By

Balakrishnan Muniandy, PhD

Universiti Sains Malaysia

&

Paul D’Souza

Somaiya College of Education, Mumbai, INDIA.

Proposing a Self-Directed Professional

Development Model for Teachers in the Age

of Internet

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Somaiya College of Education, Mumbai, India

Teachers

Self-Directed Learning

Professional Development

Internet

Self-Directed Professional

Development Model

Four Important Elements in Presentation:

“Teach the children so that it will not be necessary to teach the adults.” Abraham Lincoln

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well” Alexander the Great

“Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.” Chinese proverb

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” Khalil Gibran

“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” Lilly Tomlin

Teachers are important!

Change in teacher attitude about teacher learning is very crucial in the age of Internet

Teachers need to use their skills to carefully select, evaluate and use the growing information from the web for their own development as well as for their students.

Teachers in the course of their professional and career advancement should gradually transform themselves from being a dependent and novice learners to become independent and expert learners –This becomes a model to the students.

As autonomous learners, teachers act consciously rather than without thought, independently rather than compliantly, imaginatively rather than routinely, and with commitment rather than without effort (Quality Improvement Agency for Lifelong Learning, 2008).

Teacher learning

We need to learn How to unleash the Power of a Tailor-Made, Self-Directed Learning Process for us and our Children AndDiscover How to Exploit Our Unique Combination of Gifts and Talents

"Since we cannot know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned."

John Holt

Self-Directed Learning

We need to use 21st Century Knowledge and Skills to train the 21st Century Students

Learning

Individually Guided Staff Development - refers to a process through which teachers plan for and pursue activities they believe will promote their own learning.

Observation / Assessment - provides teachers with objective data and feedback regarding their classroom performance. This process in itself produces growth or it can provide information that may be used to select areas for growth.

Involvement in development / improvement process – Engages teachers in developing curriculum, designing programs, or engaging in a school improvement process to solve general or particular problems.

Inquiry – Requires that teachers identify an area of instructional interest, collect data, and make changes in their instruction based on an interpretation of those data.

Training – Involves teachers in acquiring knowledge or skills through appropriate individual or group instruction.

Professional Development Models for Teachers

(Sparks & Loucks-Horsley (1989)

Content New technology New pedagogy

Process a single or a multi-faceted program. broadcast on TV, available on videos, site-based, and hands-on; provided to all at once (teachers, aides, substitutes, administrators), or tailored to individual needs of teachers and other staff members; offered using a Train-the-trainer model, or

Context offered by the school, labs and/or classrooms. just-in-time. just-in-case. conducted in a solo mode, or in partnership with other schools, or

institutions, including universities.

CONTENT, PROCESS, CONTEXT model of professional

development of Teachers (TeleLearning, 1999)

INTERNET One of the greatest wonders of the

20th Century

CONTENTS

METHODS

PROCESSES

TOOLS

OPEN

SOURCES

TECHNIQUES

LECTURES

TRAINING MODULES

VIDEOS

s-BOOKs

WEBMINARS

GRAPHICS

ANIMATIONSVIRTUAL

LABORATORIES

TESTS

INTERNET – A STOREHOUSE OF GROWING KNOWLEDGE

Between now and 2020, the amount of digital information created and replicated in the world will grow to an almost inconceivable 35 trillion gigabytes as all major forms of media – voice, TV, radio, print –complete the journey from analog to digital.

Last year, despite the global recession, the growth of digital information set a record. It grew by 62% to nearly 800,000 petabytes. A petabyte is a million gigabytes. Picture a stack of DVDs reaching from the earth to the moon and back (Gantz and Reinsel, 2010).

Information: From Scarcity to Abundance

WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS

World RegionsPopulation( 2009 Est.)

Internet UsersDec. 31, 2000

Internet UsersLatest Data

Penetration

(% Population)

Growth

2000-2009

Users %of Table

Africa 991,002,342 4,514,400 86,217,900 8.7 % 1,809.8 % 4.8 %

Asia 3,808,070,503 114,304,000 764,435,900 20.1 % 568.8 % 42.4 %

Europe 803,850,858 105,096,093 425,773,571 53.0 % 305.1 % 23.6 %

Middle East 202,687,005 3,284,800 58,309,546 28.8 % 1,675.1 % 3.2 %

North America 340,831,831 108,096,800 259,561,000 76.2 % 140.1 % 14.4 %

Latin America/Caribbean

586,662,468 18,068,919 186,922,050 31.9 % 934.5 % 10.4 %

Oceania / Australia 34,700,201 7,620,480 21,110,490 60.8 % 177.0 % 1.2 %

WORLD TOTAL 6,767,805,208 360,985,492 1,802,330,457 26.6 % 399.3 % 100.0 %

Source: www.internetworldstats.com

Internet Usage and World Population Statistics are for June 30, 2010.

World Internet Usage and Population Statistics

SELF-DETERMINATION OF TEACHER AND STUDENTS NEEDS

APPLICATION OF NEW KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN CLASSROOM

(INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS)

•Determine the extent of information needed

•Access the needed information effectively and efficiently •Evaluate information and its sources critically •Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base •Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose •Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

PRINCIPLES OF SDL (SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING )

Initiative and Responsibility.

Select, manage & assess own learning activities.

Concerned with all aspects of teaching life.

Involve full range of human capacities.

Self-Accessed & Self Paced.

AVAILABILITY OF INTERNET

(FAST & RELIABLE)

SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING

SDL

SELF-DETERMINATION OF TEACHER AND STUDENTS NEEDS

Dynamic System of Self-Directed Professional Development

Self determination of the teacher and the student needs is based on the assumption that: the teacher feels the need for self-directed learning, fast and reliable internet is available and certain principles of SDL are followed.

The process of self directed learning will follow a sequence of application of information literacy skill.

Once the new knowledge learnt gets applied to self and class, then the process of self determination of teacher and student needs begins all over again.

This ensures that the process remains dynamic and stays in step with the exponential development of new knowledge and technology in the learning environment.

Dynamic System of Self-Directed Professional

Development Model (Brief Description)

Teacher Professional Development and Teacher Resources

across the Curriculum. (www.learner.org).

Teachers without borders

(Http://teacherswithoutborders.org).

The Global Dimension – The world in your classroom

(http://www.globaldimension.org.uk/).

teAchnology (www.teach-nology.com.)

The Teachers Corner (www.theteacherscornet.net).

Teacher Tube (www.teachertube.com).

Teacher TV (www.teachers.tv).

UNESCO’s ICT in Education Website

(www.unescobkk.org/education/ict).

Teachers must be self initiated, self-motivated and self-directed autonomous learners.

There must be access to Internet.

Teachers must be information literate.

The information / knowledge obtain should be adopted / adapted to local needs and context.

Conclusion

THANK YOU