Cultivating a Personal Learning Network that Leads to Professional Change
Dissertation Manuscript
Submitted to Northcentral University
Graduate Faculty of the School of Education
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
by
BENJAMIN L. STEWART
Prescott Valley, Arizona
August 2015
ProQuest Number: 3746019
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Abstract
Teacher professional development opportunities in Mexico are currently lacking. The traditional
approaches of professional development such as workshops and conferences are commonplace
but do little to bridge the gap between abstract concepts about teaching and learning and the
practicalities teachers face in the classroom. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study
was to describe how ideas, materials, and social interactions form a PLN through online,
informal pedagogical dialogues among English language educators as it relates to professional
learning. The five participants of this study were selected from a total of 10 based on their
willingness to complete an informed consent form, complete an initial online survey, interact
with other professionals publically online, and participate in a final interview. The online survey
contained demographic information about each case and included both open and closed items; a
content analysis was done on public interactions that tool place online; and a final in-depth
interview used open questions to inquire about how respective PLNs changed over time. All
data was coded, categorized, and placed into themes based on the ideational, material, and social
aspects of each PLN. The findings show that professional knowledge, skills sets, and overall
dispositions emerge in unique ways based on how ideas, technologies, and personal contacts
interrelate with each other over time, and that an individual’s PLN provides unanticipated
benefits when sharing publicly online.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Background ................................................................................................................................. 4
Problem Statement ...................................................................................................................... 7
Purpose........................................................................................................................................ 9
Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 10
Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 14
Nature of the Study ................................................................................................................... 16
Significance .............................................................................................................................. 16
Definitions ................................................................................................................................ 18
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 23
EFL Teaching Knowledge ........................................................................................................ 26
Professional learning community ............................................................................................. 39
The Complexity of Learning..................................................................................................... 47
Actor-network Theory (ANT) .................................................................................................. 53
Personal Learning Network (PLN) ........................................................................................... 57
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 64
Chapter 3: Research Method......................................................................................................... 66
Research Method and Design ................................................................................................... 68
Participants................................................................................................................................ 70
Materials/Instruments ............................................................................................................... 72
Data Collection, Processing, and Analysis ............................................................................... 76
Methodological Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations ................................................ 83
Ethical Assurances .................................................................................................................... 84
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 86
Chapter 4: Findings ....................................................................................................................... 87
Results ....................................................................................................................................... 89
Evaluation of Findings ............................................................................................................ 124
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 131
Chapter 5: Implications, Recommendations, and Conclusions .................................................. 133
Implications ............................................................................................................................ 135
Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 141
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 144
References ................................................................................................................................... 147
Appendix A: Informed Consent Form ........................................................................................ 162
Appendix B: EFL/ESL Teacher Survey ..................................................................................... 164
Appendix C: Semi-structured Interview Guide .......................................................................... 176
Most Significant Change ............................................................................................................ 176
Appendix D: Multicase Study Preestablished Themes based on Research Questions .............. 177
Appendix E: Matrix for Generating Theme-based Assertions ................................................... 178
from Case Findings Rated Important .......................................................................................... 178
Appendix F: Matrix for Generating Theme-based Assertions................................................... 178
from Merged Findings Rated Important ..................................................................................... 178
Appendix G: A Matrix for Generating Theme-Based ............................................................... 180
Assertions from Important Factor Clusters ................................................................................. 180
Appendix H: Predetermined Codes ........................................................................................... 181
List of Tables
Table 1: Overall Participant Demographics ------------------------------------------------------------ 90
Table 2: How Participants Feel About Sharing With Strangers Publically Online --------------- 91
Table 3: Twitter Usage per Participant------------------------------------------------------------------ 92
Table 4: Twitter Ratios of Mentions, Replies, Links, and Hashtags to Total Number of Tweets 94
Table 5: Amber's Twitter Mentions, Replies, and Retweets as a Percentage of Tweets ----------- 95
Table 6: Amber's Blog Publishing Schedule ------------------------------------------------------------ 96
Table 7: Internet Usefulness and Use (Barry) --------------------------------------------------------- 100
Table 8: Barry's Use of Twitter Mentions, Replies, Links, and Hashtags -------------------------- 101
Table 9: New, Reply, and Retweets per Total Tweets ------------------------------------------------- 107
Table 10: Twitter Platforms per Participant ----------------------------------------------------------- 107
Table 11: TESOL Key Words Tweeted ------------------------------------------------------------------ 109
Table 12: Other Key Words Tweeted-------------------------------------------------------------------- 110
Table 13: Mention and Hashtag Averages per Participant ------------------------------------------ 117
Table 14: Key words from Twitter Posts (Tweets) ---------------------------------------------------- 123
List of Figures
Figure 1: Fractal Structure ........................................................................................................... 51
Figure 2: Networks ........................................................................................................................ 60
Figure 3: Participant's Self-Assessment of Understanding Social Media .................................... 93
1
Chapter 1: Introduction
One of the most effective means of teacher professional development is through informal
dialogues about teaching and learning (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development, 2011). Although current research supports the need for formal learning (e.g.,
workshops and conferences) and informal learning (e.g., teacher networks and mentoring), the
tendency is to rely on isolated workshops and conferences as the primary means for promoting
professional learning (Chung Wei, Darling-Hammond, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009;
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011). This is a particular problem
in Mexico where as few as 40% of teachers receive the professional development support that
they need (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011). This same report
shows similar problems for novice teachers in Mexico since 60-65% of have no access to
induction and mentoring programs. Thus, informal learning becomes a necessary complement to
traditional, more formal styles of learning that provides all educators the support needed to
achieve professional learning goals.
Informal learning through the use of informal pedagogical dialogues has been researched
in terms of how specific online spaces or Web 2.0 tools were being used in education:
microblogging, blogging, and online communities (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs, & Meyer, 2010;
Park, Mi Heo, & Lee, 2011; Ren et al., 2012). These studies conclude that current technologies
(i.e., microblogging and blogging) expand knowledge flow into informal, communal discourses
beyond the confines of formal structures of which are usually associated with temporally and
spatially limited, contrived, educational contexts (i.e., workshops, conferences, classroom
settings, etc.). And although other studies have contributed to informal discourses related to
learning and pedagogy through ICTs (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007; Lofstrom & Nevgi, 2008),
they tend to focus more on measuring learning satisfaction rather than on addressing whether
2
teachers have actually changed their beliefs and intentions towards student-centered learning
(Rientes, Brouwer, & Lygo-Baker, 2013). Thus, more empirical evidence is needed to better
understand a change in one’s interactional patterns and pedagogical ideas through informal
pedagocial dialogues that emerge over time without limiting the adult learner to a certain type of
technology (e.g., microblogging or blogging), community, or any other temporal and spatial
limitation. To understand a change in behaviors and ideas is to understand the emergent nature of
informal and open discourse. Change as it relates to professional teacher learning is complex
which according to Barlow & Waldrop (1994) and Richardson (2005) is a focus on emergent
behaviors that result from interactions within and among self-organizing and adaptive systems
(as cited in Mason, 2008).
The term PLN is directly derived from Personal Learning Environment, which was first
used at the Personal Learning Environments Session at a JISC/ CETIS Conference in 2004”
(Warlick, 2012, p. loc.202). Siemens (2005) also uses the term briefly, but more importantly
defines networks as connections between human and non-human devices: computer networks,
individuals, groups, etc. (2003). When researching PLNs and virtual learning environments,
Nikolaou & Tsolakidis (2013) specifically defines a PLN as simply “… a network of people with
whom one is connected with the aim to learn” (p. 79). Subscribing to Latour’s (2005) notion that
ideas or concepts are also nodes which can form associations with other human and physical
objects, a more holistic approach will be taken for this study when defining the term PLN; that
is, a PLN will be defined as an individual's recollection of ongoing associations of networked
nodes (i.e., conceptualizations, technologies, and social interactions) with the intent of fostering
both intentional and incidental forms of learning or change. Ideas or concepts will be presented
3
in terms of teacher knowledge specifically and technologies, social interaction, and ideas as well
will be rooted in complexity theory and actor-network theory.
Due to the lack of empirical evidence around the complexity of reifying the term
personal learning network (PLN), a theoretical-based explanation follows that frames the term,
PLN, specifically for the purposes of this study. To reify the notion of complex change through
informal pedagogical dialogues, concepts, materials, and social interaction can be viewed as an
aggregation. Based on actor-network theory (ANT), associations in the aggregate exist between
actors, or “any thing that…modifies a state of affairs by making a difference” (Latour, 2005, loc.
933). Actors, or network nodes, then can be an ideational (e.g., concepts), material (e.g.,
technologies), or interpersonal (e.g., social interactions) collective of interrelated network nodes.
The objective of applying actor-network theory within research is to understand how network
nodes (or actors) come together, how they manage to hold together, and how they form
associations that produce agency: identities, rules, routines, policies, instruments, and reforms
(Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). To this end, and for the purpose of this study, nodal associations
will be viewed in terms of ideas, technologies, and online social interactions, which collectively
will be referred to as a PLN.
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study is to better understand the
complexities and emergent attributes of informal, professional learning in the field of language
education so that subsequent efforts can be made to improve the kinds of support that novice and
expert practitioners need to improve pedagogical skill sets. This study will explore the emergent
patterns stemming from online informal dialogues about teaching and learning in terms of how
EFL educators interact with ideas, decide on the materials and technologies to be used, and
determine with whom they will communicate in terms of cultivating a PLN, a term rooted in
complexity theory and actor network theory, but specifically defined for the purposes of this
4
study. Chapter one presents the background, problem, and purpose statement behind the
research questions that lead the study through various concepts included in Chapter two. The
second chapter presents teacher knowledge, professional learning communities, complexity
theory, and actor-network theory that lead to the main theoretical concept for this research: the
PLN. Chapter three includes the method and design of the research, the participants,
instruments, data collection, assumptions, and ethical assurances that pertain to this study.
Background
Quality teacher professional development continues to be well researched due to its
influence on teacher practice (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009).
After having conducted a meta-analysis of many quantitative studies on teacher professional
development, Darling-Hammond et al. concluded that quality teacher professional development
results from understanding the design of professional development experiences themselves.
More specifically, designing opportunities for active learning or sense-making activities become
a crucial part of any educative experience (Snow-Renner & Lauer, 2005). One way to design
opportunities for active learning is through the development of communities of practice.
Communities of practice (CoPs) are groups of people who share a concern, a set of
problems, or a passion, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting
on an ongoing basis (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). In higher education, CoPs have
been found to have “analytical purchase” when it comes to teaching and learning in the particular
academic classroom (Morton, 2012, p. 101). But Morton also acknowledges that CoPs hardly
explain the hierarchical roles that take place between instructor and student relationships. In
fact, ANT, as an alternative to CoPs, provides an alternative lens for framing change and
5
innovation when it comes to analyzing social relationships (Fenwick & Edwards, 2012).
ANT provides a viable means for investigating sociomaterial orientations that are being
explored in social science research (Fenwick, Edwards, & Sawchuk, 2011). ANT, or
aggregations of associations between actors (i.e., ideas, human beings, objects, etc.), has been
found to support teacher change from a single narrative (i.e., one math teacher), using primarily
one software package used for mathematical computations (Boylan, 2010). ANT, along with
complexity theory, has also been used to study teachers, accountants, and pharmacists and how
professional learning is assessed (Fenwick, 2009). The findings reveal that professional learning
is less acquisitive, a-political, conscious, and representable and opens up the possibility that it is
more of “a web of collective action of cultural discourses, nodes of micro-negotiation and
struggle, politics of knowledge and institutions, and system contradictions of their work” (p.
242). Associating heterogeneous human and non-human actors or nodes in terms of a
sociomaterial network then provides a theoretical base, in part, for articulating the complexities
of open and transparent professional learning.
In addition to ANT, complexity theory offers a complementary framework with which to
analyze how practitioners interact. “Complexity theory is an appropriate lens through which to
view the dynamics at work within schools, not in order to predict and control but to enable more
responsive and dynamic processes which accommodate existing and emerging possibilities”
(Phelps, Graham, & Watts, 2011, p. 60). The authors conclude that professional development is
not linear or of a single approach but rather that schools become more reflective and engaged
when it comes to educators’ own professional learning. Other research has concluded that
complexity theory is ideal for teacher development facilitators who support a bottom-up,
6
emergent, and self-organizing approach to professional learning experiences among staff (Fazio
& Gallagher, 2009). Using ANT and complexity theory as complementary conceptualizations,
the term personal learning network (PLN) will be used as a basis for closing the gap in current
literature that seeks to reveal the non-linear and emergent characteristics of professional learning
in education.
For the purpose of this research, a PLN will be defined in greater terms than Nikolaou &
Tsolakidis’s (2013) simplified definition, which mainly limits it to a human network. To
understand the meaning of a PLN as it relates to this study is to take each of the three terms in
turn, beginning with network. A PLN is a network just as ANT is a network of associative and
interrelated entities or nodes: ideational (i.e., ideas, concepts, notions, feelings, etc.), physical
(objects, material, technologies, etc.), and social (i.e., short-distance interactions among human
beings). The theoretical basis for the idea of learning is rooted in complexity theory: learning as
being emergent, non-linear, diverse, political, etc. Finally, a PLN more than anything personal
in that it refers to the unit of analysis for this research; that is, the individual educator. Indeed,
the learning network becomes personal since the individual remains the center of a surrounding
learning network of connecting nodes.
Studies related to the distributed nature of learning, specifically the role of materiality in
the workplace (e.g., technologies, artifacts, and objects), along with studies revealing the
assumptions of what constitutes professional learning have been lacking in current research
(Fenwick, 2009; Fenwick, 2010). Professional learning viewed in terms of a PLN is revealed
within the specific definition used for the purposes of this study: a PLN as aggregated
associations of ideas, materials, and social interactions. This study seeks to close the current gap
in literature by taking a more holistic definition of a PLN and applying it to a group of language
educators among three different local universities. By understanding the distributed nature of
7
learning – in terms of ideas, materials, and social interactions – and the learning complexities
that exist in every-day, informal dialogues that educators engage in, professional learning that
exists within a PLN will afford greater insight into how to plan and support professional learning
experiences for both the novice and expert educator alike.
Problem Statement
Traditional approaches to professional development remain popular but do not lead to
ongoing and sustainable professional growth (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, &
Orphanos, 2009). Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, and Orphanos (2009) claim
“episodic workshops disconnected from practice do not allow teachers the time for serious,
cumulative study of the given subject matter or for trying out ideas in the classroom and
reflecting on the results” (p. 44). And although isolated workshops and conferences provide
teachers a break in routine, a chance to meet colleagues and discuss professional problems, and
exposure to stimulating new ideas, they remain far removed from the situational factors affecting
day-to-day classroom practices (Atay, 2006).
In Mexico a traditional view of professional learning is evident as the country trails 21
other countries when it comes to professional development support – just over 40% of Mexican
teachers receive support compared to a global average of nearly 70% (Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011). Moreover, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report cites 60-65% of Mexican teachers have no formal
induction and mentoring programs, which is quite high when compared to a global average of
only18-20%. In order for educators in Mexico to receive the proper support needed for ongoing
professional learning, a more complex approach is needed in defining “professional collaboration
8
as spaces of intra-activity and disruption, where knowledge is distinguished as phenomena and
identities (Fenwick, 2012). To make this distinction, a PLN perspective offers an alternative to
interpreting how teaching practitioners interact with colleagues from their own institution as well
as others outside their institution simultaneously (Mackey & Evans, 2011).
A theoretical framework rooted in PLN conceptualizations shifts from a phenomenonbased analysis (i.e., isolated workshops and conferences) to a relational-based analysis stemming
from associations between ideas, technologies, and social relationships. Understanding PLN
effects is “to imagine teaching and learning as material-semiotic assemblages of sociotechnical
relations embedded in and performed by shifting connections and interactions among a variety of
organic, technical, ‘natural’, 9 and textual materials” (Gough, 2004). Just as Angus, Cook, and
Evans (2001) saw the simplistic task of making a cup of coffee as an exhaustive detail of
multitude of connections involving both human and non-human devices, so too is the apparent
simplistic task of educators interacting, sharing ideas, and using different technologies (as cited
in Gough, 2004). This research sets out to implement a PLN theory (i.e., a theoretical
conceptualization based on ANT and complexity theory and specifically defined for the purpose
of this study) to not only better understand the complexities of professional learning as an
individual, material, and social achievement, but also as an overall enacted network effect. This
study sets out to reveal the ideational, material, and social connections (i.e., PLNs) behind online
educator interactions so that intentional efforts going forward can assume more productive
leadership roles within an organization by (a) enabling the conditions in which complex
mechanisms can emerge and (b) preparing organizations to respond quickly and effectively to
unanticipated conditions (both destructive and beneficial) (Uhl-Bien, 2008). Failing to
recognizing the multitude of connections that form current professional learning behaviors will
9
lead to accepting the notion of professional development solely in terms of isolated workshops
and conferences, which continues to stifled learning experiences among educators in ways that
hinder ongoing professional development.
Purpose
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to describe how ideas, materials,
and social interactions form a PLN through online, informal pedagogical dialogues among
English language educators as it relates to professional learning. It was the informal pedagogical
dialogues with others that stem from online ICTs that contain what educators need to know to
better do their jobs within an information landscape (Warlick, 2012). In fact, teachers must learn
first how to be connected collaborators themselves before attempting to model such behaviors
for students, for instance (Nussbaum-Beach, 2012). For the purpose of this study, the term PLN
was defined as an aggregate of associations of ideas, technologies, and social interactions, and
will serve as the theoretical concept under investigation, or what Stake (2006) refers to as “the
quintain” (p. 6).
Specifically, this study analyzed how five English language educators interact openly
online through detailed observations and participants’ own accounts of individual changes to
ideational, material, and social relationships (i.e., an observance and description of a PLN). To
conduct such an analysis, various data collection strategies were employed: (a) an online survey
(Appendix B), which included an informed consent clause (Appendix A) that was used in part to
select the participants of the study as well as to provide demographic information; (b) content
analyze on informal pedagogical dialogues published publically online; and (c) a semi-structured
interview (Appendix C). These strategies were designed in order to understand (a) how
participants perceived open, online, informal pedagogical dialogues within their personal
10
learning networks and (b) how participants perceived changes to their personal learning networks
during the 10-week data collection process. Participants of the study interacted online
throughout the 10-week period as they normally would have. HyperResearch, a qualitative
research design software program, was used to analyze data collected from the online survey,
informal pedagogical dialogues posted on the web, and recorded interviews in order to determine
how ideational, material, and social relationships formed over time via informal pedagogical
dialogues conducted by language educators through public, online interactions.
The objective of this study was to explore how participants conducted online pedagogical
dialogues by framing ideas, technologies, and social interactions (i.e., PLN nodes) as being
complex, emergent, and relational. By researching PLNs as being a dynamic set of nodal
associations, humans and objects were viewed as effects of dynamic materialization processes
that caused them to emerge through gatherings and act in indeterminate entanglements of local
everyday practice – a relational materiality that is often overlooked in educational research
(Fenwick, Edwards, & Sawchuk, 2011). Researching and unveiling PLNs within a local context
remained the precursor for reconnoitering professional learning in terms of what individual
identities and behaviors were translated in becoming part of a network (Fenwick, 2010). The
alternative was to equate professional learning solely as isolated events (e.g., workshops and
conferences) which would have a less likelihood of becoming relevant and meaningful for the
teaching practitioner interested in ongoing professional learning.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for this multiple case study was based on what constitutes
teacher knowledge, complexity theory, and ANT. Specifically, this study sought to find out how
informal dialogues among EFL educators in Mexico emerged within a complex and adaptive
EFL teacher knowledge-based network (i.e., one’s understandings, knowledge, skills, and
11
dispositions). Teacher knowledge based on understandings emerges from a combination of
facets: explaining, interpreting, apply, having perspective, having empathy, and having selfknowledge (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). In terms of EFL teachers, these six facets of
understanding lead to a more comprehensive approach to language teacher competence (LTC)
that emerges from three relational and interdependent domains: (i) language competence (i.e., the
ability to communicate meaning), (ii) pedagogical competence (i.e., skill sets of one person that
prompt learning in another person), and (iii) language awareness (i.e., knowledge about language
or KAL) (Cots & Arnó, 2005). Because some English language teachers are non-native speakers
themselves, Cots and Arnó’s (2005) notion of LTC is particularly useful since teacher knowledge
is not only in terms of knowledge and understanding of content, but also knowledge related to
being an English speaker and writer (i.e., skill-based) and knowledge about how others acquire
the language (i.e., knowledge-based). Understanding what is meant by teacher knowledge
underpins how the learning process can take place.
One way to shape what a teacher knows (i.e., understandings, knowledge, skills, and
dispositions) is by stating that it occurs within a professional learning community (PLC). All
PLCs share three common elements: a domain, practice, and community (Wenger, McDermott,
& Snyder, 2002). The authors stress that a PLN’s domain, practice, and community share a sense
of commonality: (a) a domain with a mission statement or shared common interest; (b) a practice
with a shared set of ideas, tools, information, and language; and (c) a community with the
acceptance of group membership. And although learning can occur within a PLC, the focus of
this research is to shift the unit of analysis to the individual EFL educator in understanding how
informal dialogues about teaching and learning emerge within a PLN. The emergence and
12
complexity involved in cultivating a PLN is grounded in ANT.
Complexity learning has long been researched in the hard sciences but more recently has
included the social sciences as well. Two key concepts that relate complexity theory to learning
stem from the notions of feedback loops and sustainability. Feedback loops are usually
associated with teacher and student feedback based on performance evidence, but it is also the
nonlinear logic that entails circular and recursive relationships between human and non-human
devices (Kay, 2008). Over time, relational objects (i.e., human and non-human collective) that
provide feedback loops stem from prior experiences through a decision-making process referred
to as memory formation (Johnson, 2007). The memory formation process is what allows
interactions to remain sustainable. Sustainability of a complex system results from the synergies
that exist supporting the claim that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Kayuni, 2010).
Through ongoing synergistic systems model, self-organization and sustainability exist despite a
central controller or decision-maker that dictates how others are to behave. Within the
framework of complexity theory, ANT explains how learning centers around the individual (as
opposed to a PLC) through a personal learning network.
Understanding how ANT relates to a PLN requires defining what is meant by actant.
ANT consists of a network of actants that can be anything that acts or that can be acted upon,
whether human (i.e., social) or non-human (i.e., textual, conceptual, or technical) (Latour, 1997).
The actants then act as ideational, material, and socially-connected nodes within a collective
network. An aggregation of connected nodes (i.e., relational actants) forms a local, variable, and
contingent actor-network method and theory that is derived from material-semiotics (Alexander,
2004). Material-semiotics from an ANT worldview “…describes the enactment of materially
13
and discursively heterogeneous relations that produce and reshuffle all kinds of actors including
objects, subjects, human beings, machines, animals, ‘nature’, ideas, organizations, inequalities,
scale and sizes, and geographical arrangements” (Law, 2009, p. 2). The author points out that
ANT’s material-semiotics describes the performative nature of human and non-human relations
that lead to some aggregated effect (e.g., object, person, artifact, etc.). Hence, this study
investigates the performative nature of ideas, materials, and people as a collective aggregate that
presents itself as a dynamic effect or PLN. And at the same time, the PLN as a dynamic effect of
interrelated nodes, was framed in terms of an individual case. The individual case, or unit of
analysis, for this study is the EFL educator.
