A Companion to Research in Teacher Education

individual teacher or specialist area. It takes the form of online books, resource
packages, professional readings, videos, podcasts, video interviews, databases,
glossaries, and course updates. This content serves as both a resource and cur-
riculum, as teachers select the specific information they need to meet their unique
learning goal and fulfill their personalized assignments. Typically teachers begin
each course by taking the online quiz as formative assessment to determine their
areas of interest, gaps in knowledge and get an overview of the content area. They
then generate their specific learning goals, and focus on relevant content to enable
them to engage in online forum discussions, complete assignments as well as curate
and collate artifacts as evidence of meeting the core competencies of the course. All
teachers will have unique learning goals, cover different content areas, and develop
artifacts that are relevant to their own individual work context and professional
identity. This student-centered method enables the teachers to direct their own
learning that is both linked to the specialist course competencies and relevant to
their professional practice context, thus making their learning individualized and
authentic. The online site enables aflipping of the curriculum whereby ongoing
anytime, anywhere access to course material enables teachers to select relevant
content when needed to complete their unique learning inquiry. The site remains
open and available to teachers once they graduate, as alumni, enabling them to
continually access updated information to inform their ongoing life-long learning
and practice as part of the growing community specialist teachers.
Teachers’perceptions of their preparedness (at the beginning of course) and their
achievement (at the end of course) of key aspects of inquiry learning are outlined in
thefigure below.

0 102030405060708090100

Learning through problem solving

Choosing the focus of my learning

Reflecting on my learning

Setting my own learning goals

Finding my own resources to help me learn

Taking responsibility for my learning

Preparedness (Beginning of course) and achievement (End of

course) of key aspects of Inquiry Learning

Very Well Achieved or Achieved (End of Course)

Very Prepared or Prepared (Beginning of Course)

At the beginning of the course, those aspects of inquiry learning teachers felt
most prepared to engage in were reflecting on their learning (73.2% felt either
prepared or very prepared to do this) and taking responsibility for their learning

17 Networked Teaching and Learning for Life-Long Professional... 261