You are here: Home > TIE WIDE World Article
Online professional development works
Get inexpensive, fast, effective access to the latest international teaching jobs in top American and British overseas and international schools.
to our email list and get a free guide to teaching overseas as well as free email notifications on the latest developments in the international community.
by Dr. William Allen
Online courses for professional development
have become a standard
option for teachers. The dilemma facing
school heads and principals as they
explore the use of online professional
development courses is sorting the
wheat from the chaff. As one explores
the viability of any professional development
program, online or onsite,
there are at least three essential questions
that could be asked: Does the
course lead to sustained change in the
classroom? Is the professional development
course relevant and/or rigorous?
Is the course cost effective? A
fourth question could be asked about
an online course: Does it lead to the
further isolation of classroom teachers?
As a school administrator I participated
in the planning and implementation
of professional development
programs for many years. In recent
years more and more opportunities
have been created for online professional
development courses as alternatives
to the traditional onsite courses.
Some of these alternatives were effective,
and some were not.
At first our team was skeptical of
the viability of online programs. We
found it hard to make the connection
between the course and the classroom.
The balance between subject matter
content and pedagogy was not always
appropriate. Usually the focus was too
much on content and not about planning
and teaching. The relevance and/
or rigor of the courses were difficult
to determine. The cost per teacher
seemed high. Most importantly to us,
the online courses seemed to further
exacerbate the problem of teacher isolation,
because there was no strategy
in place for collegial conversations
between the participants. The courses
did not focus on this important issue.
Our need and our quest for options
for traditional professional development
continues. We have learned to
look for certain characteristics when
exploring online professional development
programs. Many online
courses are now cost effective, particularly
if the support provided to enrollees
by instructors/coaches is at high
levels. For example, when the instructor/
coach is readily available to respond
to participant questions we have
experienced a higher level of willingness
on the part of the participants to
try new teaching strategies.
The quality of many online programs
has greatly improved with
higher levels of rigor and relevance
requiring much more participation on
the part of the enrollee. Some of the
online courses clearly respond to national
standards and local expectations.
Most importantly, some of the online
courses are addressing the problem of
teacher isolation with specific strategies
designed to make meaningful
connections between and among the
participants.
One source of high quality online
programs we found is WIDE World
(Wide-scale Interactive Development
for Educators), developed in 1999 as
a joint project of Project Zero and the
Education Technology Center at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
This organization offers a wide
range of professional development
programs. An important component of
the WIDE World professional development
effort is on-going and comprehensive
research. Two aspects of
the research they conduct focuses on
longitudinal evidence (long-term
change for cohorts) and changes in instructional
plans. Findings in both areas
indicate significant and sustained
change in the participants’ instruction
and planning.
In our efforts to improve the quality
of math instruction we explored
three WIDE World professional development
courses, specifically, teaching
algebraic reasoning and thinking for
elementary, middle and high school
teachers. Do the courses address the
essential questions asked above?
Yes, and more. A review of the content
for the three courses indicates that
they specifically respond to the
NCTM Standards for algebraic reasoning.
The three courses attain a high
degree of relevance and rigor. The performance
expectations for the course
participants are very high with a constant
and consistent review of the participants’
work. The cost per participant
is reasonable. Particularly when
one considers the level of support provided
to the participants by the WIDE
World coaches and instructors.
Perhaps the most important aspect
of the approach used by the WIDE
World in their courses is the development
of connections between and
among the participants.
One teacher, writing of her team’s
experience in one of the algebraic reasoning
courses, was effusive in her reflection
on the impact of the course,
“As a professional development opportunity,
this team approach helped
us, not only in improving math instruction,
but in proving that team work is
a big part of the future for all educators
for years to come. I know we will
never go back to ‘go it alone’ education.”
Dr. Allen is the former superintendent
of the North Andover School System
in Massachusetts.