Sharing Knowledge in Local Settings: International Perspectives on Teacher Learning Communities

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this symposium, five papers authored by scholars from six different countries (The Netherlands, Israel, Spain, Chile, Portugal, United States) use five different research methods to illuminate prospective and practicing teachers’ lived experiences of learning communities as sites of teachers’ formal and informal learning. The presenters, along with the Chair (People's Republic of China) and the Discussant (United Kingdom), are involved in AERA (American Educational Research Association) and ISATT (International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching). The papers address preservice teachers’ collaborative reflection meetings, practicing teachers’ frameworks of conversation, the building of virtual learning communities, maintaining teacher learning communities in challenging circumstances, and tensions between the communities teachers make or find for themselves and versions of professional learning communities imposed on them.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Section 8: Teacher Professional Development: Impact on Teacher Practices and Student Learning

Chair

• xiangdong Yang, East China Normal University

Papers

• Collaborative Reflection Meetings of Student Teachers in The Netherlands: Opportunities for Learning in Community? - Paulien C. Meijer, Utrecht University; Helma Oolbekkink-Marchand, Radboud University Nijmegen

• Constructing Practice Through Conversations in Professional Learning Groups: Variations on a Theme in the Israeli Context - Lily Orland-Barak, University of Haifa

• Learning in Virtual Learning Communities in Spain: The Case of Teachers in Nonformal Education Settings - Carlos Marcelo, University of Sevilla; Ana Schalk, University of Pacifico

• Maintaining Learning Community in Challenging Circumstances: A Case Study From Portugal - Maria A. Flores, Minho University

• Teacher Learning Communities: Affordances and Constraints in the American Educational Context - Cheryl J. Craig, University of Houston

Discussant

• Christopher W. Day, University of Nottingham