As a point of departure, a PLN incorporates complexity theory and ANT’s material
semiotics but goes one step further. Whereas ANT focuses on how social behavior occurs within
a network, a PLN takes on a connectivist approach in finding out how learning occurs within a
network (Bell, 2010; Bell 2011). This research traced complexity and heterogeneity by asking
participants what they do and how and why they interact the way they do within a PLN; in doing
so, one escapes the tendency to homogenize and unify participants' particular surroundings
(Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). Simply, complexity science provides a “clear, comprehensive,
congruent, cohesive, and consistent explanation of particular aspects of reality” (Shoup & Clark
Studer, 2010, p. vii). Professional learning from a complexity theory lens is expressed in terms
of recognizing learning patterns that result from self-organization without the benefit of a central
controller (Mitchell, 2009). An inquiry into PLNs is a descriptive journey into the educator’s
learning trajectory in order to better understand the web relations that exist at cognitive,
ideational, social, and material levels. Understanding such a learning trajectory enables
stakeholders to better frame professional learning as the complex set of relations that it is, and is
14
the precursor for understanding the complexity around improving student achievement resulting
from insight into the complex web relations that make up any reality.
Whereas ANT focuses on how social behavior occurs within a network, a PLN takes on a
connectivist approach in finding out how learning occurs within a network (Bell, 2010; Bell
2011). A PLN is an individual's recollection of ongoing distribution of boundary nodes over time
(i.e., both human and non-human objects) that directly interact with each other via unidirectional
or bidirectional forms of communication with the intent of fostering both intentional and
incidental ends. For the purposes of this study, a PLN is an aggregation of socio-technical
patterns; that is, patterns between ideas, material objects, and people which are actants in and of
themselves. Hence, in order to provide more professional development support to educators in
Mexico, this research seeks to shed light on how informal dialogues about teaching and learning
intersect with reflective dialogues regarding educators’ awareness of their own dynamic PLN.
This awareness becomes transformative as they interpret the various nodal relationships of their
PLNs – an awareness that reveals itself through the contributions, informal dialogues, and
personal reflections that emerge and adapt over time.
Research Questions
A qualitative, multiple case study was conducted in order to better understand how a PLN
emerges through online, informal, pedagogical dialogues in order to shed light on the support
educators need in Mexico. Professional learning can be quite complex, so for the purpose of this
research, a broadening of the term PLN was needed. The theoretical framework that leads to
defining a PLN for the purposes of this study began with the notion of teacher knowledge.
Teacher knowledge included any potential ideas, opinions, thoughts, etc. that participants were
likely to share about the teaching profession: content knowledge, pedagogical skill sets,
15
dispositions, and additional linguistic skills educators may have had with regard to learning an
additional language – it is possible that participants could have been non-native speaking English
language educators. Beyond the ideational component of a PLN that involves the different
aspects of teacher knowledge, social interaction were framed in terms of a professional learning
community (PLC). Teacher knowledge and PLCs were then shifted to more salient aspects;
videlicet, complex theory and ANT outline remained the key theoretical components of a PLN.
Complex theory and ANT provided the learning-as-a-network mindframe that not only
contrasted the notion of a PLC, but more importantly placed learning as a non-linear process of
human and material (i.e., sociomaterial) aggregated relationships. It was precisely the
aggregated, complex relationships between ideas, materials, and social interactions that served as
the underlying premise of a PLN.
A PLN, based on ANT and complexity theory are associations or connections of ideas,
technologies, and social interactions; that is, to understand any one of these three elements is to
understand the relationship between the three as an associative aggregate. The following
research questions were based on the concept of a PLN and the patterns that emerged through
open, online, informal pedagogical dialogues, with an end to better understand the complexities
of professional learning, which remained the precursor to any viable steps leading to greater
support to educators in Mexico. The first question resulted from observations from online
activity while the second gave participants opportunities to express an interpretation in how
PLNs changed over time:
1. How do PLNs of EFL educators emerge through open, online, informal pedagogical
dialogues?
2. How do EFL educators explain changes to their personal learning networks over time?
Nature of the Study
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This multiple case study explored how PLNs emerged via open, online, informal
pedagogical dialogues. Five EFL educators from different educational contexts interacted
publically online discussing areas of teaching and learning English as a foreign language. A
variety of data collection techniques were employed to obtain the qualitative data necessary for
interpreting the emergence of a PLN and various patterns that resulted from online interactions:
online survey, content analysis on observations made from informal pedagogical dialogues
published on the web, and a final interview. The data collection process occurred over a 10week period and relied heavily on participant posts using social media and public websites. All
data (i.e., recorded from the initial survey, informal pedagogical dialogues published on the web,
and interviews) were then coded using mainly predetermined codes based on the literature
review (e.g., ideational, material, and social interactions; fractals, etc.) along with additional
latent codes that emerged during the data collection process. From the raw codes, analytic
memos were realized in order to reflect and extract categories, themes, and patterns that evolved
from participants’ PLNs. Raw codes were also linked to demographic information related to the
participants of the study such as institution, education, and years of experience among others in
order to search for any additional converging or diverging patterns that may existed between
both the case and the PLN as a theoretical concept. Finally, HyperRESEARCH was used to
capture and analyze all qualitative data.
Significance
The findings of this study informed teachers and all other educational stakeholders how
to better create an educational ecosystem around PLNs and informal pedagogical dialogues.
Currently, there is little research related to how the distributed nature of learning, specifically the
role of materiality in the workplace (e.g., technologies, artifacts, and objects) and the basic
17
assumptions of what constitutes professional learning take place (Fenwick, 2009; Fenwick,
2010). Moreover, professional development tends to focus on practices and programs instead of
people; that is, building professional learning around practices and programs tends to lead to
isolated workshops, change initiatives that fail to create a conducive learning environment, and
summative teacher evaluations that simply recapitulate past events with little-to-no ongoing
support (Reeves, 2010). For these reasons, this study set out to analyze how informal dialogues
reveal the distributed nature and complexity of professional learning in education. The
distribution of learning was viewed in terms of a PLN or a connection between ideas, materials,
and individuals that are interrelated and adaptive over time.
Knowing how EFL educators conduct informal pedagogical dialogues in terms of a
dynamic PLN can offer a more engaging and effective professional development framework. As
EFL educators begin getting used to openly sharing and contributing with others publically, open
access learning transforms into a framework for educators to unite local issues related to teaching
and learning to open and informal dialogues. The informal dialogues of teaching and learning
then complement other qualitative and quantitative learning analytics that collectively provide
for a variety of indicators that allow greater perceptiveness into the level of engagement within a
professional development program. A PLN at its core is personal and underpins one’s entire
professional learning experience. “Personalization elevates human learning to new heights while
encouraging everyone involved to seek more” (Bonk, 2009, p. 352). As educators become more
involved to seek more out of personal learning experiences on their own, a more sustainable
learning trajectory ensues. As professional learning becomes more sustainable, a more
18
ubiquitous professional development effect begins to provide the support needed to help close
the gap between where Mexican learners are today and where they need to be in the future.
Definitions
The following are key terms that relate to the context of the study and help provide
perspective in framing the notion of a PLN as a means for one’s own professional learning.
Boundary nodes. Boundary nodes are people, groups, organizations, communities, and
devices the learner directly interacts with (i.e., unidirectional or bidirectional) as part of a PLN).
The term is synonymous with the notion of actants within an actor network (Latour, 2005) and is
limited to those with a direct connection or those defined as having one degree of separation
from the learner or central node (i.e., individuals and artifacts that a learner directly maintains
contact).
Connectivism. Connectivism is a learning theory that integrates chaos, network,
complexity and self-organization theories, defines learning as residing also outside the individual
and throughout the network itself, and recognizes that the decision-making process requires the
learner to adapt to a context that is in a constant state of flux. The following are eight principles
associated with connectivism as a learning theory: (a) importance of having a diversity of
opinions, (b) connecting specialized boundary nodes, (c) learning residing in non-human
appliances, (d) the capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known, (e)
cultivating connections is a precursor to facilitate learning, (f) ability to connect between fields,
ideas, and concepts, (g) currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge), (h) decision-making as a
learning process (Siemens, 2005).
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Open educational resource (OER). Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning
or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property
license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution (United Nations..., 2011).
Openness: The notion of openness relates to the underlining condition required in order
to grow a PLN. A PLN must be open in the sense that OERs and OEPs are shared freely,
enabling others to “reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute” (Wiley, 2008) resources and processes.
Personal learning network (PLN). A personal learning network (PLN) is defined as an ongoing
distribution of material, ideational, and human relational nodes (i.e., both human and non-human
objects) that consists of either unidirectional or bidirectional forms of communication for the
purposes of promoting both intentional and incidental professional learning. For the purposes of
this study, the term PLN is used instead of community of practice in that a PLN places more
emphasis on socio-technical relationships of the individual (based on ANT and complexity
theory) and is less concerned with cultural-historical perspective of group practice, which are
characteristic of communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Analyzing a
PLN entailed investigating complex changes to a PLN over a meso-level period of time (i.e.,
period of weeks).
Quintain. In a multiple case study analysis, a quintain is what bounds various case
studies together; that is, any object, phenomenon or condition under study (Stake, 2006). The
author stresses the importance of addressing a “case-quintain dilemma” (p. 7): researchers should
avoid focusing too much on the individual case while ignoring important details to the quintain
or collective target. But at the same time, understanding the quintain is impossible without
understanding individual cases. A case-quintain dilemma is provoked by a case-quintain
dialectic:
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“The Themes originated with people planning to study the Quintain. The
Findings originated with people studying the Cases. These are two conceptual
orientations, not independent but different. To treat them both as forces for
understanding the Quintain, the Analyst keeps them both alive even as he or she is
writing the Assertions of the final report. The Themes preserve the main research
questions for the overall study. The Findings preserve certain activity (belonging
to Case and Quintain alike) found in the special circumstances of the Cases.
When the Themes and Factors meet, they appear to the Analyst as both
consolidation and extension of understanding” (pp. 39-40).
The notion of a quintain provides the basis for approaching data collection and data
analysis of multiple case studies.
Sheltered Instructional Operation Protocol (SIOP) Model. The SIOP model provides
the basis for making subject-matter more comprehensible to English language learners who are
taking content courses with native-speaking learners. Aspects of the SIOP model include
specific techniques that make input more comprehensible at the planning, implementation, and
assessment stages (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2004). Although the SIOP model was originally
intended on teaching and learning English as a second language (e.g., learning English in the
United States), the notion of comprehensible input has been well researched to include also the
teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (e.g., learning English in Mexico)
(Krashen, 2003). This study does not seek to defend what is “comprehensible”, but rather to use
the SIOP model as a basis for communicating challenges English-as-a-foreign language
educators face in terms of their own teaching and learning.
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Understandings. Understandings are the “moral of the story, or rather, of [the] unit”
(Wiggins and McTighe, 2011, p. 80). When implementing a lesson, the goal is to create an
educative experience where evidence provides successful results in terms how students develop
six different facets: (a) explain, (b) interpret, and (c) apply concepts; (d) show empathy, (e)
perspective, and (f) self-knowledge (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). The six facets of
understanding then become the basis with which all other performance verbs are labeled. For
example, performance verbs such as describe, teach, and model fall under the facet of
explanation while critique, translate, and judge fall under the facet of interpretation (Wiggins &
McTighe, 2011). A non-hierarchical view of the six facets of understanding is a different
approach to classifying performance verbs compared to Bloom's revised taxonomy. Bloom's
revised taxonomy categorizes understanding as a lower order thinking skill along with additional
performance verbs such as interpreting, summarizing, and explaining (Churches, 2008). Within
the context of this study, LUISLE unites understandings and language objectives in tandem; that
is, understandings and language become means and ends simultaneously.
Summary
The objective of undergoing any professional development pursuit is to view leadership
as a complex, adaptive, nonlinear feedback network that is emergent and consistent of an
interactive process that is embedded in context and history (Uhl-Bien, 2011). This study seeks to
fill the gap in current research by investigating the distributed nature of professional learning
from a material-semiotic perspective and by describing the basic assumptions of what constitutes
professional learning (Fenwick, 2009; Fenwick, 2010). A qualitative multiple case study
explored how EFL educators in Mexico conduct open and informal pedagogical dialogues that
enrich a personal learning network along with any challenges they may face. From an ANT and
complexity theory framework, conceptual, social, and material-based networks emerged by
collecting various types of data: group discussions, interviews, participant reflections, content
analysis, and pre and post teacher survey related to informal pedagogical dialogues via public
web sites. Providing additional insight into what constitutes professional learning in education
lays the groundwork for further discussion as to how to measure, support, and share alternative
forms of assessing how an educator understandings, increases pedagogical skill sets, and
determines the dispositions needed in order to become an expert learner – a prerequisite for
teaching students too how to become an expert learner.
22
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
The term professional learning community has become ubiquitous to a point that it has
essentially lost its meaning (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). Schools rely on mandate-driven
change and isolated staff development sessions, which historically have not worked (Tomlinson,
Brimijoin, & Narvaez, 2008). Little research has been conducted relating the distributed and
emergent nature of learning, specifically the role of materiality in the workplace (e.g.,
technologies, artifacts, and objects) and the basic assumptions of what constitutes professional
learning take place (Fenwick, 2009; Fenwick, 2010). This study seeks to close the current gap in
literature by taking a more holistic definition of a PLN (i.e., not just human associations but
ideational and technological associations as well) and applying it to a group of language
educators among three different local universities. This study seeks to close this gap in literature
specifically by showing how PLNs (as previously define) emerge among a group of educators
from the same area (EFL) but from different universities that set out to compare and contrast
network patterns not only between individuals but also groups of individuals within various
institutions. Revealing the complexities and emergent attributes of a cultivating PLN help
provide greater insight into the support educators need to remain more effective, efficient, and
engaging life-long learners.
The search strategy for developing the literature review stemmed from a variety of
strategies and tools, which utilized a two-stage search approach. Besides using scholarly texts
from a personal library, different educational databases were being accessed to search articles,
books, dissertations, and other scholarly texts. Some of the educational databases that were
selected most often were EBSCOhost Education Research Complete (2012), ERIC (2012), Gale
Academic OneFile (2012), ProQuest Education Journals (2012), SAGE Journals Online (2012),
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Science Direct (2012), Taylor & Francis Online (2012), Ebrary (2012), ProQuest Dissertations
and Theses (2012), and Northcentral University Dissertations (2012). In addition to the
aforementioned educational databases, Mendeley (2012) papers research catalog was used to find
additional sources pertaining to topics associated with the dissertation thesis. The first stage
when searching topics related to the dissertation thesis yielded Boolean searches that were
conducted based on various keywords and phrases which included but were not limited to the
following: personal learning network, personal learning environment, professional learning
network, professional learning environment, professional development, professional learning,
complexity theory, chaos theory, emergentism, actor-network theory, and material semiotics.
Boolean searches were also used during the second stage of the search strategy, using the
Mendeley desktop (MendeleyResearch, 2011). The Mendeley desktop is a dedicated program
suitable for applying Boolean searches throughout all collected sources imported into the
program (either manually or directly from the browser) and also organizes sources into folders,
tags, keywords, and open online groups which helps facilitate others who wish to comment and
suggest additional sources related to the study.
The purpose of the literature review is to provide the theoretical support behind the idea
of a PLN as it relates to professional learning in the area of teaching English as an additional
language (i.e., English as a foreign language, English as a second language, etc.). For the
purpose of this research, a PLN is being defined as an aggregate of heterogeneous associations of
human and non-human entities or network nodes. Examples of human and non-human network
nodes include human beings, groups and teams of individuals, institutions, animals, objects,
materials, technologies, ideas, concepts, opinions, etc. Within the context of this research, three
terms were used throughout to articulate the main constituents of a PLN as it pertains to
25
professional learning among EFL language educators: (a) ideas or ideational representations, (b)
technologies, and (c) human or social interactions that are for the most part limited to direct
contact with others (i.e., primarily one-degree of separation). The literature review begins with
presenting literature in support of teaching knowledge in generally leading up to EFL teaching
knowledge specifically. Teaching knowledge in general is presented in terms of understandings,
knowledge, skill sets, and disposition whereas educators in the EFL professional who are English
language learners themselves might also have additional considerations related to teaching
knowledge and skill. Teaching knowledge that begins the literature review presents the what of
professional learning; the rest of the literature review deals with the how of professional learning.
Learning communities, complex theory, and actor-network theory demonstrate how society
interacts and the diverse, non-linear, and unpredictable attributes that frame open
communication.
Complexity theory provides an argument for non-linear learning (i.e., gaining
understandings, skill sets, and dispositions) that at times is chaotic and emergent but can show
signs of stability, mobility, and dynamic attributes. In addition to complexity theory, the section
on actor-network theory (ANT) underpins learning by justifying how connections across a
network form, decay, or can remain fairly stable over time. One of the key features of ANT is
framing ideas, material, & individuals as a result of prior relationships formed over time, and
how simplifying reality to dichotomies (e.g., teacher/learner, researcher/practitioner,
expert/novice, etc.) can be avoided by viewing the nodes of a PLN not as being fixed but as a
complex adaptable network of socio-material relationships that exhibit a potential to act. This
ontological view of professional learning is the premise for the PLN – a theoretical concept
rooted in the contextual dimensions of each individual language educator as the unit of analysis
26
for this study. In the final section of the literature review, the PLN becomes the basis for one’s
professional learning which emerges from interacting with other educators, materials, and
conceptualizations in order to recognize complex, emergent, dynamic, and networked patterns.
EFL Teaching Knowledge
Understandings. Any teaching practice is based on understandings. Bloom's revised
taxonomy categorizes an understanding as a lower order thinking skill along with other related
performance verbs such as interpreting, summarizing, and explaining (Churches, 2008). But for
the purpose of this study, the term has a broader sense. Understandings are the “moral of the
story” or concept, idea, or notion (Wiggins and McTighe, 2011, p. 80). When implementing a
lesson, the goal is to create an educative experience where evidence provides successful results
in terms how students develop six different facets of understanding: the learner can (a) explain,
(b) interpret, and (c) apply concepts and the learner has (d) empathy, (e) perspective, and (f) selfknowledge (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). The six facets of understanding then become the
basis with which all other performance verbs are labeled. For example, performance verbs such
as describe, teach, and model fall under the facet of explanation while critique, translate, and
judge fall under the facet of interpretation (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). A non-hierarchical
view of applying the six facets of understanding avoids the notion that lower critical thinking
skills are a necessary precursor to higher order cognitive development.
The notion of thinking about understandings in term of facets is not new. To help
educators not confuse knowledge with understandings when designing rigorous performance
tasks, five facets were originally introduced as a means for rethinking, reflecting upon,
reconsidering, and revising the meaning of what was learned and what was believed: the learner
can (i) explain and interpret and the learner has (ii) performance know-how, (iii) perspective, (iv)
27
empathy, and (v) self-knowledge (Wiggins, 1998). But to 'really understand', the now six facets
of understandings (i.e., explain, interpret, apply, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge)
collectively contribute to the degree students can (i) draw useful inferences, make connections
among facts, and explain their own conclusions in their own words and (ii) “transfer learning to
new situations with appropriate flexibility and fluency” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011, p. 58). Just
as the six facets apply to learners in the classroom, so too do they apply to the understandings
faculty are to develop according the school mission and vision statements (Wiggins & McTighe,
2007). This cognitive approach regarding how people learn is applicable to any subject, but in
terms of EFL teaching practice, a further discussion is needed.
In addition to the language teacher being able to form and promote understandings with
learners, language teacher competence (LTC) more specifically articulates what is meant by
declarative knowledge (i.e., understanding or knowing that...) in terms of teaching English as a
foreign language. LTC emerges from three relational and interdependent domains: (i) language
competence (i.e., the ability to communicate meaning), (ii) pedagogical competence (i.e., skill
sets of one person that prompt learning in another person), and (iii) language awareness (i.e.,
knowledge about language or KAL) (Cots & Arnó, 2005). KAL (language and pedagogical
competences will be discussed later) includes in part, topics such as second language acquisition,
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and language assessment which incidentally may or may not
be synonymous with the term content knowledge. KAL and content knowledge are synonymous
if the language teacher is giving a course in psycholinguistics; that is, giving an English for
academic purposes class where the subject knowledge is not solely linguistic. But if the
language teacher is giving a general English course, then KAL (e.g., psycholinguistics) and
content knowledge (e.g., English related to real-life themes) diverge. Thus, KAL and content
28
knowledge become the precursor for developing enduring understandings or the big ideas that
students should retain after the details have been forgotten (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005).
Besides knowing what the desired results are for a particular class (i.e., KAL, content
knowledge, and understandings), teachers who have an understanding about the different types
of evidence required to assess student achievement, are better equipped to provide the support
needed to improve student achievement. Assessment can be categorized into three areas: (I)
formative assessment or assessment for learning, (ii) summative assessment or measurement of
learning at the classroom level, and (iii) a combination of summative assessments at the program
level (e.g., overall grade point average or GPA) (Yorke, 2010). Assessment can also be
considered as falling along a simple to complex continuum: informal discussions, academic
prompts, quizzes and exams, and performance tasks respectively (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005).
Regardless of the combination of assessments used to measure and promote learning, assessment
design that aligns to curricular aims preclude instructional design and implementation, also
called “assessment-illuminated instruction” (Popham, 2008a, p. 265), or “backward design”
(Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, p. XX).
In the field of teaching EFL, various forms of evidence need to measure and promote
both understandings but also language. Assessing the EFL classroom includes collecting
evidence related to vocabulary use, course content, and various other types of assessments
collected throughout the course (i.e., behavioral assessments that measure language and conduct)
(Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). More specifically, criterion-referenced tests are used to
compare a student's performance to a standard or criterion (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2007). A
standard often used in language learning is the Common European Framework which influences
how many language course books are designed and also provides extensive descriptors that
29
provide the criteria for rubrics used for more qualitative-based assessment instruments (Council
of Europe, 2011). Similarly, measuring understandings can result from having a rubric
containing the six facets of understanding as a standard of performance that aligns to curricular
goals (Wiggins and McTighe, 2011).
Assessment for learning (i.e., formative assessment) complements summative assessment
in a variety of ways. “Formative assessment is a planned process in which assessment-elicited
evidence of students' status is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional procedures or
by students to adjust their current learning tactics (Popham, 2008b, p. 6). This joint commitment
between teacher and learner is an active and intentional process that continuously and
systematically gathers evidence of learning with the express goal of improving student
achievement (Moss & Brookhart, 2009). E-portfolios and performance-based assessments, for
instance, offer additional examples of formative assessments that lend themselves to a more
authentic learning context that assesses not only the end product but the process as well
(Kubiszyn & Borich, 2007). Thus assessing of learning and assessing for learning complement
each other by providing the evidence necessary (i.e., qualitative and quantitative data) to make
more accurate inferences on student achievement. Once assessments that align to desired results
(i.e., curricular aims) have been determined, educators then move to the next step: planning the
learning sequence.
An approach to planning a learning progression that is conducive to higher academic
achievement emerges from a myriad of factors. English language teachers need to believe in the
students, know the subject matter, help students form connections with the subject and other
aspects of the students' lives, promote academic language, promote interaction with both content
and students, and articulate the importance of how students are ultimately responsible for their
30
own learning (Waldron, n.d., as cited in Rothenberg & Fisher, 2007). Together, these aspects
emerge through differentiating instruction; that is, teachers reflect on how content, processes,
and products can be differentiated based on the students’ readiness, interests, and learning
preferences through the implementation of meaningful tasks, flexible grouping techniques, and
ongoing assessment and adjustment (Tomlinson, 1999). Landrum & McDuffiep (2010)
performed a literature review related to differentiated instruction, learning preferences and
learning styles and concluded that each are have an educational benefit if based on a type of
“individualized” instruction that is
a) planned in a way that builds on what individual students currently know and can do
and targets meaningful goals regarding what they need to learn next; and (b)
accommodations and modifications to teaching and testing routines are made in order to
provide students with full and meaningful access to the content they need to learn (p. 9).
