Overview of practical impacts of a professional development course for K-12 online teachers in a linguistic minority context of schooling

Concurrent Session 9

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Covid-19 has demonstrated the need for dual teaching skills (presence and online) in the digital age. We created a distance course in virtual pedagogy for K-12 francophone schoolteachers in minority language situations across Canada. This presentation discusses an agile, collaborative, and co-creative online instructional design for in-service teacher development.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: El Hadji Yaya Koné, University of Ottawa

Dr. Koné is a regular professor-researcher of online learning and teaching in higher education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, a bilingual position that allows him to teach in both the Anglophone and Francophone sectors of the Faculty. His research and teaching activities focus on digital pedagogy in virtual, blended, face-to-face and cross-border education. His research methodology is primarily qualitative.

Additional Authors

Shaily Zolfaghari, University of Ottawa

Shaily has been an English Language Instructor for 18 years. She holds a Bachelor of English Translation and a Master of Translation Studies from Allameh Tabataba'i University (Teheran, Iran). She is currently a Ph. D. Candidate, and a teaching and research assistant, in the Faculty of Education at University of Ottawa, Canada. She continues to teach English as a second or foreign language in the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) at the University of Ottawa. Her doctoral thesis, supervised by Dr. Koné, is concerned with utilizing Seamless Learning Environments (SLEs) to optimize the language learning experience for ESL/EFL learners.

Adou Jean-Constant ATTA, University of Ottawa

Extended Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created a state of emergency reform in education modes and created an immediate need for foundational pedagogical knowledge in online teaching for all practicing instructors and instructional designers. While many in-service teachers were forced to adapt to the conditions of post-pandemic teaching, teacher training institutions strived to provide professional development workshops that would facilitate the shift from in-person to online instruction for teachers. With the aim of providing more in-depth training for in service teachers, we created a distance course in virtual pedagogy for K-12 francophone school teachers in minority language situations across Canada. Minority francophone environments refer to any part of Canada,  where French is the language of instruction in a predominantly Anglophone environment. This professional training course provided practitioners with  a deeper understanding of recent existing literature on online teaching pedagogies, and rudimentary knowledge of educational technology resources that can facilitate their online classroom practices : appropriate digital media to support online learning with respect to the students’ diverse profiles , effective online assessment tools and strategies for better learning outcomes, as well as design and implementation of collaborative, cocreative, interactive and engaging online lessons . The course was designed as a semi-synchronous session where information and course material was provided asynchronously on a digital learning platform. Then synchronous sessions with the instructor were held to moderate and facilitate discussions and encourage the participants to form communities of practice around design thinking on K-12 online instructional strategies.

Following the completion of the course by the cohort of winter 2022 (50 in-service teachers), participants were invited to partake in a mixed-methods survey based on the Kirkpatrick’s (1996) training evaluation model : reaction, learning, behavior and results.The survey, made of 34 questions, used the Likert scale (quantitative statistical questions) and open-ended qualitative descriptive questions to assess the efficiency of the training course, pertaining to their professional development. The data collection  follows the structure below :

  1. Reaction: A preliminary measure of how participants feel about a training program. This step is very similar to customer satisfaction feedback because “management often makes decisions about training based on participants’ comments” (Kirkpatrick, 1996, p. 56). It is important to ensure that participants feel motivated and interested in learning so they will continue to put effort into their learning experience.

  2. Learning: This is a self-measurement of knowledge gained, skill acquired, or perspectives improved due to the training. “Generally, a training course accomplishes one or more of these three things” (P. 56). 

  3. Behavior (competence): this is a measure of the extent to which the participants change or improve their practices in their professional settings. “It is commonly referred to as transfer of training” (P. 56) or knowledge “translation” in academic contexts. For participants of teacher training courses, this would be a measure of how they have increased their competence in their respective settings.

  4. Results (institutional impacts): this is a measure of the final results that occur in the professional setting due to the training. In this particular context, it can be a measure of how this training has contributed to the teaching practices of the individual participant as well as their community of practice or their respective teaching organization. 

The results of the survey, consisting of statistical analytics as well as qualitative descriptive analyses of the answers reveal very valuable insights into the nature and structure of this online professional development. The findings also showcase the benefits and advantages of the design as well as the limitations  that were observed post implementation. This essential information can only positively contribute to the design and implementation of future online professional development courses in K-12 distance education.  

This presentation discusses an agile, collaborative, and co-creative online instructional design for in-service teacher development and offers an overview of the various practical impacts for the classroom and the institution (i.e school and school board) in minority francophone regions across Canada. It offers insights into the teachers’ professional learning experiences and the impacts of their training, school and region wide, as well as an opportunity for K-12 teachers in Canada's Francophone minority school boards to create national forums for online communities of practice. The  audience of this presentation will have gained discernments into designing and implementing an elevated training course for K-12 teacher development, as well as encouragement to establish forums for discussions and exchanges of information with a pan-global community of practice.  

In order to make this presentation more interactive, we plan on offering a live stream of the presentation where questions will be answered live by a member of our team simultaneously as other members present and  provide participants with a link to a Miro board. Participants  can use the Miro board to share their comments with us and each other in a creative manner. Additionally, participants, virtual and in person alike, will be provided with a QR code that directs them to an interactive digital version of the presentation with interactive components, which they can use to follow along as the presentation is offered or at a later date at their convenience. In addition, at the end of the presentation, attendees will be invited, through a Mentimeter poll, to review the various recommendations discussed for improving the course design and implementation.  A QR code will be provided in this regard to engage them significantly in the post-presentation conversation.