Submission Purpose

Main Conference

Type of Proposal

Roundtable

Abstract

This paper explores how peer communities, one element of a larger collaborative, inquiry-based professional development project in adult education, advance participants’ knowledge and use of technology. As the designer and facilitator of the project, the author drew from memos and field notes, in addition to interviews and written reflections with 6 of 9 total participants who were teachers and administrators in Adult Basic Education programs. Findings indicate successful technology integration entailed participants combining their own experiences with established research to create “knowledge-of-practice” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009), and that knowledge generation within the peer communities reflected a horizontal trajectory.

Keywords

Technology integration, technology adoption, technology, adult education, adult basic education, communities of practice, practitioner inquiry, professional development

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Share

COinS
 
Jan 1st, 12:00 AM

The role of peer inquiry communities in advancing technology integration for practitioners in adult basic education

This paper explores how peer communities, one element of a larger collaborative, inquiry-based professional development project in adult education, advance participants’ knowledge and use of technology. As the designer and facilitator of the project, the author drew from memos and field notes, in addition to interviews and written reflections with 6 of 9 total participants who were teachers and administrators in Adult Basic Education programs. Findings indicate successful technology integration entailed participants combining their own experiences with established research to create “knowledge-of-practice” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009), and that knowledge generation within the peer communities reflected a horizontal trajectory.