Thus, the level of individualization and differentiation that occurs throughout the learning
sequence will depend on the particular role the teacher plays.
At any given moment, a teacher will assume different roles. The role a teacher assumes
will depend on the type of action the student is to perform. If the learning goal is acquisition,
then the learner might be asked to define, identify, memorize, recall, select or apprehend where
the teacher takes more of a didactic role; if the learning goal is meaning, then the learner might
be asked to analyze, critique, interpret, synthesize, or compare and contrast where the teacher
takes more of a facilitative role; and if the learning goal is transfer, then the learner might be
asked to create, design, solve, or troubleshoot where the teacher takes more of a coaching role
(Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). By comparison, a teacher could mediate between students,
teachers or experts, parents, administrators, and community leaders; inspired students and
authentic learning environments; content and skill development delivery (i.e., face to face or
31
online); and assessment as advancing learning and the creative process (Mehisto, Marsh, &
Frigols, 2008). Although the roles teachers assume are many, they are necessary in creating an
learning ecosystem that allows the language learner specifically to combine the learning of an
additional language with advancing one's critical thinking skills.
Educators may approach the transformation of language learners to become better critical
thinkers from a variety of directions. Bloom's revised taxonomy ranks performance verbs from
lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills as follows: remembering,
understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Churches, 2008). Another
approach assumes a non-hierarchical list of verbs that serve as a guide when promoting higher
order thinking skills: appreciating, assigning, associating, classifying, combining, committing,
comparing, condensing, converting, defining, describing, designating, discriminating, extending,
identifying cause and effect, imaging, linking, observing, predicting, reconciling, role-playing,
separating, selecting, triggering, utilizing, and verifying (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008). A
more practical and humanistic approach is to use the term understandings to mean any
performance verb that falls under one of the six facets: explain, interpret, apply, perspective,
empathy, and self-knowledge (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). That is, the degree to which a
learner understands, is the degree to which a learner can perform actions verb that fall under as
many of the six facets as possible. Promoting understandings among language learners rejects
the notion that certain verbs automatically be performed first, as in the case of Bloom's revised
taxonomy. When learning understandings and language together, both understandings and
language become means and ends: the language learner becomes a more critical thinker through
32
the use of an additional language and the language learner improves language skills through the
practice of being a more critical thinker.
Bringing together understandings and language learning requires counterbalanced
instruction. Skehan (1998) originally proposed the idea of counterbalanced instruction in order
to push learners who were either form-oriented or meaning-oriented in the opposite direction (as
cited in Lyster, 2007). Counterbalancing form and meaning shifted to counterbalancing content
and language within language immersion programs avoiding the tendency to overemphasize one
at the expense of the other (Lyster, 2008). At the same time, the SIOP model, which emerged
from the Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) in the United States,
provided a way to operationalize how sheltered instruction makes content more comprehensible
to the English language learner through careful planning, implementing, and reviewing
classroom procedures (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). In Europe, the Content and Language
Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education (CLIL) approach set out to
triangulate content, language, and learning skills (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008). But since
all understandings require some degree of both enabling knowledge and subskills that center
around content, the act of counterbalancing language changes from content to understandings.
Skills. The skills of becoming a better teacher are vast. One pedagogical approach is to
ask, What can I do as an educator that will lead to more effective instruction? An educator can
(i) establish and communicate learning goals, track progress, and celebrate success, (ii) help
students interact and practice with new understandings, knowledge, and skills, (iii) help students
generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge, (iv) engage students throughout the lesson
by establishing and maintaining effective relationships, (v) establish and maintain classroom
rules and procedures, (vi) communicate high expectations for all students, and (vii) develop
effective lessons organized into a cohesive unit (Marzano, 2007). Another approach is to
33
promote teacher leaders regardless of title or position. A teacher leader is one who has the
willingness to (i) mentor and coach others, (ii) communicate with all teachers regardless of
personal affiliation or preference, (iii) grow by bringing new ideas to the classroom and school,
(iv) become a more competent communicate of one's ideas, (v) engage in creative and problembased issues that address higher student achievement, and (vi) share with others and to take risks
in front of peers (McEwan, 2003). Indeed, the skills needed to become a better teacher require a
joining of pedagogical skill sets with leadership skills such that the learning community within a
school encapsulates all educational stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, parents, administrators,
and community leaders). But harnessing one's skills, whether pedagogical or based on
leadership, involves some degree of materiality or material use (e.g., technologies, artifacts, and
objects).
Educational technology provides the means for teachers to become better communicators
as well as providing the skill sets needed to promote learning in another person. The
International Society for Technology in Education (2011) has developed a list of standards and
performance indicators that set out to engage students and improve learning, enrich professional
practice, and to provide positive models for students, colleagues, and the community. The
technology standards teachers should facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, design
and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments, model digital-age work and
learning, promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and engage in professional
growth and leadership. Also, there is a unification between instructional design (e.g.,
behaviorism, cognitivism, and social constructivism), educational media (e.g., film, television,
online video, and social media), and educational computing (e.g., computers, internet, and
mobile devices) such that a single term, educational technology, begins to show how future
34
trends emerge (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, & Russell, 2010). Some of the trends include more use
of electronic books and mobile technologies, augmented reality and game-based learning, and
gestured-based computing and learning analytics (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, & Haywood,
2011). But the prevalence of educational technology does not go far enough to closing the gap
between affordances and actual higher student achievement.
In a survey of current literature, Neubauer, Hug, Hamon, & Stewart (2011) posit that the
ubiquity of current technologies has done little to facilitate collaboration and student-centered
learning in schools to the degree that strategies are needed in order to leverage Web 2.0 tools in
order to help students prepare for the challenges of globalization, automation, and complexity
(Neubauer, Hug, Hamon, & Stewart, 2011). Facilitating learning can occur through a variety of
possible methodologies: tutorials, hypermedia, drills, simulations, games, tools and open-ended
learning environments, tests, and web-based learning (Alassi & Trollip, 2001). These
methodologies are of little use if teachers are not provided with a set of technological tools and
the instructional designs and procedures needed to explain how the technological tools may be
used (Zhang, 2010). The author proposes dealing with challenges using a complex system
perspective that involves a principle-based approach instead of a procedure-based approach; one
that requires the educator, or “grassroots innovator” to reflect across the macro- and micro-level
(p. 240). So the skills required to use ICTs under proper contexts, pedagogical skills that engage
learners efficiently and effectively, and leadership skills that promote the leadership skills of
others collectively apply to all teachers, but leave out communicative skills that are especially
relevant to non-native speaking language teachers.
35
Educators of any subject rely on the ability to communicate meaning, but non-native
speaking language teachers especially rely on language competence as it can strongly influence
one’s identity. Language competence as part of an LTC (i.e., along with pedagogical
competence and language awareness) is particularly a contentious issue when it comes to the
individual native or non-native speaker educator in relation to a particular social setting (Davies,
2011). The native and non-native dichotomy has led to a more detailed description of language
identity not only in terms of language proficiency but also in terms of how the speaker perceives
individual language proficiency and how others view the speaker's proficiency: these more detail
descriptions include bilingual speakers, English as a first language speaker, second-generation
English speaker, English-dominant, L1[native language]-dominant, and English-variety speaker
(Faez, 2011). Regardless as to how one classifies language identity – oftentimes dichotomously
referencing teachers as native or non-native speaker – sensitivities in linguistic problems learners
encounter should be recognized and dealt with when learning an additional language (Rao,
2010). The author coded and categorized qualitative data taken from an open-ended survey and
interviews and revealed that “…language teaching is an art, a science, and a skill that requires
complex pedagogical preparation and practice” (p. 66). For this reason, EFL teaching practice
and to a lesser degree teaching practice in general become interdependent associations of skill
sets that include language competence, technology, leadership, and pedagogy: skills that are
associated with a teacher’s understanding of curriculum, assessment, and instruction.
Dispositions. The teaching practice in the area of EFL, like in other subject areas,
require not only that teachers have understandings and knowledge of the subject and the
appropriate skills sets already mentioned, but also the disposition to engage and learn with
others. Indeed, “dispositions are the engine of performance in teaching, linking inner values and
36
commitments with action in the context of practice” (Carroll, 2012, p. 38). The notion of linking
inner values and commitments with action were revealed after conducting a case study of a
teacher candidate taking a teaching practicum class over the course of 10 weeks. The study
shows that certain performances of understanding that the teacher candidate can implement in
class (e.g., learners making connections, implications, and relationships) can provide “a critical
tool for assessing the trajectory of learning dispositions for ambitious teachers” (pp. 60-61). The
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Educators (NCATE) and many state departments
of education in the United States have adopted a philosophy that no longer is it enough that
teacher candidates have knowledge and skills in a certain area, but now must also possess the
appropriate disposition for the profession (Duplass & Cruz, 2010). The appropriate disposition
then links with the knowledge and skills that lay the foundation to becoming a teacher leader –
an expectation that extends to all teachers from the novice to the expert (Bond, 2011). Thus,
teacher educational programs have incorporated a four-step process for measuring dispositions
among teacher candidates: (i) clearly define what is meant by dispositions, (ii) determine how
this process can be operationalized, (iii) determine the types of assessments needed to evaluate
dispositions, and (iv) collect and analyze data on these assessments and use it to revise program's
focus and assessment of dispositions (Shiveley & Misco, 2010).
Defining dispositions can vary. The NCATE defines dispositions as follows:
Professional attitudes, values, and beliefs demonstrated through both verbal and
non-verbal behaviors as educators interact with students, families, colleagues, and
communities. These positive behaviors support student learning and development.
NCATE expects institutions to assess professional dispositions based on
observable behaviors in educational settings. The two professional dispositions
37
that NCATE expects institutions to assess are fairness and the belief that all
students can learn. Based on their mission and conceptual framework,
professional education units can identify, define, and operationalize additional
professional dispositions (The National Council..., 2012).
Another way of looking at dispositions is to categorize them as anything that isn't considered
knowledge and not labeled as skills so that to mark someone as an “effective educator” would
result from an amalgamation of all three (Wasicsko, Callahan, & Wirtz, 2004). The authors
reached this conclusion by surveying the literature and by asking four fundamental questions: a)
What is meant by dispositions? b) How will the definition be used in the conceptual framework?
c) How will dispositions be assessed? and d) What can be done to get commitment and buy-in
from faculty and administration? (pp. 2-6). To take the notion of dispositions one step further,
educators can develop certain habits of mind; that is, “the dispositions that are skillfully and
mindfully employed by characteristically successful people when confronted with problems, the
solutions to which are not immediately apparent” (Costa, 2008). Having the right habits of mind,
more than the proper knowledge and skill, becomes a precursor for interacting within a personal
learning network, or support system that one relies on as a learning educator – an issue to be
addressed in more detail later.
Once a definition of dispositions has been established, stakeholders then determine which
dispositions are needed in order to be successful and how those dispositions will be measured as
in the following: professionalism, open-mindedness, ability to listen, a belief that all students can
learn, reflection, temperance, self-control, and patience to name a few (Shiveley & Misco, 2010).
The belief that all students can learn and the willingness to collaborate with all stakeholders, for
instance, underpins how making public promises or collective commitments with all stakeholders
38
contributes to the success of one of the most successful high schools in the United States: Adlai
Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). Being held
accountable to different stakeholders provides the basis for operationalizing dispositions through
transparent and public dialogue.
Effective educators with the proper dispositions are held accountable to the degree that
teaching behavior can be assessed. Knowing what constitutes evidence for developing
dispositions provides the basis for operationalizing performances of understanding (Carroll,
2012). Several of the six facets of understandings mentioned earlier also lay the groundwork for
providing the appropriate evidence for assessing dispositions, such as empathy, perspective, and
self-knowledge. Moreover, two competing approaches of assessing dispositions in education
include quantitative measures, reductionism, and cause-and-effect relationships that link to
standards on the one hand; and a more qualitative, descriptive, interpretive, and discursive
approach on the other (Diez, 2006).
Teaching practice is an amalgamation of understandings (which includes enabling
knowledge), skill sets, and dispositions. These three dimensions to teaching are interdependent
and emerge and develop over time. When assessing teaching practice through ongoing
professional development, one of the biggest challenges is to provide an unbiased judgment that
leads to unreliable interpretations of an educator's conduct regarding what one knows; what one
can do; and what attitudes, beliefs, ideals, ideas, and experiences one has (Duplass & Cruz,
2010). What follows is an explanation as to how community change occurs within a professional
learning environment.
Professional learning community
39
Domain. From a community of practice perspective (CoP), professional learning occurs
as a result of a shared domain of interest (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Without it, a
CoP cannot exist since “it gives the members of the community a common ground to work with
and provides a sense of identity thereby giving purpose to and generating value for the CoP's
members and stakeholders” (May, 2009). This can lead to an organization legitimizing a welldeveloped domain whereas marginalizing CoP members with an ill-conceived domain (Wenger,
McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). The process then to develop a valuable domain is much like an
individual working with a group of individuals towards a type of community purpose statement
that is contingent on its relevance to the mission and vision statements and values of the
organization.
In education, schools develop a learning-related plan in the form of a mission statement
(Wiggins & McTighe, 2007). More broadly, a professional learning community (e.g., a school)
rests on four interrelated pillars: (i) mission – Why do we exist? (ii) vision – What do we hope to
become? (iii) values – What commitments must we make to create the school or district that will
improve our ability to fulfill our purpose? (iv) and goals – What goals will we use to monitor our
progress? (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008). In terms of a CoP, legitimizing a domain equates to
acknowledging alignment to these four pillars of a professional learning community. Just as
domains are legitimized based on how they align to the four pillars, individual learning goals are
legitimized within a CoP domain.
Learning-related planning not only occurs at the group and organizational level, but also
at the individual level. One approach in planning for professional learning is to start with the
ends (e.g., mission and vision statements) and follow up with ways and means. The Goals and
Roles Evaluation Model (GREM) takes such an approach by dividing up performance
40
assessment into two categories: development phase and implementation phase (Stronge, 1997).
Under GREM, the development phase consists of determining the mission of the school,
translate the mission into individual responsibilities, and determine the type of performance
indicator that each individual is to carry out. The implementation phase includes collecting data
from the individual's performance, compare the performance to some benchmark, and promote
change that seeks to improve the program through professional development. A linear approach
to professional learning such as GREM provides a common dilemma in professional
development between personal development and organizational learning (Scales, Pickering,
Senior, Headley, Garner, & Boulton, 2011).
Another approach to professional learning is to base it in action research and action
learning. Part of a teacher's job when not teaching is to be a continuous learner by keeping
abreast of current research on teaching and learning, enhancing professional skills, and engaging
in action research at the school and district levels (Wiggins & McTighe, 2007). But a more
personalized approach to professional development avoids domains or preplanning at the
organizational level altogether. Action learning, for example, branches away from action
research in that the former focuses on learning through action while the latter is based on a
research method grounded in practice (McGill & Beaty, 2002). Although the term action
learning can vary, it is usually associated with having the following key features: (i) sets of
about six people, (ii) action on real tasks or problems at work, (iii) tasks or problems are
individual rather than collective, (iv) questioning as the main way to help participants proceed
with their tasks or problems, and (v) facilitators are used (Pedler, Burgoyne, & Brook, 2005).
Hence, action learning requires a purposeful pursuit in addressing the existential questions What
do I stand for? and What am I trying to do? (Pedler & Burgoyne, 2008), two questions that
41
underpin understanding how teachers create a personal learning network that leads to personal
change.
Practice. A domain based on intentionality, or goal setting, provides the basis for
establishing a set of practices that reside somewhere between the individual and the community.
The term practice can be thought of as a “set of frameworks, ideas, tools, information, styles,
language, stories, and documents that community members share” (Wenger, McDermott, &
Snyder, 2002). But practice is not only contingent on sharing ideas, tools, and information
within a community or group (i.e., a collective), but also occurs at the individual level through
action learning. And although action learning lacks the empirical and experimental evidence
needed to qualify it as a rigorous research standard, Leonard and Marquardt (2010) presented a
meta-analysis by synthesizing 21 quantitative and qualitative studies related to action learning
and found that action learning can promote transformative learning experiences for the individual
which converged with similar findings from Kueht (2009) as well. The notion of practice then,
presents an assortment of dichotomies: community members versus non-community members,
intentional learning versus incidental learning, the individual versus the community, and
quantitative versus qualitative research designs used to collect information about the
effectiveness of practice. These same dichotomies along with others will fade when learning
through practice is viewed through an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) framework which will be
discussed later.
Another aspect of practice which emerges through the sharing of experiences with others
is the idea of reflection. One of the key features to action learning is that it is based on tasks or
problems at work, but this does little to distinguish between problem solving and problem
42
setting. Practitioners (e.g., educators) who think about doing something while they are doing it
are reflecting in action (Schon, 1983). According to Schon, reflecting in action avoids the idea
that goals, ends, and objectives are presented as fixed or isolated cases that need resolving; that
is, to reflect in action is to learn how to problem set as the practitioner continues to reevaluate
(i.e., problem set repeatedly) as the context changes over time (1983). As practitioners share
experiences with others, they reflect on action (i.e., after the fact) which provides the means for
discovering how one's knowing-in-action might have contributed to some unexpected outcome
(Schon, 1987). Consequently, practitioners reflect not by framing personal experiences around a
predetermined problem that is generalizable to a particular group, community, or organization,
but rather they reflect on more local problems that emerge through one's own tacit knowledge.
Community. Professional learning through practice can occur within a community.
Associating the practice with community accomplishes two things: (i) “it yields a more tractable
characterization of the concept of practice – in particular, by distinguishing it from less tractable
terms like culture, activity, or structure” and (ii) “it defines a special type of community – a
community of practice” (Wenger, 1998, p. 72). Wenger goes on to add that a community of
practice (CoP) can be viewed as a unit whereby communal membership is contingent on mutual
engagement. Moreover, community practice results from securing commitments and
establishing partnerships that encumber a set of cognitive, analytic, and sorting skills
(Hardcastle, Powers, & Wenocur, 2011). Hence, the relationship between practice and
community depends on the scope of a domain of shared interests that align to a particular set of
goals within an organization, a practice that is based on common knowledge needs, and the
amount of assistance individuals receive in finding the benefit of networking and sharing
knowledge with others (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). But when considering how
43
professional learn in the workshop (e.g., educators within a school organization), placing less
emphasis on practice yields to a slightly different perspective.
A community can be framed in a variety of ways, in part, under the assumption that a
community consists of individuals networking and sharing ideas with others. A community can
also be stated in terms of a gesellschaft or gemeinschaft, which are German for society and
community respectively. According to Serviovanni (1999), gemeinschaft is essential to building
community within schools because it promotes a we identity that families provide; it fosters a
shared space or locale for individuals to interact; and it bonds people together via a common
goal, shared set of values, and a shared conception of being (See Table 1).
Table 1 Gesellschaft vs. Gemeinschaft
Identity
Personal Relationships
Goals
Society
Unity
Gesellschaft (society)
Gemeinschaft (community)
Focuses on I
Focuses on we
Contrived
Bonding
Contractual
Common
Secular
Sacred
Separated in spite of uniting
United in spite of separating
factors
factors
Communities also embody a “civic virtue- the willingness of people to sacrifice their selfinterest on behalf of the common good” (Serviovanni, 2005). In a professional learning context,
a professional learning community (PLC) then achieves the following: (i) has a shared purpose,
clear direction, collective commitments, and goals; (ii) focuses on learning based on a
collaborative culture; (iii) pursues a collective inquiry into best practice and current reality; (iv)
44
embraces the notion of learning by doing; (v) has a commitment to continuous improvement; and
(vi) is oriented to results (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008). Whether termed as a CoP or a PLC,
professional learning emerges from having a certain level of commonality among a group of
people: some degree of mutual engagement (i.e., reciprocity), goals, values or collective
commitments, purpose, direction, and a degree of common or best practices. But accounting for
professional learning with a particular domain, practice, and community is limited without an
understanding of how learning emerges.
Professional development stems from a learning ecology. Current technological
advances have given rise to different professional learning trajectories which have extended
beyond time and space constraints of the past (Day & Sachs, 2004). New affordances result as
learning trajectories become more “collaborative, developmental, collective, inquiry-based,
personalized, varied, supportive, contextualized, proactive, and andragogical” (Días-Maggioli,
2004, pp. 5-6). The reason learning trajectories are more supportive, for example, is because
educators have more opportunities to interact via live communication (i.e., synchronous
communication) and offline forms of communication (i.e., asynchronous forms of
communication). As a result, the learning ecosystem expands beyond the educational
organization to the degree that learning trajectories become more inherently adaptable to their
surroundings; as a result, personal interactions are more likely to shift from being congenial, as
found in most conventional schools, to collegial, something that is lacking in today’s schools
(Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 2007). But an adaptable learning trajectory within a
community-based educational organization is unlikely to occur without understanding the role of
leadership.
45
In order for leadership and learning to coexist within an educational organization, a shift
in culture needs to occur. Value-added dimensions to leadership, for instance, create a shift from
planning to purposing; from giving directions to enabling teachers and the school; from
providing a monitoring system to building an accountability system; from extrinsic motivation to
intrinsic motivation; and from congeniality to collegiality (Serviovanni, 2005). From a
professional development standpoint, this shift in culture might be from external training
(workshops and course) to job-embedded learning; from presentations to entire faculties to teambased action research; from learning individually through courses and workshops to learning
collectively by working together; and from short-term exposure to multiple concepts and
practices to sustained commitment to limited, more focused initiatives (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker,
2008). This shift in culture is contingent on how teacher leaders are granted leadership roles as
an entitlement which seeks to place those who have the ability and will to act in the forefront of
the decision-making process (Serviovanni, 2005). Independent of position or title, educators
begin to distribute leadership responsibilities in order to add value to the learning and sharing
process that leads to such a cultural shift.
To further articulate the dichotomous shift in cultural leadership, differences can be
drawn between human rationality and assessing individuals’ assumptions. The expectation that
human behavior is a zero-sum game assumes a model I theory that supports the notion that
individuals are objective, level-headed, and intolerable of publically testing one’s assumptions –
see Table 2 (Argyris & Schon, 1974).
Table 2 Model I vs. Model II
46
Model I
Model II
Competition
Win/lose
Maximize valid information
Rationality
Individuals are rational
Maximize free & informed
choice
Publically testing
Intolerably risky
Maximize internal commitment
to decisions made
assumptions
Argyris and Schon add that organizations work more effectively if leaders adhere more to a
Model II theory, one that maximizes valid information, free and informed choice, and internal
commitment to decisions made by practitioners (1974). Similarly, the same dichotomy can be
viewed as being a “Clockwork I” and “Clockwork II” theory whereas the former works by
regulating the master wheel and master pin of a clockwork organization (top-down) and the latter
requires the “cultural cement” of norms, values, belief, and purposes of the people to assure
coherence between the cogs, gears, and pins that all spin independently of each other
(Serviovanni, 2005, pp. 33-34). Finally, professional learning within an organization can be
viewed as being a tight and loose leadership style, somewhere between an autocratic approach
and a laissez-faire approach – giving educators, for example, the freedom to be autonomous and
creative but within a systematic framework committed to nondiscretionary priorities and
parameters (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008).
