Conference Agenda

Consistent with the conference theme, this session focuses on two critical “problems of practice” for professional learning:

• Problems of representation – How can we identify and represent educators’ practice and expertise in ways that enable their peers to build on/adapt them in other contexts?

• Problems of engagement– How can we find, reach and engage educators with representations and expertise that meet their needs?

Rooted in issues of data use and knowledge mobilization, the investigations in this session recognize that making information, data and other resources available is not the same as making it accessible or usable. Instead, knowledge mobilization is a complex, iterative, and social process (Ward, 2017) in which interpretations of information/data are shaped by the characteristics of the representations and the contexts in which those representations are used (Author, 2009; 2013). To explore these issues, three groups will present papers that describe efforts to address different aspects of these problems. The session Chair will then lead an interactive discussion with the panelists and audience critically examining the work of each group, identifying connections and common challenges, and exploring avenues for these and other groups to collaborate in developing more impactful ways of sharing educator’s expertise.

Problem

This year’s congress explores the importance of professional development for school effectiveness and improvement, a field that is well-supported by decades of evidence-based resources and knowledge. However, mobilizing these resources effectively relies on relationships between stakeholders. A social network approach has supported our work in strengthening these relationships, but new tools are needed in order to understand the content that is moved through these relationships.

Focus

Researchers and other organizations that collaborate with practitioners and policymakers to create and share resources can struggle to mobilize their knowledge more widely (Authors, 2023). As such, we are pursuing the following question: How can the content exchanged through social networks be mapped to provide a more complete understanding of which actors possess and share which knowledge and with whom?

Perspectives

Knowledge mobilization is an iterative and social process involving interactions among different groups or contexts (researchers, policymakers, practitioners, third-party agencies, community members) to improve the broader education system (Cooper, 2014). Informal and formal social networks and the role of brokers have been found to facilitate and constrain the exchange of best resources (e.g., Authors, 2012; Brown et al., 2016). However, the context and purposes for which knowledge is assembled, synthesized, translated, and applied also matter (Moss, 2013).

Methods

We conducted 41.5 hours of semi-structured interviews with organizations that provide professional development and other resources to education systems, determining their needs and interests. Through analysis of these data, we generated Twitter search terms to capture more than 500,000 relevant posts from over 250,000 unique users. Using social network analysis (SNA), computational linguistics (CL) (e.g., topic modeling, opinion mining, part-of-speech tagging), and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), we generated social network and content maps and metrics for each organization. We then observed representatives from each organization as they reviewed and made sense of the maps and metrics.

Findings

When provided with maps and metrics, individuals from organizations that aim to mobilize knowledge between research, policy, and practice were able to:

• Understand the social networks and idea networks in online spaces related to their areas of expertise.

• Identify the content of the resources that moved through these networks.

• Pinpoint groups and individuals who were looking for available resources.

• Identify key knowledge brokers who were well-positioned to disseminate knowledge and resources to target audiences.

• Use the information to pursue organizational goals including honing language in resources, adjusting dissemination strategies, and forming new partnerships with individuals and organizations strategically placed in networks.

Implications

In an era when disinformation can move efficiently through networks, the field of education must improve the mobilization of evidence-based resources to those who can disseminate them effectively. Partnering with organizations that effectively share knowledge can enable the development of tools and techniques that can foster and enhance the mobilization of knowledge. These tools can support the development of relationships to sustain and expand the creation and dissemination of high-quality resources.

Problem

Although educational practitioners globally are continually creating new innovative practices in their classrooms, these innovations are rarely shared between educators. The challenge of highlighting impactful and scalable educational solution-practices has been at the core of HundrED’s work since 2017. This study explores the challenges of representing innovations and implementations of innovations on a free-to-use platform-based website for practitioners, organizations and education leaders to share and learn about one another’s innovative work.

Focus

This study focuses on challenges of representation and engagement with descriptions of innovations and implementations for various education stakeholder audiences. HundrED has created a collection of educational innovations from around the world and works with educators and schools to find and adapt those that fit their context. In this study we ask: What types of guidance and support is needed for innovators, peer reviewers, practitioners and education leaders to represent and interpret stories of educational innovation on an online open educational platform?

