Online Asynchronous Collaboration in Mathematics Teacher Education and the Development of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching
Source: The Teacher Educator, Volume 45, Issue 1 (January 2010) , pages 54 – 73.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
The authors’ goal was to improve their online environment by testing and modifying it to
support teachers' development of deep, connected understandings of school mathematics and to find ways to make use of the teachers' learning as a context for subsequent mathematical and pedagogical development.
The authors propose a model for developing mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) in an online environment.
The revised model includes (a) posting initial thoughts, comments, questions, and solutions in a private online space,
(b) small-group discussion focusing on comments and questions to the now public initial posts,
(c) revision of initial posts, and
(d) a synthetic discussion.
The authors detail the evolution of their model for Online Asynchronous Collaboration (OAC), which is grounded in current research in mathematics teacher education and that takes advantage of the collaborative nature of the Internet and the permanent nature of the online interactions.
They believe that OAC is a promising practice in teacher education and will discuss both the rationale for their design decisions and provide examples of teachers' activity within OAC.