Teacher professional learning is key to quality teachers’ growth. With an increased shift towards online professional learning (OPL), since the pandemic, this study aims at understanding teachers’ perceptions of OPL in terms of their readiness, self-efficacy, attitudes towards OPL, effectiveness of OPL, challenges faced and preferences for OPL. An online survey was used to elicit the responses of 1622 teachers across 37 schools in Singapore. Findings indicated that teachers had a positive attitude towards OPL and were willing to engage in OPL as they found it to be a convenient and an easy way of learning and did not find online synchronous engagement challenging. Teachers felt that their readiness and self-efficacy for OPL to be high. They also perceived OPL to be useful. However, they felt that the availability of time to complete assignments, opportunities, and support to transfer learning to practice were limited. They also felt that online interaction is not key to making OPL attractive and/or effective. Findings also indicated teachers had preferences in terms of mode, content and structure of OPL. For instance, teachers preferred a blend of online and in-person modes – content-based learning for online mode and experiential learning for in-person mode. Teachers would like to have more engaging content (e.g., more hands-on sessions, interactive quiz, discussions). They also preferred to hear other teachers’ sharing of experiences of how they applied learning in classrooms, see expert teachers demonstrate instructional strategies in an actual classroom, and attend online professional learning with colleagues from own school.

Authors:
Shu-Shing Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lee Yong Tay, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Kalaivani Ramachandran, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Andrew Pereira, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Caroline Ho, Academy of Singapore Teachers, Singapore

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Shu-Shing Lee is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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