Professional development has been viewed as having a domain through a set of common
practices within a network of people who share ideas and experiences with others. Common
characteristics have emerged that suggest ideally that groups of people share a common mission,
goals, or purpose (i.e., intentionality) via research-based practices and principles, sometimes
47
referred to as best practices, all within a single unit referred to as a community albeit one that can
also interact with other communities. From this point on, the term professional development will
be referred to as professional learning as it pertains mainly to how a network community
revolves around a particular individual (i.e., educator). Shifting the unit of analysis from a
community or set of practices to the individual requires a framework based on complexity theory
and actor-network theory, not to debunk the notion that learning occurs in a CoP or PLC, but to
argue that such a shift is required for the sake of learning efficacy.
The Complexity of Learning
Feedback loops. Complexity Science is “the study of the phenomena which emerge
from a collection of interacting objects” (Johnson, 2007, pp. 3-4). One of the key features of a
complex system is the notion of feedback loops. Interacting objects, such as teachers and
supervisors, have traditionally viewed feedback as teacher observations and assessment (i.e.,
teacher evaluations) which have embraced various underlying assumptions: (i) observation and
assessment lead to personal reflection for the purpose of improving student achievement, (ii)
observation and assessment can benefit both teacher and supervisor (or any involved), and (iii)
when teachers see improvement, they are more likely to continue such improvement (Sparks &
Loucks-Horsley (2007). In a professional learning community, feedback might occur in topdown and bottom-up approaches between administrators and supervisors and teachers such that a
balance between these two approaches is ideal for organizational learning. But feedback loops
entail a broader notion than just observation and assessment between teachers and supervisors.
Feedback loops cover any cause and effect relationship.
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Feedback loops entail circular and recursive relationships between cause and effect
through nonlinear logic (Kay, 2008). Since interacting objects are human, decision-making and
subsequent actions are based on feedback loops that depend on prior experiences that lead to
memory formation (Johnson, 2007). As memory formation builds over time, these recursive
relationships render a synergistic effect; that is, when faced with the nonlinearity of professional
learning, the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts which is a key tenet to complex
systems (Strogatz, 2003). The author goes on to say that whole systems can only be evaluated
holistically and not an aggregation of evaluating individual parts. What sets feedback loops
apart from a linear perspective is that the latter adheres to a reductionist stance which results
from direct cause-and-effect relationships; hence, the aggregation of the parts is exactly
equivalent to the whole. But feedback loops tend to take on different meanings depending on the
context.
Since feedback loops are situational, not all feedback loops yield equivalent change
events. From an organizational standpoint, the tendency is to frame feedback loops as having
little effect on the individual whereas feedback spirals, for example, are seen as being more
recursive (Costa, 2008). A feedback spiral is an ongoing dialectical process where an original
theory-based concept is applied in practice, reviewed, and subsequently reapplied in a
forthcoming event (Blindenbacher & Raoul Nashat, 2010). But because complex systems are
made up of humans, recursiveness becomes an inherent aspect of feedback loops that do not
result from direct cause-and-effect relationships, as already mentioned. Moreover, feedback
loops can be expressed as generating a change in another person – a positive feedback loop – or
expressed as not evoking any change in another person – a negative feedback loop (Uhl-Bien &
Marion, 2008). The complex nature of feedback loops then, creates a generative, dynamic
system that emerges from experience. Besides feedback loops, another attribute of complex
49
systems is one of sustainability.
Sustainability. The degree that a complex system is sustainable depends on its non-linear
structure. Like complexity theory, chaos theory relates to wholes and the relationships between
constituent agents, contrasting the often reductionist concerns of mainstream science with the
essence of the ‘ultimate particle’ (Mason, 2008b). The butterfly effect has been the signature of
chaos since the 1979 paper by Lorenz called, Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s
Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas? (Strogatz, 2003). Strogatz goes on to define a
chaotic system as one with small disturbances which grow exponentially fast, rendering longterm prediction impossible. DeWaard, et al. (2011) researched a massive open online course
(MOOC) in relation to complexity theory by collecting descriptive data from public online
spaces and then performing a content analysis. They found that a MOOC is exemplar of an open
and adaptive, complex system which provides a possible solution for new educational
environments that fit the “Knowledge Age” of adult learning today (p. 112). But since a chaotic
system appears to be random, yet is deterministic, the sustainability of a system will depend on
how change transpires over time. To provide greater insight into the dynamics of a non-linear
system within an educational context, for example, a deeper understanding of how chaotic and
complexity systems converge and diverge follows.
A complex system lies somewhere between a linear and chaotic system. As previously
mentioned, a linear system is one that is reductive, and is an aggregation of constituent elements
that equal the whole. At the other end of the continuum, a chaotic system is one that appears
random but is actually deterministic. Like chaotic systems, complexity is the study of systems of
interconnected components whose behavior cannot be explained solely by the properties of their
50
parts but from the behavior that arises from their interconnectedness (English, 2011). They are
both nonlinear and are synergistic in that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One key
attribute to a complex system is the synergies that exist as in the case with Kayuni (2010) who
researched a community secondary school policy that managed to persevere despite apparent
overwhelming challenges. Through a chaotic and complex framework, the author distinguished
complex systems from chaotic systems by explaining that the former self-organize and are
dynamic in how they order and structure themselves throughout the growing process whereas the
latter continuously transform into more complex systems which undergo irreversible changes.
Thus, the author goes on to explain how most innovation occurs “on the edge of chaos” –
somewhere between chaos and complexity – where most creativity and innovation occur; in the
case of Community Day Secondary Schools, new policies followed a period of poor quality and
lack of relevance in education, yet innovation did occur in the form of developing a new teacher
service commission, greater communication across schools who adapt the new policy, and an
increase in public awareness and participation within the education sector (p. 9). Change that
transmits through professional learning systems then can benefit from self-organization and
sustainability, and can demonstrate progress within the network, even though over outcomes
might be to the contrary. Self-organization and sustainability suggest an absence of a central
controller which is an essential constituent of non-linear behavior that creates embedded patterns
of sustainability, or fractals (Johnson, 2007).
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A nonlinear dynamic perspective provides a framework for understanding the complexity
of an educational organization that places professional development at the fore. In additional to
deterministic chaos - complex patterns that result in apparent randomness – nonlinear social
behaviors can also be described as being stable but necessarily repetitive or what Lorenz (1993)
refers to as “complex attractors” (as cited in Uhl-Bien & Marion, 2008, loc. 578). For example,
continued technical support for educators lead to a consistent pattern of greater risk taking and
experimentation with online social tools. Although nonrepetitive behavior exist, there is a
tendency for teachers to try web tools if provided adequate support. Over time, individuals
decide whether or not to begin experimenting with new web tools (given ongoing technological
support) by choosing one complex attractor over another. When certain conditions result in a
person choosing one attractor over another, a third tenet of nonlinear dynamic systems emerges
termed bifurcation (Goldstein, 2008). Deterministic chaos, complex attractors, and bifurcations
collectively create a nonlinear dynamic system that provides the framework for professional
learning to occur.
Within an educational system, nonlinear dynamics describe professional learning
throughout one’s career in terms of how adapting to one’s surroundings over time and making
choices that seem small if considered in isolation actually add up exponentially over time as in
the case of the butterfly effect explained earlier (Bloch, 2005). As the practitioner engages in a
unique learning trajectory, embedded patterns of behavior may occur statically, periodically, and
chaotically. The embedded interactional patterns that depend more on personal connections than
on one’s race or social background offer insight into relationships between the individual and the
group (Christakis & Fowler, 2009). This relationship equates to how the individual influences
others and how others influence the individual. The actor-network theory (ANT) supports how
complex interactions between humans and nonhumans in that it is not considered a single or
53
coherent theoretical domain, but one that is developing diversely in response to current
challenges (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010).
Actor-network Theory (ANT)
Translation. ANT provides a more appropriate framework for how people learn and
practice in the field of education. ANT embraces four central ideas: (a) the world is made up of
actors and actants, (b) no object is inherently reducible or irreducible to any other, (c) actants
link to one another by way of translation, and (d) actants are not inherently strong or weak
(Harmon, 2009). Of the prior four central ideas, the final one (i.e., that actants are not inherently
strong or weak) leads to an additional set of notions relevant to professional learning: actants are
a result of their concreteness; people and objects are what they are; and there is little need for
dichotomous notions (i.e., labeling) such as novice and master teacher, those who lead versus
those who are led, and theory versus practice (Harmon, 2009; Gomart & Hennion, 2004).
Namely, distinctions between theory and practice, those who lead and those who are lead, and
other dichotomies often found in the field of education do not exist from an ANT perspective.
For this reason, professional learning brings people and objects together through a process of
knowing, or an enactment that results from connections with other people and things (Fenwich &
Edwards, 2010).
Translation, as a central tenet to ANT, elucidates why terms such as professional
development and training yield to the more descriptive term, professional learning. Translation
can be defined as an ontological frame with regard to how entities change over time (Fenwick &
Edwards, 2010). From an ANT perspective, describing the notion of society, for instance, does
not consist simply of ties or connections that link humans and nonhumans, but instead is a result
of translation: the momentary associations between humans and nonhumans that are
54
characterized by the way it gathers together into new shapes (Latour, 2005). An ontological
approach to the process of learning is minimized when terms like trained teachers or
professional development seminars suggest that individuals move from being less to being more
or nothing to something. Moreover, translation is complex in that ongoing interactions act as
either positive or negative feedback loops that lead to emergent network change (Johnson, 2007).
Transformational change that occurs at the individual level can also entice change in others (and
vice a versa) through what is referred to as “herd behavior” (Strogatz, 2003, p. 265). Thus,
change and the relationship between social practice and professional learning remain connected
entities within a networked-system.
Actors (i.e., actants) are networks and vice versa to the degree that actors (i.e., networks)
are not inherently strong or inherently simple nor complex, but can be examined in terms of how
traces of associations remain after some educational performance (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010).
But instead of viewing sociology or social practice as being contextual or even embedded with
cultural norms, sociology - or social practice more specifically – can also be viewed as being
traces of associations (Latour, 2005). Tracing associations not only form agencies but also form
ideas, identities, rules, routines, policies, instruments, and reforms as well (Fenwick & Edwards,
2010). Thus, the practice of teaching and learning results by recognizing how associations or
alliance formation grow and perish over time, and how these associations relate to humans,
materials (e.g., ICTs), and concepts.
Understanding how to improve EFL teacher practice stems from understanding how
people learn. From an ANT perspective, people and objects are linked through relational
materiality. Relational materiality is the notion that all entities (i.e., individuals and objects) are
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produced through relations and that entities are performative in that they are produced in, by, and
through such relations (Law & Hassard, 1999). Thus, professional learning emerges by having
the educator recall how relations form and to learn how the performative value of the network
transforms the individual (e.g., through a change in teaching practice). Individual
transformation, or professional learning, becomes the recollection of how relations form through
a nondiscrete and dynamic network. Individuals, groups, and objects that make up the individual
nodes of a dynamic network are seen as being in a continual state of flux, where agency (i.e., the
actant) and structure (i.e., the network) intertwine through heterogeneous assemblages (Law &
Hassard, 1999). Thus, improving professional learning emerges through continue support in
how educators recall how past, current, and future assemblages (i.e., events) take shape (Fenwich
& Edwards, 2010). In doing so, supervisors begin to transform teachers to instructional leaders –
a notion that relates more to will and ability than to position, role, or title.
Material semiotics. One of the tenets to ANT is that everything comprises of actors. An
actor is anything that has an effect on other things; therefore, an actor can be of any size, real or
unreal (i.e., all actors are in essence real), physical or non-physical, and an actor contains other
actors ad infinitum (Latour & Harman, 2010). The idea of an actor embedded within another
actor and so on, is much like to notion of fractals mentioned earlier (e.g., a tree within a tree,
within a tree etc.). An actor might be an abstract concept, idea, or belief or something more
concrete like a pencil, computer, or some other physical object. The interrelationship between
actors, as in a network, becomes the unit of semiotic analysis.
Semiotics takes a different approach to data collection and analysis than typical
qualitative research designs. For instance, instead of an inside-out approach, semiotics takes an
outside-in approach (Lawes, 2002). Lawes compares these two approaches by explaining how a
group of people might interpret a box of chocolate cookies (i.e., biscuits) and how the
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interpretation does not simply come from a single person’s interpretation, but rather a whole host
of communicative signs and symbols, referred to as culture (e.g., language, visual signs, music,
etc.). Hence, the unit of analysis stems from the connection, relationship, and interaction among
a set of actors and not just the individual. The notion of semiotics underpins the complexity of
actors; even though they may show signs of stability, they exist as an effect of an irreducible
relationship of actors.
Since actors can be conceptual, biological, social, and material, the way in which signs
and symbols relate can be viewed as material semiotics. An actor-network’s material semiotics
is not a theory in the same way that sociology asks the question why, but rather is more of a
methodology which asks the question how (Law, 2009). As such, the term material semiotics
becomes a more accurate term than actor-network theory in how natural, social, and technical
objects become enacted within a web, how they associate and exercise force, and how they
persist, decline, and mutate over time (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). Because network actors are
an effect of complex distributions of constituent actors interacting with each other, no two actors
are ever exactly the same and are constantly adapting throughout each node of the network.
Since actors can cease to exist or become obsolete, understanding a network equates to
understanding it in relation to its durability and mobility.
Various forms of semiotic durability and mobility impart different effects on the
interdependency of constituent actors or on the actor itself. Material durability refers to the
length of time an object (i.e., actor) will last, and strategic durability refers to the sustainability of
processes or activity patterns within the actor-network over time (Law, 2009). Law posits that a
thought or speech act, for example, is much less durable than an idea transferred to text; and
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relational patterns among human and nonhuman actors typically remain purposeful as long as
ongoing discourse is maintained. Moreover, the overall durability of an actor network depends
on the stability of an object in a different space (i.e., different set of constituent actors), also
referred to as an “immutable mobile” (Jones & Latour, 2005, p. 16). Semiotic durability and
mobility then, refer to how people, thoughts, and artifacts persist, grow, and decay over time
(i.e., temporal) and through different spaces or environments (i.e., spatial). Understanding the
interdependent, temporal, and spatial nature of actors across a network underpins the notion of a
personal learning network.
Personal Learning Network (PLN)
The different facets of a PLN. The current shift in how people learn has created a
dependency on information and communication technologies (ICTs) to the degree that growing a
PLN has become an imperative for educators who want to stay connected to the changing world
that we are charged with introducing to our students (Warlick, 2009). A personalized network of
people and materials has value when directed towards professional development events which
are based on teacher responsibilities, are ongoing, and are tailored towards the educator in terms
of years of service and personal preference (Bauer, 2010). From an ANT perspective, network
learning constitutes connecting people, materials, and conceptualizations from forming
associations or connections that make up a PLN.
A PLN takes a holistic approach in associating and defining constituent parts. An
attempt to distinguish between network types tend to create terms such as professional learning
environment (PLE), professional learning network (PfLN), and PLN, each with its own particular
meaning. For instance, PLEs tend to focus on blogs, wikis, and other ICTs as creating
affordances for learners to be in more control of what and when they learn (Al-Zoube, 2009).
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PLEs then are framed as predicating PLNs that are focused more on personal relationships to
exist that ultimately leads to more specific PfLNs, or networks of collaborating professionals and
experts via professional organizations (Ivanova, 2009). If a network is defined as a collection of
nodes (i.e., a collection of actors), then an ANT PLN is any particular aggregation of socioconceptual, biological, and technical nodes that make up a particular individual at a particular
point in time. Hence, an individual may appear to be immutable and inevitable, but in essence is
the effect of complex sets of previous dynamic events and negotiations within networks. The
black-box metaphor is often used when discussing ANT as a way to address the tendency of
examining the interworking of the box (i.e., network) and instead study the discourses,
controversies, and relationships that shaped its role (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). This is
precisely the approach taken when discussing PLNs – not as fixed structures that are examined in
isolation, but rather as fluid socio-material networks that are an effect of prior nodal
relationships. From an ANT mindscape and for the purpose of this study, a PLN is any
relationship or association of actors that links individuals, material, and conceptualizations.
A key tenet to a complex PLN is that of communicative flow. Communicative flow (i.e.,
relational ties) is either unidirectional as when a lecturer disperses information out to a group of
students, or bidirectional which is a more discursive event between nodes, individuals, or actors
(Wasserman & Faust, 2008). Most people communicate directly with friends, a friend of a
friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend – also referred to as communicating up to three degrees
of separation (Christakis & Fowler, 2009). This small-world effect demonstrates how directly
(i.e., a friend) and indirectly (e.g., friend of a friend) one can outwardly effect the network and
how the network can directly and indirectly influence the individual. Knowing how and when
connections form help lead to a particular type of complex network formation that lends itself to
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how individuals learn in a sociotechnical environment; that is, how connections do not randomly
connect but rather are scale-free (Crook, 2009; Barabási, 2003). In effect, the small-world
phenomenon is a unifying feature of diverse networks found both in nature and in technology
(Strogatz, 2003). But understanding the true complexity of a PLN embodies not only the
direction of the relational tie (i.e., unidirectional or bidirectional) but also the strength of the
relational tie itself.
Network connections that make up a PLN can vary. The ties educators form with others
can be referred to as either strong or weak (Granovetter, 1973). The author terms strong ties as
those friends or colleagues who are in close contact – i.e., within one degree of separation – and
those who share a strong bond whereas weak ties are friends of friends (or friend of a friend of a
friend) that one may know but have little contact with. To leverage a PLN around ongoing
professional learning requires a holistic understanding of strong and weak ties that connect with
nodes – which are networks themselves - that provide the greatest potential for learning. The
potentiality of learning or agency then is not inherent within the actor or node, but rather in the
associations that relate to the actor or node (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). Recognizing
directional ties that exist between network nodes provides insight into network topologies that
exist in social interactions.
Choosing the network nodes that best make up a PLN is not a random event. If educators
formed a random PLN, it would be illustrated as a normal distribution, or bell-shaped curve
whereby the number of colleagues an educator interacted with would be virtually the same in
number, or at least fairly close to the mean (Barabási, 2003). But networks are not random but
are scale-free and assume a Pareto distribution where a small number of entities typically have
the largest percentage of influence (e.g., small number of computer brands accounting for most
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from a journal. Similarly, reflecting on one’s own perspective is to trace the associations that
lead to a particular conceptualization or behavior. A growing PLN bifurcates critical awareness
into the prevailing and precarious interactions of the moment with a dynamic view of nodal
relationships that change and adapt over time. Since the educator is the central node of the PLN,
this two-pronged approach to critical awareness becomes the basis of growing into a more
reflective practitioner.
The way in which an educator reflects on thoughts and experiences will depend on one
articulates the dynamics of a PLN. The development of a PLN is the effect of how an individual
forms directional ties that emerge from a nonreductivist phenomenon (Christakis & Fowler,
2009). Interactions that lead to strong and weak ties emerge through a scale free network, or a
collection of nodes that are not connected to any one dominant entity or node within a network
(Strogatz, 2003). Instead, clusters of subnetworks referred to as being “ego-centered” consists of
a focal actor (i.e., ego) with “alters” or ties that link other to the ego (Wasserman & Faust, 2008,
p. 42). Another way to refer to clusters is in terms of “hubs” and “connectors” (Barabási, 2003,
pp. 55-64). For the purpose of this study, hubs (e.g., a link between a large number of nodes),
nodes, (e.g., any entity the educator connects with), connectors (e.g., a single node with a large
number of connecting nodes), and connections (e.g., the directional flow of information that
exists between any two nodes) will be used to articulate the dynamics of cultivating a PLN. The
cultivation of a PLN drives professional learning and the change process.
Professional learning. An essential aspect of ongoing professional learning is one of
sustainability; that is, the way in which educators become interdependent in such a way that both
formal and informal learning emerges free from coercion. In a small-world network topology,
chaotic and random networks are at opposite ends of a continuum where a small-world network
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resides somewhere in between (Pieris & Fusina, 2009; Watts & Strogatz, 1998). A small-world
network includes the following two features: (a) a low average path length between network
nodes (e.g., individuals can easily connect with others via a small number of intermediaries) and
(b) a “high transitivity (most of a person's friends are friends with one another)” (Christakis &
Fowler, 2009). The notion of high transitivity can also be expressed in terms of a strength in
ties, or a “combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (mutual
confiding), and the reciprocal services which characterizes the tie” (Granovetter, 1973).
Professional development, or more accurately, professional learning can be viewed in terms of
coaching educators in how recognizing and adapting between network nodes become beneficial
to both the individual and the network.
Creating opportunities to network is synonymous with professional learning. A network
is based on connections and contagion or the spreading of an emotion or idea across a network,
and can be ephemeral or lifelong, casual or intense, or personal or anonymous (Christakis &
Fowler, 2009). Additionally, complex and network learning stems from the following principles:
(a) learning occurs when there is diversity of opinion,
(b) learning happens when connections are made with other individuals and with nonhuman devices such as technology,
(c) one's learning potential is more important than what one knows right now,
(d) facilitative learning emerges through the cultivation of one's PLN,
(e) recognizing patterns and tendencies is a required skill for the future,
(f) learning activities require up-to-date and relevant content,
(g) the act of making a decision is vital,
(h) planning on what to learn requires perspective, and
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(i) any supported truisms should be confined to particular context; that is, based on time
and space (Siemens, 2005).
ANT relates to connective principles by not distinguishing between human and non-human
objects as static entities in-and-of themselves (Law, 2009). As a result, professional learning in
the field of education is the coaching of educators to come to recognize the potentialities that
exist between people, materials, and conceptualizations by realizing dynamic, network patterns
as an effect of prior experiences.
A learning network may also be viewed in terms of an ecological unit whereby the
individual learner adapts to the network and the network takes shape because of the individual
(Educause…, 2011). Within this context, a PLN ensues from an ongoing aggregation and
pruning of boundary nodes (i.e., human, non-human, and conceptual) which have the following
characteristics as they relate to material semiotics: (a) semiotic and materialistic rationality (a
change in one node effects a change in another), (b) heterogeneity (a respect for diversity), (c)
precarious process deriving from a temporal orientation (synchronous and asynchronous
intentional and incidental learning), and (d) spatial considerations (online communities, face-toface meetings, etc.) (Law, 2009). In terms of professional learning among educators, educative
experiences become based on how a change from one individual influences a change in someone
or something else, and vice versa. This notion thus becomes the basis for seeing the value in
educators sharing ideas and experiences, caring that someone else might benefit from their
sharing, and daring to take risks both as a life-long learner and teacher.
Sharing, caring, and daring carry different meanings depending on the theoretical
viewpoint one subscribes to. In a community of practice (CoP), there is a need for understanding
the role of the overall structure [i.e., the community or practice as the unit of analysis] in how it
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promotes a more intentionally systematic benefit regarding how knowledge is to be managed
(Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Another theoretical perspective assumes the activity
itself provides the means for culturally embedded tools to mediate between the person and the
outcome, and that certain rules mediate between the person and the community (Rizzo, 2003).
But from an ANT perspective, and more specifically a connectivist perspective, the individual
learner becomes the unit of analysis in that the socio-technical and conceptual elements of a PLN
originate from the individual learner's perspective in terms of how the network effects a change
in teaching practice and how the individual learn effects change to the PLN.
