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Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2012

Teacher Education and Professional Development

Sacred Heart University

Online teaching

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

“Everybody Is Their Own Island”: Teacher Disconnection In A Virtual School, Abigail Hawkins, Charles R. Graham, Michael K. Barbour Apr 2012

“Everybody Is Their Own Island”: Teacher Disconnection In A Virtual School, Abigail Hawkins, Charles R. Graham, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Virtual schooling is a recent phenomenon in K-12 online learning. As such, the roles of the online teachers are emerging and differ from those of the traditional classroom teacher. Using qualitative interviews of eight virtual high school teachers, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of their online teaching role. Teachers expressed a sense of disconnection from their students, the profession, and their peers as a result of limited interactions due to significant institutional barriers. Researchers discuss the implications of this disconnection as well as future avenues for research.


Training Teachers For A Virtual School System: A Call To Action, Michael Barbour Jan 2012

Training Teachers For A Virtual School System: A Call To Action, Michael Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Online learning at the K-12 level is growing exponentially. Students learning in supplemental virtual schools and full-time cyber schools, using a variety of delivery models that include and sometimes combine independent, asynchronous, and synchronous instruction, in almost every state in the US. In some instances the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by teachers in this technology-mediated environment is consistent with what they learned about face-to-face teaching in their teacher education programs, while in many instances, the two are quite different. Presently the lack of empirical research into effective K-12 online teaching limits teacher education programs. However, teacher education programs still …