Networked Learning and Instructional Change: Teacher Communities Around Change

• In Event: Teacher Learning in Networks and Communities of Practice

Abstract

Reforms calling for changes in the instructional core of teaching, such as the Common Core State Standards, require teachers of mathematics to deepen their mathematical knowledge and learn new teaching strategies. These demands require effective professional development to support teachers’ learning. Drawing from the critical characteristics of effective professional development identified in Desimone (2009), we use an embedded case study to investigate the roles of collective and non-collective participation in a math networked learning community professional learning program that hosted three separate networks. Our findings support previous research on the importance of collective participation in professional learning, and we build on prior work by illustrating how some successful teachers cultivated unique configurations of communities for supporting instructional change.

Authors

• Kim Evert, University of Virginia

• Kristy Cooper Stein, Michigan State University