Summary
Understanding how educators pursue professional learning vis-à-vis interaction within a
PLN and any necessary artifacts is complex. Professional learning from an ANT framework
holds that (a) the world is made up of actors and actants, (b) no object is inherently reducible or
irreducible to any other, (c) actants link to one another by way of translation, and (d) actants are
not inherently strong or weak (Harmon, 2009). Not categorizing actants (i.e., people or objects)
as inherently strong or weak allows for a more open and transparent learning affordances devoid
of social or positional hierarchy or any preconceived conceptions of how materials (e.g., web
tools) are to be used. Thus, through complexity science, the emergent properties of phenomena
are examined as a result of interactions over time (Johnson, 2007). Specifically, informal
dialogues related to teaching and learning have the greatest participation levels among teachers
and highest level of impact when compared to other types of professional development (e.g.,
workshops, conferences, etc.) (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
2011). This study seeks to provide a model for creating greater professional development
support to educators in Mexico by providing broader affordances for educators to carry out
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informal dialogues related to teaching and learning within a complex PLN. It seeks to fill the
gap in current research in understanding the distributed nature of learning, specifically the role of
materiality in the workplace (e.g., technologies, artifacts, and objects) and the basic assumptions
of what constitutes professional learning (Fenwick, 2009; Fenwick, 2010). By gaining further
insight into the complexities of informal dialogues as a means for professional learning, great
support for professional development effort will help improve the current state of the educational
system in Mexico.
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Chapter 3: Research Method
PLNs have historically been simplified to mean a network of people whom interact with
the aim to learn (Nikolaou & Tsolakidis, 2013). In order to reveal how professional learning
might be more sustainable and relevant for practicing EFL educators, this qualitative multiple
case study sought to analyze emergent patterns stemming from a more comprehensive notion of
a PLN that was not only based on individual networks, but also networking technologies and
ideas as all three created an aggregated collection of related associations. That is to say, the
ideas that EFL educators tended to share with others, the materials and technologies they used,
and the individuals EFL educators chose to interact with were referred to collectively as a
personal learning network (PLN). The way in which PLNs were observed and understood were
through open, online informal dialogues about teaching and learning, looking for patterns in how
EFL educators shared ideas with others, how they decided on the materials and technologies to
be used, and how they determined with whom they would communicate. The following research
questions were directed towards understanding how EFL educators who come from different
educational contexts conducted their respective open, online, informal dialogues and
contributions to OERs within public web sites: (a) How do EFL educators in Mexico conduct
open, online, informal pedagogical dialogues within a personal learning network? and (b) How
do EFL educators in Mexico perceive changes to their personal learning networks over time?
The Mexican educational system lags behind other countries in terms of student scores in
reading, math, and science (Shepherd, 2010). Moreover, professional development typically
focuses on practices and programs instead of supporting people in the end leading to isolated
workshops, change initiatives that fail to create a conducive learning environment, and
summative assessments that simply recapitulate past events with little-to-no ongoing support
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(Reeves, 2010). Any professional development endeavor that seeks to address these problems
should scale; that is, it should offer the greatest potential for educators to grow in terms of
interacting with others openly online. For this study, five EFL educators from various
educational contexts were chosen on the basis of their current use of technology and their
willingness to interact with others via online public posts. The two main criteria for choosing the
participants were their willingness to participate online and a history of having used technology
to communicate with others in the past. An overall analysis was conducted from the data of the
initial survey, informal pedagogical dialogues published online, and final interview. By taking
an aggregate approach to bringing together these different data sources afforded a deeper
perspective in how participants framed their PLN as a connected network of ideas, materials, and
social interactions.
When assessing an individual’s PLN as a construct, qualitative data should be credible,
transferable, dependable, and confirmable (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). In order for data to be
credible, the researcher took a participant observer role in assuring that the reporting accurately
reflected the participants’ perspectives. This was done by triangulating types of data already
mentioned in order to achieve deeper understandings of the PLN as a socio-technical network.
In terms of transferability, the cross-case analysis along with the research method itself was
meant to be scalable and adaptable to many different educational contexts. Making sure
qualitative data was dependable depended on the extent that a changing context was
continuously being considered as part of the analysis and in the final reporting. Finally, as data
was being collected, all evidence remained openly online so to maintain a clear audit trail for
those who wish to compare fieldwork with the reporting and those who wish to duplicate the
research method for future studies, also referred to as confirmability. For all private information
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obtained for the study, an informed consent form (see Appendix A) was used so to maintain a
level of ethics and integrity in full accordance to institutional review board standards.
What follows is a detailed description of the overall research method and design used to
research informal pedagogical dialogues that link to PLNs, followed by a description of the
participants and instruments used to collect the data. The process in which data was collected is
explained as well as the type of analysis used to better understand the complexity of PLN
formation. To conclude, methodological assumptions, limitations, and delimitations will be
explained, which will conclude with a section on ethical assurances with regard to the entire
research method design.
Research Method and Design
This multiple case study employed a qualitative research design. A qualitative research
design allowed participants to share interpretations through an inductive, emergent, and holistic
approach (Creswell, 2009). Qualitative methods focus primarily on what people say and what
people do that enabled researchers to understand the meaning of a particular phenomenon, event,
or activity (Gillham, 2010). A qualitative approach also allowed for a greater wealth of detailed
descriptive data on a smaller number of case studies in comparison to quantitative approaches
(Patton, 2002). And from an ANT perspective, qualitative data provided a rich, descriptive
narrative in understanding the related attributes between network nodes (McCormick, Fox,
Carmichael, and Procter, 2011). Although most of the data used in this study was qualitative
(e.g., content analysis from electronic artifacts, forum posts, and personal discussions),
frequencies and other types of descriptive, numeric data was used to compare and contrast the
demographic information obtained from the multiple case study.
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Although this study was rooted in a qualitative research design, it did embrace a multi-
method research approach. When conducting a content analysis study, qualitative data can also
be expressed quantitatively by developing frequencies of topics and themes. Quantitative data
that have originated from qualitative data is considered a qualitative research design based on a
“methods” (as opposed to a “methodology”) definition (Creswell & Clark, 2007, p. 12). But
since participant descriptors obtained in this research (i.e., independent variables which are
quantitative data) was gathered from a survey applied at the start of the data collection process, a
multimethod research (as opposed to a mixed method design) best describes the most appropriate
research method design for this study (Morse, 2003).
A multiple case study as a qualitative research design was used in order to study the
following: (a) understand how EFL educators in Mexico conduct open and informal pedagogical
dialogues within a personal learning network and (b) understand how EFL educators in Mexico
explain changes to their personal learning networks over time. The theoretical concept that
binded the individual cases together was the PLN. Defining a theoretical concept was necessary
when doing this multiple case study in order to avoid losing sight of what is being researched;
that is, to best understand the conceptualization, one needs to understand the context or case
study from which the proposition is based (Stake, 2006). Thus, the unit of analysis, or individual
case, for this study was the EFL educator and the proposition was the PLN. To preserve the
integrity of the case study, special care was taken when collecting and analyzing data at the
smallest unit of analysis - in this case the EFL educator (Patton, 2002). To this end, reification
of a PLN stemmed from researching how educators connect ideational, material, and social
interactions based on what they say and what they do (i.e., online activities via posts, live
discussions, personal written reflections, and interviews). This avoided researching
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conceptualizations in the abstract and instead adhered to a more concrete description of topics
related to the participants' real-life experiences (Yin, 2009). By researching informal
pedagogical dialogues among EFL educators, the intent was to draw connections or associations
between what educators say and do in terms of an emergent and dynamic PLN.
How interaction patterns and related materials corresponded with each other were voiced
in terms of associations. Instead of relying on direct, one-to-one associations generated by
statistical generalizations (i.e., sampling groups and inferential statistics), analytical
generalizations were conducted at the PLN (i.e., construct) level as a means for recognizing
patterns related to theoretical concepts (Yin, 2009). Researching how informal pedagogical
dialogues enrich a PLN thus, required an understanding of how EFL educators choose
conceptualizations related to teaching and learning (e.g., knowledge, skills, dispositions,
curriculum, assessment, and instruction); how EFL educators used and reflected on material
objects; and how EFL educators socially interacted with others. Thus, an overall analysis was
conducted on data obtained from the initial online survey, field notes from the content analysis
on informal pedagogical dialogues published publically on the web, and final interviews in order
to analyze how educators (a) shared constructs related to knowledge, skills, etc., (b) used
difference materials such as ICTs to communicate with others, and (c) interacted with other
individuals based on ideational and material network patterns.
Participants
The participants for this study include five EFL educators from different educational
contexts. An online survey was administered to various research candidates in order to select the
five most likely to participate and conclude the study – an informed consent form was included
in the survey as well (Appendix A). The participants who were likely to be chosen were based
on their willingness to openly share personal teaching and learning experiences with other
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colleagues by openly interacting through online web sites as well as demonstrate a level of
technological readiness. Evidence taken from the online survey was used to determine whether
participants had posted or replied to a personal blog or contributed to a wiki, Twitter account,
Google+ account, or any other social media that was open to the public within the last year. The
criteria for scoring the potential participants was to (a) count the number of different
technologies they use (i.e., blogs, microblogs, wikis, open facebook pages, etc.) and (b)
determine the frequency with which they publicly publish their posts and replies to colleagues
within the last year; that is, to measure the level of interaction that takes place between
individuals. Online survey items include How comfortable are you sharing your successes either
as a teacher or learner with a fellow educator with whom you work? and Copy and paste any
URLs (website addresses) to any personal websites that you either own or online communities
that you participate in… among others. The participants for the study must also have at the time
of the study been teaching one class with English language learners teaching general English,
academic English, or English for specific purposes classes.
Since all activities were open, it was possible to have participants of the study interact
with educators who are not part of the study. Although the initial survey, field notes, and
interviews was limited to the participants of the study, participant interaction extended to nonparticipants as well since informal pedagogical dialogues were published publically on the
Internet. An open research design such as this promotes great potentiality of actants (i.e., EFL
educators) interacting as they normally might since they are not restricted to any particular group
of individuals: colleagues from the same institution, same city, state, country, etc. Such a
professional learning environment is grounded in complexity theory and ANT, and reflects a
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more realistic view of technological-driven communication that is becoming more ubiquitous in
how society currently engages in thoughtful dialogue.
The unit of analysis for this study was the individual educator (i.e., participant). When
conducting a case study however, “the unit of analysis may be defined one way, even though the
phenomenon being studied actually follows a different definition” (Yin, 2009, loc. 861). Thus,
the individual educator’s PLN exhibited convergent or divergent patterns at a different level of
analysis: among colleagues from within the same institution, from within the same institution, or
some other level across institutions. For this reason, participants were chosen from various
educational contexts in order to conduct an embedded multiple unit of analysis for this multiplecase design, allowing for each unit of analysis (individual, collegial, institution, etc.) to expand
or scale if particular patterns emerge. For this particular study theoretical saturation was reached
since additional emergent patterns failed to emerge from additional first level coding labels that
would have generated new themes. Glaser and Strauss (1967) referred to as theoretical
saturation in that collecting any additional data would not shed any further light on the issue
under investigation (Mason, 2010).
Materials/Instruments
Online survey. In order to choose the participants for this study, an online survey was
applied (See Appendix B). The EFL/ESL Teacher Network Survey (Stewart, 2012a) was
adapted from the OERu planning group (eduMOOC…, 2011) for the purposes of obtaining
information on learning preferences of individuals who take open, online learning experience.
The survey began by describing the purpose of the study followed by a section that allowed
participants to give written consent for their participation. The next section of the survey
included personal information of the participants that provided demographic information: first
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and last name, formal education, work experience, and personal and professional goals. This
section also included questions related to how participants were willing to share different areas
of their own professional learning that they would like to improve; for instance, becoming a
better speaker of English, writer of English, practitioner with regard to pedagogical skill sets, and
applied linguist (i.e., one who has knowledge about language). The section that followed related
to how participants felt about sharing experiences and opinions openly with others online.
Finally, the survey concluded with an extensive section on how participants currently were using
technology both as a language educator and adult learner.
By applying a online survey at the onset of the data collection process, it provided a
methodology for asking people to describe themselves by providing a “snapshot” of how they
think and behave at a given point in time (Cozby, 2009, p. 122). The purpose of the online
survey was to (a) gather baseline information about each participant in terms of frequency and
comfortability with using technology related to their own professional learning, and (b) use this
baseline information as a point of comparison when analyzing how ideas, technologies
(materials), and social interactions may have changed over the 10-week data collection period.
Based on the results of the survey, a more careful analysis of each participant laid out the first
phase in establishing the criteria necessary for choosing an institution with the highest number of
participants most likely to actively take part in the study. Establishing the criteria in this way
served as an example of a purposeful sampling technique that was suitable for a more in-depth,
follow-up inquiry (Patton, 2002). The criteria for scoring the potential participants was to (a)
count the number of different technologies they use (i.e., blogs, microblogs, wikis, open
facebook pages, etc.) and (b) determine the frequency with which they publicly publish their
posts and replies to colleagues within the last year; that is, to measure the level of interaction that
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takes place between individuals. The purpose of the online survey was threefold: (a) to possibly
find institutions with participants most likely to complete the study based on current use of
technology (i.e., how answered questions indicate prior use of blogs, wikis, etc.); (b) to
determine a willingness to share experiences and opinions with others online; and (c) to provide
baseline information from those participants who are ultimately chosen for the study A review
of public websites and respective online activity (i.e., posts and replies, etc.) from survey
respondents was administered in order to validate online survey responses. Verifying online
survey responses was managed either personally with each participant, scanning the website for
evidence of interaction, or both; the baseline information taken from the survey was then
matched against all subsequent data collected for the study. Based on the criteria above (i.e.,
number of different kinds of technologies used and interaction frequency based on posts and
replies), the online survey was designed to find candidates from different educational contexts
who were appropriate for the study.
Interview. The final data collection technique involved a 30-45 minute semi-structured
interview with each participant. An interview guide (See Appendix C) was used to conduct oneon-one semi-structured interview with each participant. In order to determine what would be
asked during each interview, the initial survey and field notes from informal pedagogical
dialogues conducted openly online collectively dictated the direction of the interview. That is,
questions made during the private interview set out to clarify or elaborate further on specific
findings linking prior comments made during online interactions and online survey results. Each
interview was unique in some aspects while shared commonalities in others. Analyzing data as it
emerged throughout the study provided the basis for each interview, while still respecting the
semi-structure interview guide and ultimately the research questions. The semi-structure
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interview occurred at the end of the 10-week data collection period and after the five participants
from various educational contexts had been determined. The criteria for choosing the
participants and subsequent interviews were based on their level of participation (i.e., number of
posts and replies and word count of total posts and replies).
Various worksheets were maintained using the computer program HyperResearch. All of
the worksheets were based on Stake (2006) in an effort to understand both the quintain – in this
case the personal learning network as a conceptualization – and the multiple cases themselves
(i.e., the attributes of the individual English language educator). Worksheet 1 (See Appendix C)
included the themes that indicated the primary information about the quintain based on the
research questions of the multiple case study. Worksheet 2 (See Appendix D) comprised of the
findings per case which was then cross-referenced to respective themes. Each case and theme
referenced as being high, middle, and low utility based on the research questions. Worksheet 3
(See Appendix E) merged findings according to case and theme by rating them by importance:
high, middle, and low importance. Worksheet 4 (See Appendix F) created factor clusters per
case and theme, again by importance. HyperResearch was used to generate the appropriate
reports that these worksheets set out to accomplish by gathering and analyzing public
information generated by the participants of the study.
Various data collection techniques were constant throughout the study which included
initial online survey, field notes from informal pedagogical dialogues published online, and
interviews. During the 10-week interaction period, participants were free to use the websites and
tools of their choice in order to conduct informal, open, online pedagogical dialogues with
others. Once the 10-week interaction period concluded, a final one-on-one interview took place
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in order to gather any final information about their experiences and challenges with regard to
publically publishing informal pedagogical dialogues online with others.
Data Collection, Processing, and Analysis
The data collection process began by inviting English language educators from around
the world to participate in this doctoral study. The online survey the posted publically for
anyone to complete and contained 58 questions which took approximately 15-20 minutes to
complete. Once the online survey had been completed, the data was analyzed in order to
determine the participants who met the criteria for the study. The data from the online surveys
would also be analyzed throughout the data collection process in order to provide context for
subsequent interviews as a final data collecting technique.
After the five participants of the study had been chosen for the study, a 10-week data
collection process began. During the data collection process, participants continued interacting
as they normally would have, making posts and replying to other posts to public websites of their
choice. A public website is a website anyone can access and may or may not require a user name
and password. Informal pedagogical dialogues (i.e., open, online posts and replies made by EFL
educators to public websites) could have related to curriculum, assessment, instruction, or
teaching and learning strategies related to current teaching practices that participants have
experienced in the past. Topics could also expand to meta-discussions related to the interactive
research experience itself (e.g., issues related to technology that hinder or improve ways of
interacting with others).
Once the 10-week interactive period has concluded (i.e., published posts and replies
along with participant reflections), a one-on-one, 30-40 minute interview was carried out with
each participant, based on an interview guide (See Appendix C). The semi-structured interview
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was specifically driven by data gathered from surveys and informal pedagogical dialogues. One
of the types of questions to be included related to most significant change perspectives. Related
questions evolved around the central question: Looking back over the last 10 weeks, what do you
think was the most significant change in your personal learning network that contributed to your
own professional learning.
Data from surveys and interviews were held confidential and were the only data from this
study of this type – all other information remained open on public websites. If the participants
wished to remain anonymous throughout the study, they had the option of using pseudonyms
when creating public accounts, but this was not the case for this study – all participants used their
real names when interacting publically online. However, when reporting the findings,
pseudonyms provided confidentiality for the participants of the study.
When taking part in a study of this kind, participant burden becomes especially
important. Since participants were expected to interact publically online as they normally would
had they not been participating in the study, the additional time investment was limited to the
online survey and final interview. However, an estimated temporal burden for all data collection
techniques could be set at approximately 12 hours and 45 minutes (See Table 3). This is only an
estimate as each participant indicated different time investments when it came to interacting with
others online.
Table 3: Temporal burden for research
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Online survey
15 minutes
10-week interaction period
Est. 12.5 hours (posts, replies, & reflections)
Final one-on-one interview
30 minutes
Estimated total time
12 hours and 45 minutes
Content analysis. Content analysis in case studies “is used to refer to any qualitative
data reduction and sense-making effort that takes a volume of qualitative material and attempts
to identify core consistencies and meanings” (Patton, 2002, p. 453). For this study, all of the
data obtained from the online surveys, the 10-week interaction period of open and online posts
and replies, and one-and-one interviews underwent a content analysis using the computer
application, HyperSearch. Also, this study adhered to a collaborative social research approach
that used collected data, which reflexively used feedback to craft future actions; information was
used to understand the context and theoretical concept behind each case study (Berg & Lune,
2011). The authors suggest a standard set of analytic activities for collecting and analyzing
qualitative data that are appropriate for this type of study:
•
Data are collected and converted into text.
•
Open codes and coding frames (i.e., axial coding) are analytically developed and
affixed to analytical memos.
•
Materials are sorted by categories, identifying similar phrases, patterns,
relationships, and commonalities or disparities.
79
•
Sorted materials are examined to isolate meaningful patterns and processes.
•
Identified patterns are considered in light of previous research and theories, and a
small set of generalizations is established.
Under a directed content analysis approach, codes were defined beforehand and during data
analysis based on theory or prior research (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). For this study, predetermined, first-level coding included labels based on types of interactions (i.e., ideational,
material, and social), types of communication (i.e., synchronous, asynchronous, and semisynchronous), delivery (i.e., face to face and online) and openness (i.e., public and private).
Within these codes more specific codes that related to each other provided further details.
Additional predetermined codes that linked to theoretical concepts related to this study included
teacher pedagogical knowledge, teacher dispositions, and concepts related to complexity and
actor network theory, among others. Although most codes were predetermined based on the
literature, additional codes emerged when analyzing data.
In addition to using a pre-established coding system as a directed content approach,
analytical memos were kept to reflect on the research process as it unfolded in terms of what was
being learned, any emerging insights, and any future actions that were necessary (Ely, 1991). In
order to analyze data, a multilevel coding system together with analytic memos were maintained
to identify theoretical conceptualizations. Specifically, open, selective (i.e., for category
development), and axial coding systems were retained to form patterns from the bottom up: raw
data to category development to thematic development to theoretical concepts (Corbin & Strauss,
2008; Hahn, 2008). An open coding system was employed to gather direct quotes and general
ideas when quotes become too wordy.
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The final step in analyzing the data was to carry out a cross-case analysis in order to
resolve the dilemma between the cases (i.e., those attributes specific to the educator or school)
and the collective target (i.e., PLN) – or what Stake (2006) refers to as a quintain. The author
suggests that a “case-quintain dilemma” exists when doing a case study that can be summed up
as follows:
The Themes originated with people planning to study the Quintain. The Findings
originated with people studying the Cases. These are two conceptual orientations,
not independent but different. To treat them both as forces for understanding the
Quintain, the Analyst keeps them both alive even as he or she is writing the
Assertions of the final report. The Themes preserve the main research questions
for the overall study. The Findings preserve certain activity (belonging to Case
and Quintain alike) found in the special circumstances of the Cases. When the
Themes and Factors meet, they appear to the Analyst as both consolidation and
extension of understanding (pp. 39-40).
To resolve the case-quintain dilemma, theoretically based coding schemes (i.e., a directed
content analysis) allowed for understanding the PLN as a theoretical concept in terms of the
individual case study (i.e., unit of analysis). Since a directed content analysis also allowed for
defining codes during the data analysis, some themes emerged due to the complexity and chaotic
dimensions of professional learning. The data analysis was performed then in order to seek
emergent patterns not only between the individual PLNs themselves but also between the
different case studies.
In order to look for patterns between the PLN and the case study, the most significant
change (MSC) technique was used to provide context as participants discuss any emergent
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features of their PLN (Davies & Dart, 2005). During the interview, and as stated in the interview
guide (See Appendix C), the MSC technique helped facilitate further reflection into
understanding insights into interpretations related to informal pedagogical dialogue experiences.
The overarching question underpinning the MSC technique (via participant reflections, group
discussions, and online contributions and comments) was as follows: Looking back over the last
one-to-two weeks, what do you think was the most significant change in your personal learning
network that contributed to your own professional learning? The overarching question was
meant to link the theoretical framework to the research questions, but did not necessarily reflect
the wording of the semi-structured interviews. Related questions were framed in more practical
terms and were introduced during the final, semi-structured interview in order to provide
additional insight into how PLNs emerge through informal pedagogical dialogues and how
participants explained and interpreted changes to their respective PLN over time.
The MSC technique was used to connect themes around the educator's PLN and any
transformations that occurred throughout the research period with regard to ideas and practical
experiences educators might have had (Davies & Dart, 2005). As change stories (CS) began to
unveil over time, asynchronous (e.g., weekly posts and replies), synchronous (e.g., online
Google+ Hangouts and personal interviews), and semi-synchronous (e.g., Twitter, Google+
Community posts, etc.) forms of communication were develop around questions that related to
PLN and individual case dynamics. In order for a CS to be considered significant, three separate
but interrelated concepts must have been present: (a) the degree to which network patterns and
relationships were recognizable from an ideational, material, and interpersonal perspective, (b)
the degree of intentional and incidental change within a PLN that existed, and (c) the perceived
impact a PLN had on one’s current teaching practice. Changes within a PLN related to certain
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network principles by (a) growing the number of direct, network nodes (i.e., actants), (b) pruning
or reducing network nodes, and (c) changing how information flowed between two connected
nodes (i.e., unidirectional, bidirectional, or the value of information within the flow itself). The
MSC technique lent itself well to unpacking the change process that also included how the
researcher approaches interpreting personal perspectives.
The MSC technique provided an interpretive means for developing a hermeneutic circle.
