Abstract
This chapter reports initial findings from a study of the thinking, beliefs and tutorial action of higher education teachers who are working in a ‘virtual classroom’. The teachers work on an ‘online learning’ course at the Masters level. An important means of communication on this course is computer conferencing. The work of the teachers is centred upon reading and constructing electronic texts — contributions to an ongoing ‘electronic seminar’. The research setting allows an unusual degree of access to the thinking of teachers during the process of teaching. It also allows access to the thinking of teachers during the whole of the (relatively short) cycle of planning, teaching and reflection that surrounds each moment for intervention in the electronic seminar. The chapter offers two contributions to our understanding of online teaching. First, it begins to locate online teaching in relation to other forms of teaching by providing an analysis of how some common kinds of online teaching are undertaken. Second, through illustrations of the work of one experienced online teacher — supplemented by data taken from their ‘think aloud’ protocols and from interview transcripts — it highlights some key areas of knowledge and belief that seem to be a critical part of online teaching. The chapter discusses both substantive findings about relationships between teachers’ thinking, beliefs and practices, and methodological issues raised by this relatively novel research site. It concludes with some suggestions for further research.
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Goodyear, P. (2002). Teaching Online. In: Hativa, N., Goodyear, P. (eds) Teacher Thinking, Beliefs and Knowledge in Higher Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0593-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0593-7_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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