U.S.-Malaysia Planning Visit: Multinational Partnership for Research in Online Science Teacher Enhancement

该奖项支持马里兰州索尔兹伯里大学的Edward Robeck教授与马来西亚国立大学的Lilia Halim教授会面的计划访问。这次访问将有助于制定一项详细的国际合作研究和教育计划，以确定教师与旨在提高科学教师的内容、知识和教学能力的在线课程互动的方式的文化影响。计划中的项目还将包括美国地质学会(AGI)和自然历史博物馆(AMNH)的参与。访问将包括准备后勤规划、访问学校和实地评估现有基础设施内课程的技术兼容性。随着互联网接入的增加提供了克服地理、时间和其他教育机会障碍的方法，人们的注意力正转向优化在线课程互动。研究开始深入了解在线互动是如何由个人期望和人际交流模式塑造的，而这反过来又可以被认为与学习者的文化有关。拟议的项目将扩展这项研究，专门关注研究生课堂上的在线科学教师专业互动。索尔兹伯里大学和马来西亚大学的教职员工之间有足够的利益重叠，表明他们可以成功地开展拟议的活动，而且互动将使双方受益。随着远程教育成为教师专业发展的一种日益普遍的形式，这项研究将产生广泛的影响。参加访问和计划研究的教育研究生将是未来为教师提供专业发展的人，这使得他们对专业发展的文化敏感方法的知识至关重要。此外，参加在线研究生课程、明确关注文化多样性的美国教师更有可能将这种视角扩展到他们的学生身上。研究结果将通过专业会议、会议、出版物和原型在线课程应用，在从事类似在线课程开发的机构网络中共享。

0715171RobeckThis award supports a planning visit to enable Professor Edward Robeck at Salisbury University in Maryland to meet with Professor Lilia Halim at the National University of Malaysia. The visit will help develop a detailed international collaborative research and education plan to determine cultural effects in the ways teachers interact with online courses designed to enhance science teachers' content knowledge and instructional abilities. The planned project will also include participation of the American Geological Institute (AGI) and the Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The visit will include preparation for logistical planning, visits to schools and on-site assessment of the technical compatibility of courses within the available infrastructure. As increased Internet access provides ways to overcome geographic, temporal and other barriers to educational opportunities, attention is turning to optimizing online course interactions. Research is beginning to provide insights into how online interactions are shaped by personal expectations and patterns of interpersonal communication, which can in turn be recognized as related to the learner's culture. The proposed project will extend that research to focus specifically on online science teacher professional interactions in graduate classrooms.There is sufficient overlap of interests between faculty at Salisbury University and the University of Malaysia to indicate that they can successfully pursue the activities proposed, and that the interaction will benefit both sides. The research will have broad impact as distance learning becomes an increasingly prevalent form of teacher professional development. The education graduate students participating in both the visit and the planned research will be the ones who will provide professional development to teachers in the future, which makes their knowledge of culturally sensitive approaches to professional development of vital importance. In addition, U.S. teachers who take online graduate courses that are designed with explicit attention to cultural diversity will be more likely to extend that perspective to their students. Results of the research will be shared throughout the network of agencies doing similar online course development through professional meetings, conferences, publications and in prototype online course applications.