In order to understand the associations within a dynamic PLN, a hermeneutic circle was
implemented in order to draw out experiences and interpretations from the participants of the
study. The hermeneutic circle linked parts to the whole and the whole to its parts, and included
layering interpretation bound to specific temporal and spatial constraints or contexts (Patton,
2002). It also acted as a way of working out or accounting for the strangeness of an utterance,
text, or action in relationship to the utterance, text, or action as a whole; in doing so, the
historical perspective of the interpreter [i.e., the researcher] was less likely to distort the actual
meaning of the utterance, text, or action (Schwandt, 2007). The hermeneutic phenomenological
analysis was chosen over a phenomenological analysis because the former seeks to find meaning
as people are constructed by the world while at the same time are constructing the world based
on individual backgrounds and experiences – the latter simply attempts to unfold meaning as
they are lived in everyday experience (Laverty, 2003). To promote the hermeneutic circle in this
way, a reciprocal relationship existed during the interview between the researcher and
participants such that ideas, materials, and personal interactions (as nodes to a network) emerge
from interactive exchanges that explain network nodes or aggregations of ideational, material,
and social nodes and the PLN as a single network and vice versa.
Methodological Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
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This study was based on the following assumptions:
1. Participants were under no obligation to answer any particular way or conduct behavior
according to any institutional mandate. It was assumed that participants would offer
honest discussions about how they feel and how they choose to interact with others given
the fact that each participant signed a consent form and confidentiality would be
respected on any private information shared.
2. It was assumed that participants would understand their right to withdraw from the study
from the moment the study began until the findings were officially published.
Since this is a multiple case study on the complexity of PLNs, it was impossible to shed
light on every possible network node that extended outward various degrees from each
participant (e.g., a colleague of a colleague of a colleague, etc.). To overcome this limitation,
only the most salient aspects of an EFL educator’s PLN were explored; that is, networked nodes
that related directly to the participle were included in the study. Another possible limitation was
that participants might have felt disconnected from the process since most of the data collection
would be done on the Internet. In fact, upon completion of the study, many comments were
made that they had forgotten that the study was being conducted.
Although the objective of this multiple case study was to reach saturation, it was limited
to teachers who were teaching English language learners under different educational contexts
from around the world. The study is not inferential to any particular population but a descriptive
look at differences and more importantly similarities in how English language and possibly
professionals in general learn through open, online interactions. This study was also limited to
English language teachers who have some degree of Internet connectivity and some degree of
comfort level when it came to using technology. This study would be less relevant to those
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English language teaching professionals who totally disregard technology or do not have the skill
sets to do the most basic functions in terms of using computing devices to connect to the Internet.
Ethical Assurances
When conducting a qualitative research, the researcher had the personal obligation to
respect the rights, needs, values, and desires of the participants (Creswell, 2009). Because this
qualitative study required teachers to share ideas and experiences openly online, ethical issues
became especially important since teachers were often ridiculed by colleagues for showing
initiative and imagination, trying out new methods, and trying different curricular arrangements
(Bagin, Gallagher, & Moore, 2008). To assure proper safeguards were in place to deal with such
ethical issues, an ethical issue checklist was used (Patton, 2002):
1) The participants understood the purpose of the study; that is, they were asked to share ideas
and experiences with other educators openly online by completing an informed context form.
2) The study provided an opportunity for the educator to meet and collaborate with other
colleagues with similar and different perspectives. Also, there was a potential benefit for
building collegial relationships that might extend beyond the scope of the research.
3) Confidentiality was maintained throughout the study.
a) Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board at Northcentral University
before data was to be collected.
b) Participants were assured that all private information was used only for the purposes of
the study for a period of no longer than one year, at which time all information would be
destroyed or deleted entirely.
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c) The participants understood the nature of publishing content publically online and that
even though removal of such content was possible, that evidence of this content could
remain. If information was removed before the publishing date of the dissertation, that
does not automatically exclude it from the study. Special care was taken in working with
participants as to what was and was not reported on during the finding write up of the
dissertation.
d) In the case of a public website, participants understood that information would be
maintained as long as the website itself remained open, which likely could extend well
beyond the date findings were published.
e) Pseudonyms were used to generalize private reflections in a way that respects the
confidentiality of the participant.
f) Participant concerns, interests, and requests were considered when reporting data.
g) All ethical issues pertaining to this study were openly published online.
In addition to the above list, the Belmont Report, which is text designed to protect human
subjects against unethical research practices, was the basis for maintaining ethical research
standards based on three principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice (Belmont
Report, 1979). With regard to respect for persons, participants of the study were treated as
confidential who were capable and had the right to make their own decisions regarding their own
personal goals, the materials they decided to use, and the way in which they chose to interact
with others. For the purpose of this study, beneficence related to maximizing the participant’s
potential for further cooperation with other educators by treating each participant as daring,
sharing, and caring individuals by respecting the terms of the informed consent form as well as
adhering to the itemized list above which minimized risk. Finally, those who benefited most
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from the research were equally distributed among all participants in that the research did not set
out to put some participants at a disadvantage. To maintain justice, data collection and reporting
emerged from participatory dialogues between researcher and participants so that not only were
participants not being exploited but that the research also served some common good.
Summary
This section discussed the research method used to investigate (a) how EFL educators
from various educational contexts conducted open and informal pedagogical dialogues that
enriched a PLN, and (b) how these EFL educators explained changes to their respective PLN
over time. Researching informal pedagogical dialogues through a multiple case study research
design was intended to understand the dynamic nature of a PLN as a theoretical concept along
with gaining insight into the context that surrounded each particular case study (i.e., the unit of
analysis). Considering five English language educators from different educational contexts, data
was collected in order to search for emerging patterns that form and influence informal
pedagogical dialogues in terms of a PLN. Surveys, field notes, analytic memos, and interviews
provided the means for collecting and analyzing informal pedagogical dialogues and MSC
stories related to the complexity of PLNs among participants. Due to the complexity of
networks, assumptions, limitations, and delimitations pertaining to the study were also presented.
Finally, since most of the research method design involved open, online discussions, special
ethical concerns were required to assure that participants understood how the information would
be used in the study and to the degree of what they share would remain confidential throughout
the study.
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Chapter 4: Findings
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how ideas, materials,
and social interactions form a PLN through online, informal pedagogical dialogues among
English language educators as they relate in aggregate to one’s professional learning. A PLN is
an aggregate of associations of ideas, technologies, and social interactions, also referred to as the
“quintain” (Stake, 2006, p. 6); informal pedagogical dialogues are what educators need to know
to better do their jobs within an informational landscape (Warlick, 2012). Thus, teachers learn
first how to be connected collaborators themselves - through the ongoing development of a PLN
– before attempting to model such behaviors for students (Nussbaum-Beach, 2012).
A qualitative multiple case study was used to analyze how five English language
educators from around the world interact openly online through detailed observations and
participants’ own accounts of individual changes to ideational, material, and social relationships
(i.e., an observance and description of a PLN). To conduct such an analysis, a multitude of data
collection strategies were employed: (a) an online survey (Appendix B) was used to select the
participants of the study as well as provide respective demographic information; (b) a content
analysis on online public interactions, and (c) a semi-structured interview (Appendix C) designed
to understand (i) how participants perceived open, online, informal pedagogical dialogues within
their personal learning networks and (ii) how participants perceive changes to their personal
learning networks during the 10-week data collection process. Participants of the study
interacted online from November 15, 2014 through January 31, 2015 (10-weeks) as they
normally would have based on personal obligations and interests. Interactions online and
interviews were transcribed and coded using the HyperResearch software program, which was
then used to analyze the data.
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The objective of this study is to explore how participants conduct online pedagogical
dialogues by framing ideas, technologies, and social interactions (i.e., PLN nodes) as being
complex, emergent, and relational. By researching PLNs as being a dynamic set of nodal
associations, humans and objects are seen as effects of dynamic materialization processes that
cause them to emerge through gatherings and act in indeterminate entanglements of local
everyday practice – a relational materiality that is often overlooked in educational research
(Fenwick, Edwards, & Sawchuk, 2011). Researching and unveiling PLNs within a local context
remains the precursor for reconnoitering professional learning in terms of what individual
identities and behaviors are translated in becoming part of a network (Fenwick, 2010). The
alternative is to equate professional learning solely as isolated events (e.g., workshops and
conferences), which have a less likelihood of becoming relevant and meaningful for the teaching
practitioner interested in ongoing professional learning.
The results from this qualitative multiple case study are presented by each individual case
according to the following research questions:
Q1: How do PLNs of EFL educators in Mexico emerge through open, online, informal
pedagogical dialogues?
Q2: How do EFL educators in Mexico explain changes to their personal learning
networks over time?
For the purposes of this research, a PLN, or personal learning network, was defined as an
ongoing distribution of material, ideational, and human relational nodes (i.e., both human and
non-human objects) that consisted of either unidirectional or bidirectional forms of
communication for the purposes of promoting both intentional and incidental professional
learning. The PLN then was the quintain, or the object to be studied, and therefore was the
89
theoretical concept that would be explored in terms of the individual case studies (Stake, 2006).
Stake (2006) suggests that when researching multiple case studies, the goal is to go beyond the
case study, called instrumental case studies, in a way that ties the quintain (i.e., PLN) to the
particular contextual elements of the case study.
In unveiling the PLN and the instrumental case studies, this chapter begins with the
results section by presenting overall demographic information about each of the five instrumental
case studies so to provide local context for each of the participants who agreed to take part in this
study. The remaining findings – by way of triangulation of the different data sources – will take
each of the five case studies in turn by delineating different tenets of a PLN (i.e., ideas, materials,
and personal relationships) and respective demographic information about each case that will
show salient points of convergence and divergence which relate to both research questions. By
triangulating online survey responses, informal pedagogical dialogues, and interview responses,
converging lines of evidence make findings more robust (Yin, 2012). An evaluation of the
findings will follow by revealing the related theoretical concepts that are associated with the
PLN. Finally, the chapter will conclude with a summary.
Results
Demographic findings. Five English language educators responded to an invitation to
participate in this doctoral study, which was sent out via social media (Twitter, Google+, and a
Wiki); and included individuals from various parts of the world from different educational
contexts (see Table 4). All five participants began by signing an informed consent form (see
Appendix A). Also, Amber, Barry, Carl, Donna, and Erik (pseudonyms) completed an online
survey, participated in public, online interactions between November 15, 2014 through January
31, 2015, and an online (private) interview via Skype or Google+ hangouts. Participants were a
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diverse group based on the types of classes they teach, where they reside, nationality, education,
and experience using technology. Amber and Donna were the only ones who indicated that they
began using social media from the time they began teaching. Although specific findings show
many points of contrast between each case (i.e., participant), to be discussed later, the diversity
of backgrounds was no indication of any lack of purpose when using a PLN to further
professional learning.
Table 4: Overall Participant Demographics
Gender
Teaches
Resides
Nationality
Last Degree
Experience
teaching
(years)
Experience
with social
media
(years)
Tech.
Change
Hrs./week
Amber
Female
CLIL
Carl
Male
TEFL
Donna
Female
TESL
Asia
Australia/Oceana
Europe
North
America
Australia/Oceana
Bachelor’s
Master’s
Bachelor’s
Master’s
5-7 years
+10 years
+10 years
+10 years
+10 years
5-7 years
7-10 years
3-5 years
+10 years
5-7 years
Laggard
Early adapter
10-20
30-40
Europe
North
America
PhD
Candidate
Laggard
10-20
Barry
Male
TEFL
North
America
Early
adapter
+40
Erik
Male
TESL
North
America
North
America
Early
adapter
20-30
When participants were asked in the online survey how they felt about sharing successes
and failures with perfect strangers, no one felt uncomfortable when doing so (see Table 5).
Donna actually felt very comfortable sharing with perfect strangers while Erik was the only
participant who felt slightly different between sharing successes and failures with strangers.
Irrespective of their diverse backgrounds, participants shared similar worldviews when it came to
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sharing ideas publicly online, whether this worldview was a precursor to using technology or one
that developed over time.
Table 5: How Participants Feel About Sharing With Strangers Publically Online
Sharing
successes
with
strangers
Sharing
failures with
strangers
Amber
3
Barry
3
Carl
3
Donna
5
Erik
5
3
3
3
5
4
Note: 1=extremely uncomfortable; 5=extremely comfortable
Twitter was the tool most often used by the five participants for the study. A Twitter
summary of each of the five participants shows a comparison of how the tool was being used at
the time of the study (See Table 6). Only Carl and Erik have followers-to-following ratio of
greater than 100% (i.e., 259% and 299% respectively) while the other three participants have
ratios between 90%-100%.
Table 6: Twitter Usage per Participant
Total tweets
Following
Followers
Listed
Joined
Location
Followers /
following
Analyzed
tweets
92
Amber
7,398
772
767
31
Apr., 2009
UK
99%
Barry
2,665
1,409
1,271
40
Feb., 2009
Mexico
90%
Carl
18,978
910
2,355
103
Oct., 2011
Seoul
259%
Donna
14,718
1,911
1,856
96
Oct., 2008
New Zealand
97%
Erik
24,851
904
2,705
159
Feb., 2009
Canada
299%
495
87
556
634
424
Amber’s PLN. To share ideas and to interact with others publicly online, Amber used
Twitter as a main material tenet of her PLN. Between November 15, 2014 through January 31,
2015, Amber tweeted 495 times and retweeted other people’s tweets 291 times, or a
retweet/tweet ratio of 59%. Amber indicated in the online survey at the onset of the study that
she felt her skills using microblogs (e.g., Twitter) were intermediate while the rest of the
participants indicated an advanced level (See Figure 3). Twitter activity among the other
participants was as follows (total retweets/total tweets = ratio): Barry 14/87 = 16%; Carl 219/556
= 39%; Donna 118/634 = 19%; and Erik 53/424 = 13%. Other indicators of Twitter use include
mentions, replies, links, and hashtags.
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110/495=22%; and hashtags – 154/495=31%. Again, when compared to the other participants,
Amber demonstrates an ability to use mentions, replies, links, and hashtags within her PLN, yet
perceives her own understanding of microblogging as intermediate (See Table 7). Compare this
with those of the other participants who all had a higher perception of their respective
competencies to microblog.
Table 7: Twitter Ratios of Mentions, Replies, Links, and Hashtags to Total Number of Tweets
Understandin
Amber
Barry
Carl
Donna
Erik
Intermediate
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
100/495=20
71/87=82
370/556=67
1136/634=179
392/424=93
%
%
%
%
%
61/495=12%
19/87=22
241/556=43
396/634=62%
232/424=55
%
%
110/495=22
54/87=62
86/556=16%
%
%
154/495=31
64/87=74
138/556=25
%
%
%
g of
microblogs
Mentions
Replies
Links
Hashtags
%
188/634=30%
110/424=26
%
360/634=57%
106/424=25
%
Example: 100/495=20% is the same as taking the total number of mentions (or replies, links, and hashtags) and
dividing this number into the total number of tweets in order to achieve a ratio expressed as a percentage.
Amber shows mixed numbers in certain areas of how she uses Twitter when compared to
the other participants. For instance, the number of mentions per tweet and the percentage of
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tweets being replies are low while the percentage of tweets being retweeted is quite high (See
Table 8).
Table 8: Amber's Twitter Mentions, Replies, and Retweets as a Percentage of Tweets
Mentions per
tweet
% of tweets
being replies
% of tweets
being retweets
Amber
20%
Barry
82%
Carl
67%
Donna
179%
Erik
92%
12%
22%
43%
62%
55%
59%
16%
39%
19%
13%
But although these numbers indicate fewer mentions and replies, she stated,
…[I was] surprised at how much people actually pay attention to what I’m
tweeting…because I´ve got replies [and] responses from others, particularly in
January…when I…made a comment or…news about my forthcoming [doctoral oral
defense], I actually got some feedback. I would say [I was] presently surprised because
often I don´t normally have a back and forth with people [via social media]. It's just
more like, “Oh, I´ll talk about this…”, or “This is interesting…”, but nothing necessarily
like a Q&A, as much as it [took place] in January. It was a nice change I would say.
In addition to using Twitter, Amber also maintains a public blog. Her publishing
scheduled indicates two-to-three blog posts per month between November 2014 and January of
2015, although nothing was posted between November 1 and November 15 of 2014 (See Table
9). In January of 2015, one post in particular received 17 comments that were mainly
congratulatory and appreciative for having completed an important milestone in a doctoral study
she was involved with and for having shared her experiences with others. The blog post that
generated the 17 comments was a personal reflection regarding what she went through and how
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she felt throughout the process. The other blog posts were equally reflective but addressed topics
that were of personal interest but not academic or related to professional learning directly.
Table 9: Amber's Blog Publishing Schedule
Post/Comments
Post/Comments
Nov. 15-30
2014
N/A
Dec. 2014
Jan. 2015
#1/0 comments
#2/1 comments
#1/17 comments
#2/2 comments
In addition to her personal blog, Amber also is active in a forum for PhD students. She
reflects,
[The PhD forum is] basically a discussion group for PhD students [with] different
discussion threads. And I've engaged in maybe one or two. I wouldn't say it between the
timeframe of Nov. and Jan., but it was earlier, when it came closer to submission time,
and I was feeling a bit flustered…I was just like really frustrated with my analysis, I
just…wanted somewhere where anonymously I could just really vent, and try to get some
sort of different perspective and point of view, some advice from a community who
understood who were probably going through similar things at the same time. That's why
I would choose this particular discussion thread to do so (personal communication,
March 16, 2015).
When asked in the online survey about how she would label herself as a user of forums (See
Appendix B), she indicated beginner. She also considered herself a beginning in using wikis and
social bookmarking tools. Regarding professional learning, Amber had a different perspective in
some aspects of her professional learning expectations when compared to some of the other
participants. Both Amber and Donna thought that becoming a better speaker was extremely
important while Barry, Carl, and Erik thought it was not important at all. Similarly, both Amber
and Donna thought becoming a better writer was extremely important while Erik thought
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becoming a better writer was important, Carl was indifferent, and Barry thought it was not
important at all. In reference to increasing one’s understanding of how languages are learned
(i.e., applied linguistics), Amber was indifferent while all other participants thought it was at
least important in their own professional learning. Thus, Amber feels that skills like becoming a
better speaker and writer are more important than theoretical concepts related to her own
teaching context (i.e., content and language integrated learning, or CLIL).
Amber’s focus on skill-based professional learning is evident in the writing hashtags used
to post to Twitter. Of the 28 hashtags used by Amber during the 10-week data collection period,
seven of those hashtags contained some derivative of the word write. Tweets using hashtags with
the word write mainly pertained to grammar use, writing creatively, writing principles, writing
schedules, writers, writing goals, writing meetings, thesis writing, PhD writing, writing quotes,
writing attitudes, academic writing, writing obstacles, and writing support. One particular
hashtag is associated with a global, online writing project that occurs each November. Amber
uses this hashtag in Twitter to offer writing support to others. “I … engage with the [online]
community or if I need to get things out that had to do with academic writing, they would be
[my] first go to account”. Amber also used Twitter hashtags related to her studies.
Amber also included hashtags related to her PhD, which were associated with a skillbased professional learning emphasis that embraced research in general. Eleven out of the 28
hashtags used contained some reference to her doctoral studies: PhD, thesis, viva, and research.
Twitter posts revealed a wide range of topics such as research proposal, time management, oral
defense, feelings of satisfaction, research preparation, work-life balance, and publishing. Amber
demonstrated a particular interest in reaching out to PhD students when she mentioned,
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[Two hashtags referencing a PhD] seem to be like hashtags that I use a lot if I want to
reach out to my community - like specifically to PhD students. [These two hashtags]
seem to be what lots of people follow, so I add those hashtags [to my tweets] when I'm
either retweeting or asking questions, at least I'd like to think I do (personal
communication, March 16, 2015).
Similar online discourse that was explained earlier about Amber’s January web blog post
receiving 17 comments is another example of how she is reaching out to others by sharing her
doctoral learning experience publically with others.
Amber relied on Twitter and her personal blog to promote professional learning by
developing human relationships. In the case of Twitter, Amber referenced 42 individuals
(Twitter mentions) during the data collection period. Of those 42 mentions, 17 were stated in
tweets more than three times. Amber’s mentions can be divided into three categories: news and
politics, PhD students, and colleagues. News and politics included individuals who shared
primarily politic news that were of interest to Amber. She also connected via Twitter to PhD
students that she assisted. Finally, all other mentions were colleagues with the exception of her
partner, who was a personal contact. But Amber also appreciated Twitter interactions what
weren’t only mentions.
Amber had interactions with individuals who were complete strangers. In the online
survey, Amber was indifferent when asked how comfortable she was sharing successes and
failures with perfect strangers openly online. Yet, she stated in the interview that she appreciated
interactions where perfect strangers offered support to her via Twitter. Regarding how she felt
about the feedback she received, she stated, “I think it´s more like the positivity and the sense of
just like you can do this, it will be alright, and that sort of reassurance which was really
refreshing.” She went on to compare support from perfect strangers with the support she
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receives from friends:
Even though you can get it from friends and neighbors, but actually getting it from
complete strangers was…something really...special. It was just something different and
unexpected. Normally you say good luck to somebody you know. But actually
having…someone [read] it on Twitter that you follow and realize that actually they're
paying attention [and that] they really want you to do well…is really nice. So in that
sense the positivity was surprising, to be on the receiving end (personal communication,
March 16, 2015).
Amber thought that 10% of those she interacted with on Twitter are people she knew while the
rest were “complete and utter strangers”. She admitted that most of the positive feedback comes
from complete strangers.
Amber’s PLN is material, ideational, and relational. The material, or technological,
aspects of her PLN included Twitter, a personal blog, and online forums. The ideas that made up
most of her interactions were based on writing, research, and reflective based. Finally, the
relationships were several close ties with PhD students and colleagues with a shared interest in
writing and research as well as perfect strangers who offered support and encouragement in her
academic endeavors.
Barry’s PLN. Of all the participants, Barry showed the least amount of Twitter activity.
During the data collection period (November 15, 2014 – January 31, 2015), Barry had just 87
tweets compared to Amber (496), Carl (556), Donna (632), and Erik (421). And when asked if
becoming and competent speaker and writer were part of his professional learning goals, he was
the only participant to answer not important at all on both accounts. When it came to
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maintaining his own personal blog, he stated
Yeah, I used to be much more active...I used to blog. But then I realized that so many
other people had so many better blogs, that I just gave up. I thought there´s no point in
wasting my time. I might as well just let them do the talking.
Moreover, when answering Internet-related questions, Barry had the greatest differential overall
in how he thought about how usefulness the Internet was and how he used it in terms of his own
teaching, lesson planning, and connecting his students to the local and global community (See
Table 10).
Table 10: Internet Usefulness and Use (Barry)
Note: Scale for usefulness questions – 5=extremely useful, 1=Not useful at all; Scale for
Response
Response
Response
How useful is
the Internet
in your own
teaching?
5
How useful is
the Internet
when
implementing
your lessons?
4
How useful is
the Internet
for connecting
your students
with the
local/global
community?
3
Overall, how often
do you use the
Internet in your
own teaching?
2
How often do you
use the Internet
when implementing
your lessons?
Difference
2
How often do you
use the Internet to
connect your
students with the
local/global
community?
2
Difference
1
2
Internet use – 5=Almost continuously, 1=Never.
