Understanding Teachers' Cognitive Processes as They Use an Online Professional Development Web Site: A Methodological Comparison

• In Event: 63.073 - Online Teaching and Learning SIG Paper Session 4

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of three types of think aloud methods for understanding elementary teachers’ cognitive processes as they use a professional development website. An innovative methodology combining a retrospective think aloud procedure with screen capture technology was compared with concurrent and retrospective think aloud procedures. Elementary teachers from a large metropolitan area were assigned to one of the three think aloud conditions (N = 45). Think aloud protocols were analyzed to determine the frequency of cognitive processes verbalized by participants in each condition. Results indicated that teachers in the virtual revisit condition verbalized significantly more “higher level” cognitive processes (e.g., planning, reasoning, reflecting) than participants in the other two conditions (p < .05). Implications are discussed.

Author

• Pamela Beach, Queen's University