The Investigation of the Relation between Online Case Analyses and

Collegial EFL Part-time Faculty’s Reflection

Token, LeeHua Fan University

FLEAT Ⅵ– Boston 2015

Burgeoning reliance on part-time faculty

The massive expansion of higher education has caused the continued increase of part-time faculty. This increase appears to be the common approach for schools over the world to reduce their costs (Rossol-Allison & Beyers, 2011), including the United States (Quinn, 2006), UK (Muzaka, 2009), and Australia (Kift, 2003). Since this is a prominent trend in higher education, to improve the quality of the teaching-learning procedure in part-time teachers’ professional development becomes the key to achieve effective instruction.

Problems

• Few resources concentrate specifically on engaging part-time EFL faculty in developmental education community (Eney & Davidson, 2012; Kozeracki, 2005; Maxwell, 1997).

• Part-time faculty is insufficiently offered the same levels of resources, support, and institutional inclusion as the full-time faculty (Kezar, Maxey, & Eaton, 2014) .

• The lack of a supportive environment and professional development opportunities for part-time faculty (Eney & Davidson, 2012).

Reflection

• Teachers and administrators’ capabilities to rethink the purposes of education and reshape their teaching and assistance to meet students’ needs (Burnett & Lingam, 2007).

• The process involves creating meaning around practice (Kahn, Young, Grace, Pilkington, Rush, Tomkinson, & Willis, 2006), repeating cycles of examining practice, tailoring practice, and reflecting upon it.

Why Reflection?

• To engage teachers in exploring their experiences for new understandings and appreciations (Kabouridis, 2011).

• To orient teachers to attune their instructional strategies and assessment in various content areas and new professional development (Brownell, Sindelar, Kiely, & Danielson, 2010)

Online Community

1. University teachers usually teach in isolated contexts and fail to access to their colleagues’ classroom for instructional improvement (Cerbin and Kopp, 2006) .

2. The knowledge delivery online enables teachers to learn through discussing with other teachers without constraints of time and space (Jung & Brush, 2009).

3. The demand to establish online communities for part-time teachers increases (Hou, Chang, & Sung, 2009; Lin, Lin, & Huang, 2008; Liu, 2012; Yeh, 2010).

Case analysis 1

1. Help teachers propose different solutions and contemplate the consequences of their actions (McNergney, Herbert, & Ford, 1994; McNergney & McNergney, 2007).

2. The potential value of online discussions with guided prompts on an exemplary case among preservice and inservice teachers (Koc, Peker, & Osmanoglu, 2009).

Case analysis 2

3. Reading and analyzing cases strengthen prospective teachers’ moral development in addition to decision-making and reasoning abilities (Kessler, 2005) .

4. Sharing analyses and reflections with other participants in online community grants with opportunities to share, discuss, negotiate, and collaborate to construct knowledge of teaching in a situated learning discourse (Liu, 2012).

Five-step analysis

1. identifying educational issues, problems, or opportunities as they present themselves in the case;

2. recognizing different perspectives or values that drive people's actions in the case;

3. utilizing personal, theoretical, and empirical knowledge relevant to the issues identified;

4. proposing possible actions for handling the issues identified; 5. forecasting the likely consequences of such actions

Online community Case analysis

Teacher development

Reflection

Big ?

• Whether and how five-step case analysis approach triggers EFL teachers’ reflection?

• How do part-time teacher participants perceive their learning experience through case analysis and online community discussion?

Research Cite

• a language center affiliated with a private college in Taiwan:– combat teacher isolation– explore ideas– develop a sense of camaraderie.

• Teacher participant: – 4 EFL part-time teachers– Using online communicative tools– affording monthly meeting

Case Sample 1

Case Sample 2

Case Sample 3

Online discussion Platform

• Handy communicative platform (Skype, Moodle, etc.,)

• Online reflective sessions,

• Eight monthly teleconference, ≦60 mins for each.

Focus group interview

• how they perceive case-base approach as a tool to develop critical reflection;

• whether and how forming online teacher community facilitates professional learning; and

• what are the factors required for an effective teachers’ professional development program

Data analysis

• Interpretational analysis (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996)– Case analyses,– Reflective journals

• Grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990)– Interviews,– Reflective discussions

Anticipated Results 1

1. Providing part-time EFL teachers with an opportunity to elevate their professional development in an online learning community,

2. Encouraging teachers to reflect upon their own effectiveness,

3. To obtain insights into teachers’ perspectives on catalysts to make online learning environment fertile domain for reflective practices.

Anticipated Results 2

4. Providing college teachers with a context to work with other teachers through doing case analyses.

5. To discover and evaluate what and how teachers learn during their professional development and to inform both teachers and teacher educators of classroom practices.

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Thank You!Contact: tl2h@virginia.edu

Hua Fan UniversityDepartment of Foreign Language and Literature

No. 1, Huafan Rd. Shihding Dist., New Taipei City 223,

Taiwan