3
Difference
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Another aspect of Barry’s PLN that is distinguishable from other participants relates to
the type of tweets he produced (See Table 11). Dividing tweets into new tweets, replies, and
retweets, Barry had the largest percentage of new tweets with 61% (Amber with 31%, Carl with
21, Donna with 37%, and Erik with 43%). Barry also had a higher percentage increase in how
often he included Twitter mentions, replies, links, and hashtags (See Table 8). For instance, over
his entire Twitter history, Barry included 1,322 mentions out of 2,627 total tweets (i.e., 50%) and
71 mentions out of 87 total tweets (i.e., 82%) between the period of November 15, 2014 through
January 31, 2015, which is the data collection period allotted for this study. The percentage
change from 50% to 82% is an increase of 64%, more than any other participant. He was also the
only participant to show an increase of mentions, replies, links, and hashtags collectively.
Table 11: Barry's Use of Twitter Mentions, Replies, Links, and Hashtags
Amber
31%-20%
(-36%)
Barry
50%-82%
(64%)
Replies
10%-12%
(20%)
16%-22%
(38%)
Links
28%-22%
(-21%)
49%-62%
(27%)
Hashtags
45%-31%
(-31%)
51%-74%
(45%)
Mentions
Carl
69%67%
(-3%)
45%43%
(-4%)
20%15%
(-25%)
28%25%
(-11%)
Donna
208%-179%
(-14%)
Erik
84%-92%
(10%)
63%-62%
(-2%)
45%-55%
(22%)
30%-30%
(0%)
33%-26%
(-21%)
64%-57%
(-11%)
23%-25%
(9%)
When asked about his online activity, Barry acknowledged that he had become more proficient
in how he used Twitter. When asked what he thought the most significant change was to his PLN
during the data collection period, he stated,
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There's nothing major, but one thing that I certainly did do in that time frame [November
15, 2014 through January 31, 2015], was that I started to use Twitter lists more
effectively…I downloaded a new Twitter app on my tablet and it was so much more user
friendly, that I found it much…easier to interact with others [in my field] and the rest of
my PLN. And so I became more active in that period, at least at following people and
clicking links. I started using Twitter a lot more than I had been for a while just simply
because I had downloaded a new app.
Barry went on and elaborated on how he came around to using this new social media tool,
[The tool is] a third party one, it's called Falcon Pro. And actually I bought it years ago,
and then the company went bust…I didn't have access to it for a while and I was really
disappointed because it's better than the native Twitter app. And I was just messing
[around with it] and I realized that it was working again. So yeah, it sparked a whole new
interest in my Twitter PLN.
When asked about when he began using the social media took, Falcon Pro, Barry replied, “I
would say [in] January, probably mid- January [or] early January”. In fact, his number of tweets
in January did increase when compared to November and December of 2014: November of 2014
with six tweets, December of 2014 with 30 tweets, and January of 2015 with 51 tweets.
Barry mentioned other social media tools that helped him interact publically online. For
instance, he used Pulse – a feed reader – for getting his news which is linked to other social
media tools that complement his overall PLN. He explained how he came to use Pulse and other
social media tools this way,
I find [Pulse] really useful…I have [it] organized into pages...there's a news section and I
have a TEFL section with feeds from some of the blogs that I found on Twitter. And I
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have an e-learning section with stuff on it, you know e-learning news and posts. So I use
posts quite a lot, I use it daily…probably more than Twitter. See, that was the thing
with…finding Falcon Pro again…I had Falcon Pro before [and] used it all the time. Then
it stopped working [and] I started using Pulse just to following posts and feeds. And now
I'm using the two of them a lot. And the other thing that I use a lot is Scoop.it, but that's
normally for…web searching [and] actually sharing. The stuff that I share tends to come
from my own searches. I save them to my Scoop.it pages that have five categories in
Scoop.it and those are automatically shared to Twitter and LinkedIn.
Barry clarified that he seldom uses LinkedIn and that shares from Scoop.it are automatically sent
and shared in LinkedIn. He also clarified that his main source for getting news is via Pulse,
…what normally happens is I'll come across a new blogger or something on Twitter from
a Twitter link, and I'll check them out via the link, and if I think they're worth following,
I'll add them to my post feed [in Pulse]. [I] periodically trim my post feed to get rid of
stuff that is no longer is active…
The mix of social media tools Barry uses served specific purposes and in the aggregate allowed
him to navigate throughout is PLN.
When compared to the other participants, Barry not only included hashtags more
frequently (74% of the time), but also showed the highest increase of hashtag use with 45% (See
Table 8). Most of the hashtags related to English language teaching and learning and business
English. He used 10 different hashtags ranging from posting a hashtag once to the most
frequently used hashtag being used 17 times. In comparison, Amber used hashtags less
frequently as a percentage of total tweets and focused hashtags more on topics related to
academic writing and her own doctoral research. She used 25 different hashtags ranging from
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posting a hashtag once to the most frequently used hashtag being used 31 times. In both cases,
several hashtags were chosen to reference two or three general topics related to one’s PLN.
Barry’s integration of social media (i.e., primarily Twitter, Scoop.it, Pulse, and Falcon Pro) were
used to discuss ideas related to English language teaching and learning and business English by
interacting with colleagues publically online.
Over the 10-week data collection period, Barry included 15 different Twitter mentions.
A Twitter mention, using the symbol @ followed by the person’s Twitter handle, is the
equivalent to sending a direct message to a person publically; that is, the message sent from one
person to the other remains a public post in Twitter for all to see. During this time period, Barry
posted 15 different mentions anywhere from posting one mention to Twitter in one single
occurrence – which happened nine times – up to using one particular mention five times.
Compared to hashtags, which are more ideational, the 15 different mentions were used 26 times
while 10 different hashtags were used 53 times.
Barry described one online interaction instance with a colleague (i.e., a mention) that also
related to a face-to-face class he was teaching at the time. The question was asked if he could
recall any particular surprises or anything he did not anticipate within his PLN while
participating in the study. He replied,
I've been on Twitter for a long time, but I've never really [got] involved in
conversations…, I'm a bit shy on Twitter. But then I was inspired by a lesson idea by one
of my PLN, someone who is on one of my lists, and I designed a lesson based on her
ideas.
He immediately followed up by acknowledging that as a result of this online interaction between
his colleague, Fran (pseudonym) and him, others began to retweet the original posts as well and
that the resulting retweets were more than he usually gets. Barry got the idea for a reading
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technique from a person in his PLN (via Twitter) which he explained in detail. After having
completed the class activity with his students, explained how he continued interacting online,
I shared [my classroom experience as a Google Document via Twitter], Fran retweeted it,
it was really only one or two retweets and one favorite, but then actually [at the school
where I teach], I used it in a training session for my teachers…just before Christmas…,
then all of the teachers went out and used it in their lesson. Since then, I've used the
technique again.
Barry explained that the Google Document was a copy of a handout that he used in class. When
asked about his relationship with Fran, he recounted his experience as follows,
I am not even aware of any of the course books that Fran has written. I know that she is a
writer, but I have never used any of her stuff. She just happens to be on a list. I came
across her after [a] conference last year. I don't know if you following that, but there's a
guy, an academic, from the UK called [Gerry – pseudonym], and he did this quite
explosive talk debunking multiple intelligences theory… And there was a lot of activity
on Twitter around that, like [Harry – pseudonym] retweeted Gerry’s talk. Then I started
following Harry and then there was a lot of exchanges between Harry and Fran, and that's
how I came across her. Then I saw her [website] and I liked a couple of ideas on there,
so I started to follow her blog, and then I came across the [reading technique].
Most of Barry’s public interactions online are with individuals who he has not met face to face
but who he relies on to share ideas of his profession using a variety of social media tools.
Carl’s PLN. Carl indicated in the online survey that he was a laggard when it came to
implementing new technologies (See Table 1). He has used social media three-to-five years
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which is less than the other participants, and only used technology 10-20 hours per week. Carl
was the only participant who felt uncomfortable sharing successes and failures as either a teacher
or learner with a fellow educator with whom he worked. When asked the same question but
sharing with a perfect stranger publically online, he remained neutral. When it comes to
interacting with his colleagues face to face, who make up his PLN, Carl admitted that that does
not happen, “…my main job here at the university…I have zero interactions online [with those
whom I work], aside from [correspondence via] email. He went on to clarify,
[I have] no connections with my colleagues. But to be fair, I really don't have too many
colleagues in my job…it's an isolated thing. So I don't really have much face to face
interaction either, I should say. I have contacts with two people, and one of whom is
normally not my boss but…actually really is. We don't interact too much face to face and
sometimes by email if there is an issue or something. Or if I need to do some extra work,
but...I have one other colleague. We kind of share responsibilities, but there's no
crossover, there's not a lot of discussion about work stuff, more of a social friendship, but
definitely not online.
Carl concluded by saying that his two colleagues with whom he worked were either not really
interested in professional development or was really into academic topics of translation and
interpretation but nothing online.
Of those participants with more than 400 tweets (i.e., Amber, Carl, Donna, and Erik),
Carl had the lowest variance and standard deviation between the number of new, reply, and
retweet tweets (See Table 12). Although Carl had the lowest percentage of new tweets, he had
the highest percentage and number of reply and retweet tweets when both were taken together;
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that is, 79% of Carl’s tweets were either a reply or retweet, and he was equally likely to post a
reply as a retweet. When using Twitter, Carl used the fewest tools to send out tweets.
Table 12: New, Reply, and Retweets per Total Tweets
Amber
Barry
Carl
Donna
Erik
New
148 (30%)
58 (67%)
114 (21%)
231 (36%)
177 (42%)
Reply
57 (12%)
15 (17%)
223 (40%)
284 (45%)
191 (45%)
Retweet
290 (59%)
14 (16%)
219 (39%)
119 (19%)
56 (13%)
Carl demonstrated a clear preference in the platform used to send out tweets. The Twitter
web client was the preferred method with 87% (See Table 13). The only two other Twitter
platforms Carl used was Twitter for websites (3%) and Twitter for Android (10%).
Table 13: Twitter Platforms per Participant
Twitter web
client
Twitter for
iPad
Twitter for
iPhone
TweepsMap
Twitter for
websites
Instagram
TweetDeck
Mobile web
Vine
Google
iOS
Foursquare
Facebook
Twitter for
Android
Amber
Barry
Carl
Donna
Erik
43 (9%)
13 (15%)
482 (87%)
350 (55%)
349 (82%)
142 (22%)
4 (1%)
98 (15%)
19 (4%)
1 (0%)
1 (0%)
19 (3%)
14 (3%)
5 (1%)
6 (1%)
16 (3%)
10 (2%)
5 (1%)
1 (0%)
22 (25%)
55 (10%)
32 (8%)
15 (4%)
3 (1%)
1 (0%)
1 (0%)
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Buffer
Tweetbot
for iOS
WordPress
Scoop.it
Twitter for
Android
tablets
Pulse News
Spotify
178 (36%)
253 (51%)
6 (1%)
40 (46%)
9 (10%)
2 (2%)
1 (1%)
In addition to the different platforms used to send out tweets to his PLN, Carl also used Twitter
to notify others when he posted to his blog. Carl explained it this way,
…I'd say probably like an average of 1.5 tweets per blog post or something, or if it's
something I thought was kind of cool that didn't get read much, I might…do a little bit
more. I don't like to tweet too much.
Like Amber, Carl used Twitter to promote ideas shared in his blog publically through his PLN.
Carl used his blog to share various ideas about the field of teaching and learning an
additional language. He posted twice between November 15-30, 2014, four times in December,
and twice again in January of 2015. For each blog post, readers had the option of sharing the
post using the following social media: Twitter, facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and
Pinterest. Readers could also email the post to others or print the post directly from the web
page to a designated printer. And although Carl uses facebook, of the three (i.e., facebook, his
personal blog, and Twitter), he prefers to interact with others publically online via Twitter.
The ideas expressed as hashtags Carl shared in Twitter, like Barry, were mainly related to
the field of teaching and learning English as an additional language. Eleven different hashtags
were managed a total of 202 times throughout the 10-week data collection period. Hashtags that
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were mainly related to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language related to
teacher associations, geographic location (i.e., South Korea), English for academic purposes, and
English teaching and learning in general. One hashtag referred to the professional learning of
teaching English to students of other languages (TESOL). Much in the same way that Barry
used 10 different hashtags, Carl used 11 to share more detailed topics around curriculum,
assessment, and instruction. Many topics were also related to professional learning opportunities
for other educators, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other educational
conferences that were being held face to face. However, Carl had an average of 18.4 posts per
hashtag whereas Barry had an average of 5.3.
The ideas Carl shared beyond the use of hashtag made him distinct from the other
participants in terms of being a foreign or second language educator. He tweeted (i.e., posted a
tweet in Twitter) key words like reading, writing, listening, and speaking – which are typically
associated with the field of TESOL – more than any other participant (See Table 14). The other
participants tended to focus more on reading and writing and less on listening, speaking, lexicon
(i.e., vocabulary), and pronunciation.
Table 14: TESOL Key Words Tweeted
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Lexicon
Pronunciation
Amber
18
26
2
2
3
0
Barry
5
1
2
1
1
1
Carl
36
14
18
14
3
0
Donna
41
33
0
0
3
1
Erik
18
23
5
4
12
2
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Carl also tweeted about academic conferences more than the other participants although Donna
and Erik clearly favored the topic of conferences over those related to assessment, curriculum,
and business English (See Table 15).
Table 15: Other Key Words Tweeted
Assessment
Conferences
Curriculum
Business
English
Amber
5
3
1
0
Barry
0
1
2
37
Carl
8
21
4
3
Donna
3
15
6
2
Erik
1
17
1
0
In Twitter, Carl had more mentions in his PLN than the other participants. He had 26
mentions out of 384 total tweets, or an average number of tweets per mention of 14.8. Like all
participants, some Twitter mentions were individuals whom he met face to face while others
were professional relationships developed solely online. It was not uncommon for Carl to
express his forming a relationship in terms of how that relationship fostered his own professional
learning. In one case he explained,
[@MentionMary] (pseudonym), another [hashtag reference] person. We've known each
other for now three years. I would say [that we have] a very close relationship on and
offline. We chat on facebook all of the time. Also, on a private nature, we ask each other
language questions like, “I heard of this today, would you ever say this”? I think she's
also American, while the other two guys are British. So I'll get her opinion on English
usage and things like this and vice versa, she'll do the same. So [we have] lots of
interaction [and] see each other face to face when we can…She lives like 3.5-4 hours
away, but I'd say I see her almost once a month if I'm in Korea. I hate those terms "real
life", but I would say it's a real life friendship that developed out of online…There's a lot
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of crossover with the [hashtag reference], and also here in Korea I started a reflective
practice special interest group about four years ago. And I'm not very involved now with
that, she's the facilitator of it now, so sometimes she'll check in with a request for advice
or perspective or this kind of thing. So I can give some help there on what I might do or
how I see the situation, or this sort of thing. I guess we didn't actually meet online first,
we met offline first at this reflective practice special interest group meeting. We met
offline and online right around the same time.
Carl also shared the importance of diversity when forming professional relationships within a
PLN. He articulated one such relationship as follows:
[@MentionMit], another [hashtag reference]. We met more recently. He's also now
involved with the management of the [TESOL-related] group, which is basically just five
of us sending emails on things as they need to get done. He has two blogs now – started
the second one in January. Really bright guy that I'm happy to know… In Korea lots of
people who are involved with professional development are university teachers because
they have the time and maybe there are some benefits for presenting and writing
papers…[Mit – @MentionMit’s first name, which is a pseudonym] actually works in a
language school and so he has a different perspective on that, and I think it's really nice to
talk to people with slightly different contacts. And he's super insightful and...I'd say he's
10 years younger than me but I'd say it's a strong friendship online mostly but if there's an
opportunity to see each other offline we'll do it at a conference…
In both examples above, Carl connected the Twitter mentions to a related hashtag, and in many
cases continued to describe his professional relationship by referring to the Twitter mention by
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using his first name. This was a common occurrence when Carl described his various contacts,
the ideas shared, and how the professional relationship developed over time.
Donna’s PLN. Donna had more analyzed tweets during the study (i.e., 634) than any
other participant, and was following the largest number of people when compared to the other
participants (See Table 6). When asked how she felt sharing successes and failures with
strangers publically online, she was the only participant to answer extremely comfortable on both
accounts (See Table 5). Donna was also the only participant to consider herself advanced when
it came to using blogs, microblogs, social bookmarks, wikis, forums, search engines, and emails
(See Figure 1). When using Twitter (i.e., a microblog), she had the highest percentage of
mentions and replies to total tweets: mentions with 179% and replies with 62% (See Table 7).
And when it came to posting to Twitter, Donna used a total of 10 different Twitter platforms,
which was more than any other participant (See Table 13). The three most used Twitter
platforms that Donna used were the Twitter web client (55%), Twitter for iPad (22%), and
Twitter for iPhone (15%). Her overall comfort level in using social media and sharing ideas
publically online was evident in her recollection of online interactions that took place during the
study.
Donna made a clear distinction between her teaching practice and her own professional
learning. When asked whether there was any change to her PLN between November 15, 2014
and January 31, 2015, began by distinguishing between her teaching practice and professional
learning this way,
…I'm in New Zealand and between the months of December [of 2014] and January
[2015], that's our summer break. So its generally in education, it can be quiet, but because
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of what I do, it's never quiet. I'm going flat out, so if you're just speaking about my online
connections with my personal learning network, it doesn't slow down.
Donna continued to answer the question to illustrate her point by including several references to
the ideational, material, and relational aspects to her PLN: personal blog, named a global
learning community, Hilary (pseudonym), hashtag reference, Google+ Hangout, and the social
media application, WeChat. Donna explained it as follows:
Over that period, I wrote several blog posts to clarify my thinking because in December I
graduated as a [global learning community] through the work of Hilari, who is an online
education specialist in the field of global education. In that period, I worked extensively
with teachers of almost four corners of globe, and as we communicate [on topics related
to] online learning. In addition, in January I was in connection with my…host daughter in
China… We use social media to do most of our communication, and we were using [the
software application] WeChat because if you are aware…a lot of social media is blocked
[in China]. We used WeChat just to talk to each other and [make] arrangements because
in early February, I visited China for a week. In addition, between January and February
I worked with our national facilitator in science…as part of my national project in New
Zealand…So in one week's time I am running a teach [hashtag reference] [Google+]
hangout with nine science educators as part of my national project (emphasis added).
The WeChat application was used to overcome limited access to online communication
in China. Donna explained how she dwindled down various social media tools before deciding
on WeChat,
Wechat is a new tool that I am learning to use because I know that it gives me access to
colleagues in China. But I can't use Twitter, I can't use Skype, I mean I can use Skype but
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it turns on and off if you're working with China…I can't use Google Hangouts. I use
[Apple’s video chat software application] Facetime a lot if I talk to my colleagues in
China but even then it drops in and out…Every year we host a Mandarin language
assistance from China at our school as part of the [Learning Institute] (pseudonym), and I
have used WeChat to communicate with the previous Mandarin language assistance, so
we've got an online group that we talk with.
So just overcoming the problem of communicating in China involved not just deciding on what
social media tool to use, but making a conscious decision not to use several other media tools
that would have limited their communicative accessibility in a country that imposes certain
restrictions on how individuals communicate with each other publically online.
During the study, Donna experienced a learning episode with one of her PLN members.
She explained how Hilary facilitated this learning experience,
Hilary exposed me to four new…online tools, and I'm very strong with online tools [but]
these were new tools for me that I hadn't heard about. One big one that I really liked was
about the time, learning how to tell time across the zones, and how to pre-book
appointments so that we could align [our schedules] across four time zones…that was a
new experience for me.
Donna went on to say that because of Hilary’s vast level of understanding and skill sets, that she
feels she’s “learning from the best” (personal communication, March 13, 2015).
During the interview, Donna mentioned several times that what she was explaining she
also shared in her personal blog. Between the period of November 15, 2014 and January 31,
2015, Donna posted two blog posts in November of 2014, two in December of 2014, and six in
January of 2015. Indeed, many of the topics discussed in the interview were shared in her
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personal blog, which included the not only the same ideas, but the same Twitter hashtags and
mentions which were also included in posts found in Twitter. Topics included associations with
the global learning community (with associating hashtag), global citizenship, personal and
professional reflections, links to public online chats (e.g., Google+ Hangouts), professional
accomplishments, and cultural reviews, and changing from Blogger to WordPress for hosting her
personal blog. When asked about changing from Blogger to WordPress, she said it was “easy”
and “seamless” (personal communication, March 13, 2015). She mentioned that both Blogger
and WordPress had come a long way and that it really didn’t matter when it came to deciding
which to use to host a personal blog.
When asked if anything occurred during the study that she did not anticipate, she
mentioned having time to reflect and what reflecting on prior experiences leads to. She stated,
…it allows me [to reflect]. So I do have reflection time during that period, and as I am
reflecting, I was blogging as much as I [could]. My thought process becomes clearer, and
the creative juices are really moving fast so my head is absolutely buzzing by the end of
January, before I get back to school. I´ve got all these new ideas and all this new stuff
that I want to do.
To corroborate her statement, her personal blog archive not only revealed an increase in the
number of blog posts for January, but also how Donna expressed personal goals and objectives
she set stemming from global meetings that took place within her global learning community.
When it comes to using a platform for collaborating with other educators in the field,
Donna prefers Wikis along with other social media tools. She mentioned,
I love using wikis because wikis, I don´t have to lock down. And [they] are very open,
you don´t have to have a wiki account to enter a wiki page. Because oftentimes, as we
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know as educators, every time a new tool comes out, you have to set up a new account.
So what a wiki does is that each [individual] can go and edit [the person’s] page and I
leave it open for a period of time when they are setting up a page for broadcasting. And
then once a session is over, I lock it down. The other tool I use is Google Hangouts. We
use Google Docs for presentations and we use Slideshare. So you got a choice in using
Slideshare or Google Presentations to share your presentation. So before the session
happens…teachers must have their presentations ready in either Slideshare or Google
Docs.
Donna uses Wikis to host presentations and videos by embedding external social media to one
public online space. Teachers create three-minute video presentations in YouTube so that more
topics can be covered in smaller “chunks” of time.
The Wiki Donna promotes is a completely public wiki for any educator interested in
collaborating with others. Not only can anyone view the wiki, but anyone can edit the wiki.
Because it is completely public, contributors can modify the document anonymously, or if they
are signed in, may make changes that are associated to a wiki profile. Instructors are provided to
educators wishing to present along with a signup register and respective dates for each presenter.
Even though Donna has made many of the over 200 page edits to the wiki main page (not
including the page edits to all wiki subpages), it is set up so that the planning, implementation,
and sharing of all the different presentations result from the educators themselves. The first
entry to the wiki was April 24, 2013 and since then has added over 250 pages and files that make
up the entire wiki website. The wiki primarily hosts short, three-minute presentations from
mainly New Zealand educators who participate in a Google+ Hangout where they share their
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presentations publically. The wiki also includes Slideshare presentations as Donna mentioned in
her interview.
Donna’s overall focus when using social media was to promote professional learning.
She did not particularly use a high number of different mentions and hashtags, but she did
include them more often than the other participants (See Table 16).
Table 16: Mention and Hashtag Averages per Participant
No. of Mentions
Times Mentions
35
137
Barry
English
language
teaching
and
learning &
business
English
15
26
Average/Mention
No. of hashtags
Times Hashtags
Average/Hashtag
3.9
24
99
4.1
1.7
10
53
5.3
Topics
Amber
Academic
writing &
doctoral
research
Carl
ELT, EAP,
Conferences
Donna
Education
referencing
local emphasis;
professional
development
Erik
26
384
21
548
18
171
14.8
11
202
18.4
26.0
10
258
25.8
9.5
10
126
12.6
All of the 21 different mentions and 10 different hashtags were related to ideas and relationships
related to education and professional learning. Donna explained on several occasions how
certain Twitter mentions (i.e., personal contacts) were associated with different hashtags (i.e.,
ideas) within a typical Twitter discourse. The following is an example where Donna explains
part of her PLN – namely ideas and individuals – that primarily stems from her Twitter
interactions (all names and mentions are pseudonyms):
[@schoolname] is my school and my principal tweets under that name…I also broadcast
via her.
