"Coursera" Online Course: A Platform for English Teachers' Meaningful and Vibrant Professional Development

This article reports on English teachers' attitudes towards a professional development program run by "Coursera" ("coursera.org"). These teachers were participants of "Foundation of Teaching for Learning 1: Introduction" online course. Using a survey case study, th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:TEFLIN journal 2015-07, Vol.26 (2), p.228
Main Author: Silvia, Arnis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case Studies
Collaboration
Course Content
Course Evaluation
English language
English Teachers
Faculty Development
Foundations of Education
Introductory Courses
Learning
MOOCs
Online Courses
Online instruction
online professional development
Organizational Culture
Outcomes of Education
Pretests Posttests
Professional development
Reading Materials
Skill Development
Students
Studies
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher education
Teacher Educators
teacher professional learning
Teacher Surveys
Teaching
Teaching methods
Teaching Skills
Theory Practice Relationship
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Summary:This article reports on English teachers' attitudes towards a professional development program run by "Coursera" ("coursera.org"). These teachers were participants of "Foundation of Teaching for Learning 1: Introduction" online course. Using a survey case study, the findings reveal that most of the participants perceive the course as a well-organized and effective platform to engage in professional learning. "Coursera" is an online learning platform offering various courses for teacher educators which are meaningful (closely related to their daily teaching practice) and vibrant (involves active collaboration among peer participants to review and assess their projects). Albeit this nature, another finding shows that the participants lament that their institutions do not provide professional development (PD) support. In fact, PD programs are not constrained to face-to-face encounters, since it can be designed using online platforms such as "Coursera", a massive open online course (MOOC). Accordingly, the contribution of the article is to show how online platforms make meaningful and vibrant teacher professional development (TPD) possible. The implication of the study is that school administrators and policy makers should provide support for their teachers to take online PD programs. This professional learning should contribute to the best teaching practice and student learning attainment.
ISSN:0215-773X
2356-2641
DOI:10.15639/teflinjournal.v26i2/228-246