SUPPORTING TEACHER EDUCATION EFFORTS THROUGH LARGE-SCALE ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Vassiliki "Vicky" I. Zygouris-Coe
University of Central Florida
USA

With so many educators needing either initial preparation or ongoing professional development to build and sustain expertise in their discipline, online professional development arises as a viable, effective, and timely vehicle for teacher training. Online learning technologies have the potential to transform the professional development of teachers; penetrate cultural, discipline, and other barriers; bring educators together to learn, share successes and challenges; and co-construct and transfer learning. This paper presents examples of success and challenges associated with a large-scale US statewide online teacher professional development community. It also makes the case for implementing a systematic approach to investigating the effectiveness of online teacher professional development on educators, their instruction, and student achievement, through ongoing assessment and responsive evaluation.

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