CSCL as a catalyst for changing teacher practice

  • Authors:

  • Paul Resta;Mark Christal;Karen Ferneding;Adrienne Kennedy Puthoff

  • Affiliations:

  • The University of Texas at Austin;The University of Texas at Austin;The University of Texas at Austin;The University of Texas at Austin

  • Venue:
  • CSCL '99 Proceedings of the 1999 conference on Computer support for collaborative learning
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

This paper presents results of a study of middle school teachers using a prototype Macintosh version of CSILE to help create a knowledge-building community. The study, involving middle schools in two school districts in the Southwest United States, provided teachers with training and technical support in the use of the CSILE over a period of one semester.In-depth interviews were conducted with the teacher participants a year after the termination of the project to understand their experiences and to learn their stories of the impact of the Knowledge-Building Community Project on their teaching practices. Five major themes emerged from the analysis of the interview transcription data. This paper presents a summary of the teacher reflections and stories related to the emergent theme of how the knowledge-building community changed their teaching practices, roles, the structure of their classroom discourse, and their views of curriculum. The results of the study suggest that CSILE, accompanied by appropriate support, can serve as a catalyst in changing teacher practices from didactic teaching to more constructivist approaches to learning. The paper presents teacher reflections on changes in their roles, views of curriculum and classroom discourse as a result of the knowledge-building community project.