1. The ILA Literacy Research Panel
Considerations For Professional Development and the Integration Of 21st Century Literacies in Middle School Classrooms
The ILA Literacy Research Panel
July 10, 2016
ILA Trends and Issues That Inform Classroom Literacy Practice
Misty Sailors, PhD
The University of Texas at San Antonio

2. The Context
Literature on the PD of teachers is relatively new (e.g., Anders, Hoffman, & Duffy, 2000)
Grounded in ‘situated’ learning theories (Putnam & Borko, 2000)
situated in specific contexts,
social in nature,
distributed across people, tools, and resources
“enculturation” – bringing learners into a community of practice

3. Earliest studies of PD included “integration of technology” into teaching (e.g., Keller, Bonk, & Hew, 2005)
As a result, PD remains short-term, workshop-based, and organized around available technologies (Harris, Mishra, & Koehler, 2009)
Today, there remains a shortage of research on technology-focused PD (Curwood, 2014)

4. Focused on …
Multiliteracies: use of digital tools and online spaces to create, collaborate, and communicate through multiple modes and semiotic resources (Curwood, Magnifico, & Lammers, 2013)

5. To consider…
Multiliteracy practices of students may challenge teachers’ traditional practices, beliefs, and cultural models1 (Curwood, 2014)
Although teachers do recognize student use of multiliteracies at home, they do not see affordances for school learning (Honan, 2012)
1 Pre-supposed models of the world that organize people’s perception, motivation, and actions (James Gee)

6. When teachers DO adopt technology, it is used to maintain (rather than restructure) their classrooms (Thomas et al., 2012)
Assumption that preservice teachers as “Millennials” are ‘predisposed’ to engage in multiliteracies: not all of them are (Kist & Pytash, 2015)

7. Tools to appropriate the transitioning of teachers:
(Re)thinking PD and 21st century literacies: Moving teachers into the Web 2.0 environment*
Tools to appropriate the transitioning of teachers:
Blogs within PD (Colwell, Hutchinson, & Reinking, 2012)
Twitter as part of a PLN (Visser, Evering, & Barrett, 2014)
* Not all studies involved only middle school teachers!

8. Professional Learning Communities (Curwood, 2014)
Focus on integrating low cost digital tools such as Google Docs, Diigo, Ning, Animoto, Bubbl.us, etc
Met regularly to engage in hands-on learning with digital tools, design lessons, analyze student work, and critically consider the role of technology in English classrooms
Used the PLC to “unpack” teachers’ cultural models
Knowledge is a commodity
Knowledge is a social construction
Asynchronous communication is an affordance of online spaces
Synchronous communication is an affordance of physical spaces
Teachers must take a critical approach to technology integration
Students’ future success depends on their access to and experience with
technology

9. Self-generating PD (Prestridge & Tondeur, 2015)
“Renaissance”
Draws from action research
Independent learning pathways vs. course-based models
Explore beliefs about teach/learning that inform “ICT” practices (with mentor)
Engaged in plan-act-reflect activities
Engaged in “optional” activities (blogs, web-conferencing, read/reviewing curriculum materials, and interactions with mentor)
What elements of online professional development are most effective in supporting individual learning pathways?
Investigation
Reflection
Constructive dialogue (mentor was key)
Teacher autonomy
Self-realization

10. 3D Virtual Immersive Environment (Hartley, Ludlow, & Duff, 2015)
Second Life®
Interact with instructor-provided tools
Demonstration lessons
Interact with student “bots”
Students express satisfaction with SL format

11. References
Anders, P. L., Hoffman, J. V., & Duffy, G. G. (2000). Teaching teachers to teach reading: Paradigm shifts, persistent problems, and challenges. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Vol III. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Colwell, J., Hutchinson, A., & Reinking, D. (2012). Using blogs to promote literary response during professional development. Language Arts, 89, Curwood, J. S. (2014). English teachers’ cultural models about technology: A microethnographic perspective on professional development. Journal of Literacy Research, 46, Curwood, J. S., Magnifico, A. M., & Lammers, J. C. (2013). Writing in the wild: Writers’ motivation in fan-based affinity spaces. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56, Hartley, M. D., Ludlow, B. L., & Duff, M. C. (2015). Second Life®: A 3D virtual immersive environment for teacher preparation courses in a distance education program. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 34, Honan, E. “A whole new literacy”: Teachers’ understanding of students’ digital learning at home. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 1, Keller, J. B., Bonk, C. J., & Hew, K. (2005). The tickit to teacher learning: Designing professional development according to situative principles. Journal of Computing Research, 32, Kist, W., & Pytash, K. E. (2015). “I love to flip the pages”: Preservice teachers and new literacies within a field experience. English Education, 47, Prestridge, S., & Tondeur, J. (2015). Exploring elements that support teachers engagement in online professional development. Education Science, 5, Rodesiler, L., & Pace, B. G. (2015). English teachers’ online participation as professional development: A narrative study. English Education, 47, Visser, R. D., Evering, L. C., & Barrett, D. E. (2014). #TwitterforTeachers: The implications of Twitter as a self-directed professional development tool for K-12 teachers. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46,