

thoughts.

Performance measurements

The success of the website can be measured in the following ways:

Use test results of the targeted groups to see how well students are learning and

whether their performances improve.

Track schools that have the highest number of active teachers in the community

and schools that have low teacher participation. Compare the student

performances between those schools, teachers confidence in their preparedness to

teach, and their satisfaction with their roles.

Survey teachers who are active in the online community and identify how the

support system is helping them improve their classroom performance.

Study a small group of teachers through classroom observations (in person or

video recording) and watch for classroom practice improvements overtime after

they join the community of practice.

Risks and challenges

34


35/38


Lack of collaborative culture. If in a specific school teachers are not used

to collaborating with each other and sharing what they know and learning from each

other, it is quite unlikely that they will start utilizing an online community.

Scaling. Such a platform is only useful when there is a large pool of members logging

in and using the various features. It is expected that only 5%-7% of all the members will

be actively using the website, while the majority will be coming on and off sporadically.

If the system is instituted in the school system and becomes part of the teachers

professional development program (with regular time allocated) this challenge may be

remedied but not fully solved. For this reason, the success of the platform highly depends

on the websites ability to attract a significant number of active users.

Gap in technology understanding. Many of our existing educators do

not have the same understanding of and ease with using technology that is part of the

daily lives of professionals in other sectors. The same can be said of many of the

education leaders and policymakers in schools, districts, and states and of the higher

education institutions that prepare new educators for the field.7 This gap exists within

older generation of teachers, and not within the younger generation where most are part

of existing several social media networks.

Conclusion

7 http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/executive-summary

35


36/38


The Untied States faces difficult challenges in reforming the education system and

making it effective. However, technology can play an important role in this process, both

in delivering higher public value and creating efficient and cost-effective work process.

The usage of social media is an area that the government can leverage in providing the

very needed teacher support system that has a big influence on student academic

performances. As teachers account for more than half of the education budget in the

country, local governments need to pay greater attention to them and figure out how to

provide teachers with the necessary support so that they can be effective at what they do.

They are key actors in the education reform process. A social media enabled community

of practice will provide a platform for teachers to be of support to each other. As other

examples have shown, teachers can use such technological platforms and support one

another in a virtual community. State governments can replicate some of the successes

from these examples and allow peer-to-peer support within the public school system.

36


37/38


Proposal Summary

37


38/38


Bibliography

D. McCutchen, R. D. Abbott, L. B. Green, S. N. Beretvas, S. Cox, N. Potter, T. Quiroga,and A. L. Gray, (2002)Beginning Literacy: Links Among Teacher Knowledge, Teacher

Practice, and Student Learning, J Learn Disabil, January 2002 vol. 35no. 1 69-86

Miller, B, & Lord, B. (1995). Staff development in four districts.Newton, MA:Educational Development Center.

P. Grossman, S. Wineburg, and S. Woolworth (2001). Toward a Theory of TeacherCommunity. Teachers College RecordVolume 103 Number 6, 2001, p. 942-1012

Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., & Franke, M. L. (1996). Cognitively guided instruction: Aknowledge basefor reform in primary mathematics instruction. Elementary SchoolJournal

Learning about teaching: initial finds from the Measures of EffectiveTeaching Project, 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

teacher community of practice: a social media solution

Documents