| Teaching Articles Home | PDF File |

Volume 45
Professional Teachers' Articles
July 2010
Article 2

Article Title
Electronic professional development, action research and blogging: An ideal combination

Author
Paul Kebble

Biodata
Paul Kebble taught ESL and Mathematics for 20 years and in 7 different countries (Australia, Barbados, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Portugal, U.A.E., and UK) prior to acquiring an MA in Applied Linguistics. Subsequently, Paul has concentrated on teacher training and development and has recently completed a doctorate analysing an on-line PD course for English language teachers.

Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides tools for electronic interaction that enables global dissemination of information and inter-personal connectivity. An internet-based electronic professional development course for English language teachers can allow any teacher with access to a computer and the internet to participate. Electronic professional development that utilises the Action Research (AR) paradigm allows the design of a pedagogically culturally sensitive course. Although AR has been effectively utilised within teacher professional development for over forty years (Zeichner, 2001; Parsons & Brown, 2002), it has not been widely implemented in English language teacher development (Richards & Farrell, 2005) or within electronic professional development (e-PD) courses. This paper introduces an electronic. professional development course for English language teachers (e-PD4ELT), discusses how AR can be implemented within an e-PD course, and provides an appropriate AR model for the course using a blog within a personal learning electronic environment.

Key words: professional development, blogging, action research, on-line distance learning

| PDF File |