Perspectives

HundrED’s work is grounded in a communications theory, based on Rogers’ Theory of Diffusion of Innovations (2003). We understand that change in education is a social process which necessitates communication between multiple actors at multiple levels who are involved in multiple decision-making processes.

Methods

HundrED uses a crowd-sourced online platform to aggregate and review education innovations globally. Currently there are over 4,000 unique user-created entries in the HundrED database. Each innovation is presented on its own page, and users are guided through a series of prompts which populate their unique information into a standardized format. These innovation pages tell the story of the challenge that the innovation addresses and brings and the story of their journey to scale.

Findings

We have identified several challenges in the representation of novel pedagogical practices. First is making a distinction between the practice itself and the growth of the organization that has developed the practice of program. Second, there is a challenge of the format of the narrative data collection in terms of prompting the innovator to communicate the adaptations or underlying theory of change that underpin the innovation and the concrete examples of the impact that can be observed and attributed to the innovation. Third, there are user experience challenges in guiding the innovator through the process of inputting their data an presenting that information in a visually appealing way for various audiences (teachers, expert reviewers). Fourth, as a global organization, we are also sensitive to the challenge of the languages of representation, including ethical challenges in determining the extent to which HundrED staff modifies the innovator’s text for readability and comprehension.

Implications

These challenges point to the need for iterative and co-creative processes and strong feedback loops between the innovators, practitioners, reviewers, and the developers of the platform as well as clear ethical considerations of the type of information that is asked for and the relevance of different types of pedagogies. We see a clear need for support in storytelling and story crafting and the narrative communication of innovations and implementations of education innovations at work.

Problem

This paper is motivated by the disconnect between a) rising calls for transformative educational change in global policy contexts and b) weaknesses in local capabilities for educational innovation and improvement within and between countries. With that, the paper focuses on specific problems of representation and engagement: namely, scaling capabilities for collaborative, continuous improvement among globally distributed communities of educational stakeholders. By “collaborative, continuous improvement”, we mean iterative analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation addressing local educational opportunities, needs, and problems (Authors).

Focus

This study explores the use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for developing local capabilities for collaborative, continuous improvement at scale. Over the past 15 years, collaborative, continuous improvement has gained currency in the global context (Greany & Kamp, 2022; Wolfenden et al., 2022). However, the infrastructure among higher education institutions, technical assistance providers, and government agencies to support large-scale capacity building is underdeveloped (Authors). By comparison, the global infrastructure supporting MOOCs provides access to low-cost/no-cost professional learning opportunities in nearly every country.

Perspectives

This study explores the use of a MOOC-based instructional design called Self-Directed/Community-Support Learning to develop capabilities for collaborative, continuous improvement. This design coordinates transfer-oriented “xMOOC” pedagogies with constructivist “cMOOC” pedagogies to develop capabilities to perform complex, collaborative technical and professional work in authentic workplace contexts (Authors).

Approach

This study is part of a multi-year, continuing design based research project supporting the iterative design, implementation, evaluation, and refinement of a coordinated series of MOOCs that aim to develop entry-level theoretical and practical knowledge of collaborative, continuous improvement. The first iteration was launched in 2017, and has engaged over 50K learners from 180 countries. The second iteration is launching in 2023. The central question organizing inquiry around both iterations is, “What resources are needed to support diverse, globally distributed learners in enacting a complex design for independent and social learning in an online, open access learning environment?”

Evidence

This study leverages learner contributions to discussion boards and forums, course artifacts (including portfolios of student work), surveys, interviews, focus groups, and platform-generated analytics. It also includes an approach to “collaborative participant observation” in which two cohorts of campus-based learners collaborated with cohorts of globally distributed learners to examine core design decisions.

Learnings

Findings suggest that coordinating independent and social learning in online, open-access contexts benefits from four supports: careful logistical management to ensure on-pace, coordinated participation among a critical mass of learners; supplemental support among nationally, culturally, and linguistically diverse students in collaborating on authentic problems of practice; the use of cloud-based resources beyond the learning management system to support richer collaboration; and participation of instructional designers as stewards and facilitators.

Importance

The importance of this study is that it suggests new possibilities for cross-national efforts to develop local capabilities for innovation and improvement responsive to global calls for transformative educational change.

Conference Theme

This study is focused squarely on the conference theme of quality professional learning for enhanced school effectiveness and improvement.