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[@Jenny] is one of our teachers at [School Name]. She´s just getting going on Twitter.
[@Violet] is the same thing. [She] is joining me again [for a conference]. She´s one of
the presenters.
[@Mary] is part of the [#learning] project. [She] and I wrote a book together on [#topic]
last year as part of our [#learning] project. And [she] and I were students of Hilari.
[@ginnynz01], she´s our assistance principle for New Market school, also my
solotaxonomy mentor.
Sonya: [@NZLearning2] is Kat...she´s the national science facilitator in New Zealand.
Sonya: [@Nancy] [Nancy] is from Denmark... I assisted [her] face to face as part of my
journey. And she´s well known for school design in modern learning environments. I go
to her for that.
Sonya: [@PrincipalName] is a principle I just helped with a distributor of leadership
project. He´s studying in Malaysia… I was helping him with his project.
Sonya: [@Scott] Scott is one of [PrincipalName’s] young teachers. I met him face to
face last November. He came to visit me at school.
Sonya: [@Sue] is part of the online [#learningcommunity]. I haven´t met her face to
face.
Most of mentions Donna included in her Twitter postings were keywords that reflected ideas that
were associated with online and public learning communities all in the field of education while
most Twitter mentions were individuals’ names.
Erik’s PLN. Erik relied heavily on Twitter as part of an overall PLN, which was similar
among all participants of the study. Mentions and hashtags were employed frequently, but Erik
– like Donna – had a much higher percentage of mentions to total tweets than hashtags to total
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tweets. Erik included mentions 392 times out of a total number of tweets of 424 (i.e., 93%), and
Donna included mentions 1136 times out of a total number of tweets of 634 (i.e., 179%).
Conversely, Erik included hashtags 106 times out of 424 total tweets (i.e., 25%) while Donna
included hashtags 360 times out of 634 total tweets (i.e., 57%). Both Erik and Donna had the
greatest difference between mention and hashtag ratios than the other participants at 68% and
122% respectively (See Table 7). In addition to Twitter, Erik also maintained a personal blog to
share ideas related to the field of English language teaching and learning.
During the data collection period, Erik had only three blog posts that all occurred in
January of 2015. He stated in one blog post about being away from his personal blog for most of
2014 due to his commitment pursuing a master’s degree (his last post of 2014 was posted in
June), and he also mentioned how others should follow a fellow-colleague publically online who
happens to be Carl, another participant of this study. The other two posts related to ideas around
using social media to promote academic writing skills and the complexity of language variation
when it comes to learning and using English. Although Erik’s personal blog was not used
extensively during the study, he provided insight into how he leveraged various social media
tools to promote his ideas shared on his blog.
As with other participants, with the exception of Barry, Erik used Twitter to promote his
personal blog. He stated that most of the more meaningful conversations happened on his
personal blog as opposed to informal dialogs that occurred on Twitter. He explained it as
follows:
Twitter is more or less for me to share with people and retweet the blog post and have
varying commentary on that blog post itself. And the interactions that I've had with
people about that particular blog post is more or less [others] thanking me for sharing. So
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I don't think that there's very much meaningful interaction that's happening on Twitter in
that regard. It's a device for curating.
Beyond Twitter and his personal blog, Erik also mentioned that he also used facebook, Google+,
and LinkedIn to share ideas related to English language teaching and learning, but to a lesser
degree.
The main change that occurred to Erik’s PLN during the study was related to him
completing a master’s degree program towards the end of November of 2014. He explained this
changed this way:
… I think my focus shifted…from using my PLN to talk about my research to moving
[to] reading more about what [others in my PLN] were doing. So, I had been subsumed
with just my own research for such a long time that I gave up on blogs and I gave up on
Twitter and all those things for about a year in terms of interacting. So during that exact
time period is when I kind of got back into reading other people's blogs and reading what
they were doing and interacting with them more like I had more than a year earlier… I
too had started blogging as well, so it was nice to kind of get back in that groove where I
had to rebuild relationships…with some newer people in the online universe and then see
where all the people who were part of my PLN [before] were and what they were
doing. I would say that happened [during the end of November of 2014].
When asked a follow up question related to any unexpected events or occurrences to his PLN
during this time, he stated,
…I think because I had been part of research for such a long time, my focus had moved
from…really just communicating ideas to each other to actually looking for best practices
in our field. And I had known of Randy's blog [#EFL topic] for awhile, and we had talked
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a few times as well, but I think my focus and interests had shifted more towards finding
out what he was talking about, and I think that I have come around to caring a lot more
about [#EFL topic]-based things that I had before that period. So, the way that focused on
Randy’s blog posts, more so than before…maybe it's not surprising there was definitely a
shift in my professional development. Not only was I really looking for general
commentary on the [#EFL topic] or sharing that type of information with the PLN, I was
now looking for and trying to share more commentary that was based on action research
or you know dispelling pseudoscience or…those types of topics. So, hopefully that
translated in my blog posts as well.
At this point in Erik’s explanation, he transitioned from changes how he interacted with others to
social media tools, describing it as follows:
But you know [this study] is kind of a short time period, so I would say that there hasn't
been a massive change in the way that I use technology or anything like that...I have done
some Google+ Hangouts a little bit more often oddly during that time maybe
because…more people use Google now than they had a year ago. And I manage that
[online community] Google+ plus community as well so during that time I had
ample…opportunities to focus on what is likely to happen in that [online community]
group…in turn we would have more regular schedules and we'd try to talk about topics
that were not just ad hoc…but stuff that had some relevance to what everyone was doing
in [English for academic purposes] at the time. I would say that it's true, it's the [#EFL
topic]-based shift maybe that has been the most on my mind and that happened as a result
of my research and the environment that I work in now where in higher education
everything is [based on this topic].
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The main topic Erik is discussing relates to evidenced-based teaching and learning centered
around primarily courses related to English for academic purposes.
The way Erik shared ideas publically online were similar to how the other participants
shared their ideas. Erik and Donna both felt more comfortable sharing successes and failures
with strangers publically online (See Table 8). Erik, Donna, and Carl all had higher frequencies
of sharing concepts related to teacher conferences. And when it came down to the four language
skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening, and speaking), Erik, Donna, Carl, and Amber shared ideas
mainly related to literacy or reading and writing (See Table 17).
Table 17: Key words from Twitter Posts (Tweets)
Blogs
Amber
Barry
Carl
Donna
Erik
9
5
47
45
34
21
15
17
8
6
Business English
Conferences
123
4
3
1
Facebook
Listening
2
2
18
5
Pedagogy
9
16
107
87
Professional
4
6
1
6
Reading
18
5
36
41
Research
18
25
development
Scoop.it
Speaking
38
2
Technology
Twitter
18
1
14
4
2
5
Twitter for
12
12
15
31
Android
WeChat
3
Wiki material
17
Writing
26
1
14
33
23
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Regarding the educational backgrounds of the participants, Erik, Donna, and Amber shared
similar experiences in that each had completed an important milestone in their own professional
learning: a master’s degree in the case of Erik, a diploma in the case of Donna, and a doctorate
degree in the case of Amber.
Evaluation of Findings
This qualitative, multiple case study revealed the complexity of public online interactions
between English language educators over a period of 10 weeks. The different themes that
emerged from this doctoral study related to how ICTs were resorted to when interacting between
individuals, what ideas were shared while interactions took place, and how interactions emerged
over time; that is, how language educators cultivated the materialist, ideational, and relational
tenets of a PLN emerged over time between five different individuals. The findings indicated
that individuals who choose to interact publically online can come from various professional
backgrounds and contexts yet still share common approaches as to how ICTs, ideas, and
individuals come together for a particular purpose. Although the particular purpose within the
context of this study was to focus on professional learning, the intentional and incidental nature
of cultivating one’s PLN has been in large part absent in the current literature. Thus, this section
is an evaluation of the findings organized around two research questions that address both the
theoretical concept under investigation (i.e., the PLN) and the quintain (i.e., the individual case
itself). The two research questions address 1) how PLNs emerge through open, online, informal
pedagogical dialogues and 2) how language educators explain changes to their PLNs over time.
The five participants of the study demonstrated variations of knowledge in the field of
English language teaching (ELT). All participants came from ELT-related areas – content and
language integrated learning (CLIL), teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), and
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teaching English as a second language (TESL) – but each had an ideological approach to the way
they revealed their respective knowledge about teaching and learning. Amber, Carl, Donna, and
Erik exhibited a great deal of self-knowledge, coming primarily from a learner standpoint in that
most of the knowledge being shared publically online related to their own professional learning.
Self-knowledge is one of the six facets of understanding that helps the learner see the big idea or
big picture (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). The willingness to openly share professional-related
topics with others requires the appropriate disposition necessary to become a productive teacher
leader (Bond, 2011). All five participants shared this willingness even though they each had
varying comfort levels when it came to sharing either failures or successes with strangers openly
online.
When it came to demonstrating teaching knowledge, Barry’s understandings were unique
to the other four participants who were coming more from a learner perspective. Barry’s
pedagogical explanation of how an idea for a lesson plan emerged within his PLN displayed
examples of higher order thinking when it came to providing a learning experience for his
students. Barry’s consideration for his students (i.e., knowing their backgrounds, objectives, and
limitations) and the school where he taught was evident in his pedagogical understanding as he
provided clear examples of how he applied an idea, showed perspective and empathy for his
students with regard to the implementation of the lesson, and interpreted an idea from someone
else within his own educational context. Thus, a higher level of understanding of pedagogy came
from implementing a learning scenario with students where the professional learner (i.e., the
language educator) could explain, interpret, apply concepts, have empathy, perspective, and selfknowledge, which collectively form one’s overall understanding (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005).
Barry’s recollection of how his PLN emerged from being an external idea to a learning
experience for his students, to ultimately a learning experience for himself, exposed his
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understanding and how the role of each of the six facets.
Donna also substantiated high levels of understandings but primarily from her own
perspective and the perspective of other educators. The six facets of understandings appeared
throughout her description of experiences assisting others, but not quite like to facet of selfknowledge. Even though Donna took on a leadership position by working with other language
educators become more interdependent, she shared examples of self-knowledge by explaining
how positions of facilitating others can also result in positions of learning from others as well.
Mentoring and coaching others, communicating with other teachers regardless of personal
affiliation or preference, growing by bringing in new ideas, becoming a more competent
communicator of one’s ideas, engaging in creative and problem-based issues, and sharing with
others are representative of a teacher leader (McEwan, 2003). Not only Donna but those
educators she came in contact with all shared characteristics that would be considered a teacher
leader.
Barry and Donna interacted with their respective PLNs in ways that promoted
collaboration through the use of educational technology. Albeit in different ways, both provided
evidence of instructional design, educational media, and educational computation – which
Newby, Stepich, Leyman, & Russel, (2010) refer to as educational technology – in how they
collaborated with others openly online. In this case, tools, open-ended learning environments,
and web-based learning were all used as methodologies to facilitate learning (Alassi & Trollip,
2001). Knowledge, understandings, and skills sets were demonstrated with PLNs what could
not be possible without an appropriate disposition.
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With the exception of Amber (with five-to-seven years’ experience), all participants had
over 10 years of teaching experience, at least three years of experience using social media, and
various amounts of time each week using social media, which ranged from 10 to more than 40
hours per week. Regardless of these variances however, not one participant felt negatively about
sharing successes or failures publically online. One’s disposition underpins one’s teaching
practice, value system, and overall commitment to taking action (Carroll, 2012). Without an
appropriate disposition, knowledge and skill sets become inadequate when it comes to
professional teacher training. Although there is no evidence in this study to address dispositions
of teacher trainers or those novice language teachers with less than three years of experience,
having an appropriate disposition within the context of this study was key to their open, online
participation even though each came from different professional backgrounds. Thus,
understandings, skill sets, and appropriate dispositions can collectively be thought of more
broadly as a teacher’s knowledge base that surfaces to a degree via a learning community.
The PLN of each participant and how the PLN transpired over time in certain respects
can be described as a kind of learning community based on a virtual community of practice
(CoP). Participants of this study had between 767 – 2,705 Twitter followers and nearly this
amount of individuals whom participants followed themselves, which could only exist by having
some common domain. Having a shared domain or ideas around what is being shared publically
online provides a common ground from which to build one’s identity, thus giving a purpose for
exchanging ideas and generating value among those involved (May, 2009). But from an
institutional standpoint, since many of the language educators the participants interacted with
were both individuals with whom they had met and those whom they had never met, the degree
that a professional learning community existed from an institutional standpoint could be
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questioned. A professional learning community from an organizational point of view rests on
establishing four interrelated pillars: mission statement, vision statement, shared values, and
common goals (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, 2008). So, within the context of this study, the manner
in which participants interacted with others in some ways is characteristic of a CoP and overall
professional learning community but from an organizational perspective, to a lesser degree.
In terms of community building, contrasting gesellschaft (society) with gemeinschaft
(community), the findings show clearer evidence of the latter. Many comments were made by
participants that lend themselves to bonding over contrived personal relationships, developing
common goals over contractual arrangements forced onto the individual, and uniting together
despite the physical distance between the language educators over separating individuals in spite
of perhaps uniting them geographically. Gemeinschaft is essential to building community
because it fosters a shared space for individuals to interact and it bonds individuals together
based on a common goal, shared set of values, and a shared conception of being (Serviovanni,
1999). There was nothing contrived on the part of the participants in how they connected and
interacted with their PLN since each had the freedom to participant however they liked. The
emergent nature of connecting and building personal relationships (that can form into
professional learning communities) is a simple exercise but complex.
On several occasions, participants shared stories regarding how either a new
understanding about something, a new tool they learned something about, or a new relationship
emerged from a totally unexpected set of circumstances which ultimate resulted in change.
Donna’s story about connecting a school principal with a particular learning community project,
with a collaborative book project, etc. was not uncommon throughout this study among all
participants. Given Johnson’s (2007) definition of complexity science as “the study of the
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phenomena which emerge from a collection of interacting objects” (pp. 3-4), and taking slight
liberties in accepting a variety of substitutes for the noun objects (e.g., individuals, materials,
technologies, and ideas), one can see how the serendipitous nature of cultivating a PLN can be
quite multifarious. Specifically, feedback loops – or the interactions between objects,
individuals, materials, technologies, and ideas – entail an iterative and recursive relationship
between cause and effect (Kay, 2008). Carl, in describing his interactions with others publically
online, mentioned how common reflective practice and sharing ideas can inspire professional
learning. In this example, Carl exchanging ideas, interacting using different technologies, and
conversing with different individuals might begin iterative, circular, and back-and-forth which
might not generate a change in behavior or new knowledge. But over time, this iterative process
could lead to a recursive process when a change in behavior or change in ideas might result. As
memory formation builds over time (as a result of these feedback loops), these recursive
relationships have a synergistic effect; in other words, when faced with the nonlinearity of
professional learning, the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts which is a key tenet to
complex systems (Strogatz, 2003).
The final example of complexity of learning within the context of this study was how
Donna used a fractal with helped strengthen the sustainability of the learning experience. She
explained how she had teachers create short, three-minute video presentations which were
conducted live using Google+ hangouts and subsequently uploaded to a public wiki for anyone
to view. In social organizations, this example of a fractal exists when day-to-day leadership
patterns connect with similar patterns observed over the course of weeks, month, and years
(Dooley & Lichtenstein, 2008). In Donna’s case, the similar (and simple) pattern was having
each teacher prepare a three-minute presentation about a particular topic and having them each
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share their presentations openly online via a Google+ hangout. As this fractal is repeated on
different occasions with other teachers the process is also iterative and recursive.
The ideas that make up one’s knowledge about teaching, the formation of a professional
learning community, and the notion that learning is complex lead to a final theoretical concept
that best articulates the fluid nature of a PLN: actor-network theory (ANT). The idiosyncratic
quality of how each participant interacted and explained their PLN throughout the study was
pervasive. Donna and Erik used and explained social media more than the others while Amber
and Barry focused more on an appreciation of human interaction over technology use. From an
ideational perspective, Amber focused more on research and writing; Barry on business English;
Carl and Donna on pedagogy and blogs; and Erik on blogs, pedagogy, and writing. But without
exception, each participant provided clear evidence of how humans and non-humans (i.e.,
materials) come together as a network. Human and non-human actors are networks and networks
are an association of human and non-human actors (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). The authors
also state that these associations of actors not only form agencies but also ideas, identities, rules,
routines, policies, instruments, and reforms as well (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). An actor (i.e.,
an idea, material, or human being) is anything that has an effect on some other actor (Latour &
Harmon, 2010). Much in the same way that feedback loops in complex systems form memories
that affect change over time, translation is an ontological frame that recognizes that actors
transform from one set of associations to another (Latour, 2005). In terms of a PLN, findings
showed that ideas, materials, and human interaction changed shape over time which was
purposeful and meaningful for each respective participant of this study.
Summary
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The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore how PLNs of
educators who teach English as an additional language emerge through open, online informal
pedagogical dialogues and how these educators explain changes to their respective PLNs over
time. This chapter presented the PLNs of five educators (as individual case studies) from distinct
professional backgrounds who chose to participate in this 10-week study and who agreed to take
an online survey, to have their online and public posts analyzed, and to take part in a final
interview. Themes arose from the findings that supported the two research questions.
Teaching knowledge was the first theme discussed. Having a high degree of selfknowledge was a common theme throughout the study even though each had their own teaching
and learning context from which to draw: Amber, Carl, Donna and Erik from more of a learner
standpoint and Barry from a pedagogical standpoint. Professional learning communities was
another theme that was shared among all participants. Each participant followed other
individuals and had others who followed them stemming from shared interests and purpose as
opposed to strictly adhering to organizational objectives seen in schools, for instance. Another
them to emerge from the findings was framing the act of learning a being a complex
phenomenon. In social behavior, the fractal, or a simple behavioral pattern that scales to a broad,
more non-linear and dynamic set of behaviors uncovers an iterative and recursive process that is
best served when human and non-human objects interact more openly and online. And finally,
ANT brings human and non-human agents or actors to the forefront where all things
(individuals, ideas, identities, rules, routines, policies, instruments, and reforms aggregate
together to form networks that continue to morph around particular purposes. Indeed, the
findings show how a PLN is an effect of this aggregation (i.e., network) that comes from
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professional knowledge and professional online learning communities that recognizes learning as
a complex endeavor.
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Chapter 5: Implications, Recommendations, and Conclusions
When it comes to professional growth, periodic workshops disconnected from one’s
teaching practice fail to allow educators to accumulate a knowledge base needed to try out ideas
in the classroom (Darling-Hammond, et.al., 2009). And although isolated workshops and
conferences provide the means for meeting colleagues and discussing professional problems,
they still remain far removed from the situational factors affecting local classroom practices
(Atay, 2006). In Mexico in particular, the problem of teaching in isolation is amplified when
given the fact that only 60-65% of Mexican teachers have no formal induction and mentoring
programs, which by far surpasses a global average of 18-20% (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2011). The purpose of this study is to address this problem.
The rationale behind this qualitative multiple case study was to describe how ideas,
materials, and social interactions form a personal learning network (PLN) through online and
public informal pedagogical dialogues. It is precisely these informal pedagogical dialogues that
are conducted using information and communication technologies (ICTs) that contain what
educators need to know to better do their jobs within an information landscape (Warlick, 2012).
Recognizing and researching the dynamic set of associations between ideas, materials, and social
interactions are often overlooked in educational research (Fenwick, Edwards, & Sawchuk, 2011).
Researching and unveiling PLNs within a local context – as associations between ideas,
materials, and social interactions – remain the precursor for reconnoitering professional learning
in terms of what individual identities and behaviors are translated in becoming part of a network
(Fenwick, 2010). The objective of this study then is to explore emergent PLNs as a way to
address the disconnect between the day-to-day practice of teaching and learning and isolated
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learning events such as conferences and workshops that are viewed as the primary source for
professional learning in the field of education.
This qualitative multiple case study study investigated five English language educators
who agreed to have their open and online interactions with others analyzed over a period of 10
weeks. Participants signed an informed consent form at the beginning of the study and then
completed an online survey; participated as they normally would have by interacting with others
in online, public spaces; and finished by taking part in a final interview. Pseudonyms were
maintained throughout the study in order to protect the confidentiality of each participant, and
were chosen not only to provide an alternative to their real names, but also were employed in
place of public hashtags and mentions which could subsequently be identified in Twitter. A case
study design was used to collect and analyze data for this study because it is ideal for conducting
an intensive analysis and descriptions of an individual, event, or group and allows for in-depth
understandings of situations and meaning for those involved (Hancock & Algozzine, 2011).
However, as with any study, there were limitations.
Although theoretical saturation was achieved from the collection and analysis of data,
this study did have some limitations. Within the context of this study, theoretical saturation was
achieved after having identified and applied 458 relevant codes (out of a total of 520) that failed
to reveal new themes related to the research questions; however, this is likely due to the type of
participants who chose to take part in this study. In the field of teaching English to students of
other languages, language educators can be divided into two broad categories: native and nonnative speakers. Far from being absolute terms, generally speaking, a native speaker is one who
grew up learning the language within speech communities where the language was dominant and
thus gains certain linguistic intuitions around certain syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic uses of
the language (Davies, 1991). The participants of this study, were teachers of English for
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speakers of other languages who were also native speakers of English. A limitation of this study
was the absence of any teachers of English for speakers of other languages who were non-native
speakers of English. Had this been the case, certain themes that did not appear in this study
might have appeared particularly as they pertained to teacher knowledge and skill sets related to
the language teacher’s linguistic competencies: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary,
and pronunciation. This limitation (i.e., difference in linguistic competencies) would likely
influence the ideas, materials, and social relationships that form one’s PLN.
The rest of this chapter details the implications behind each of the two research questions,
which stem from a literature review rooted in professional knowledge, community, complexity,
and network theory. After the implications of the study have been presented, recommendations
follow that divulge practical applications of the study.
Implications
This doctoral research set out to answer two related research questions. The first
question was how PLNs of EFL educators emerge through open, online, informal pedagogical
dialogues, and the second question was how EFL educators explain changes to their personal
learning networks over time. Answering these two questions and describing the implications of
these answers intertwine; that is, they complement each other in terms of 1) how participants
leave evidence of associating ideas, materials, and human interactions in public and online
spaces over time and 2) how participants provide perspective related to how these ideas,
materials, and human interactions are aggregated together. Also, the answers to both questions
complement and influence each other as both are needed to better understand the complexities
behind such network formations. The implications for this study are that PLNs depend on the
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type of ideational, material, and social connections that reside both internal and external to the
individual, organization, or community; the value of both weak and strong ties foster networks to
scale.
Five PLNs were presented in this study from five unique individuals under local teaching
and learning contexts. The implications of describing a PLN is less about typology as it is about
topology. Latour (2005) juxtaposed two ways of defining the notion of the social as 1) a
homogeneous thing to be compared to other notions like economics, biology, psychology, and
science and 2) a trail of associations between heterogeneous elements – advocating the latter. To
understand how a PLN emerges within the context of this study is to understand how trace
associations exist at any given time within any given space. Trace associations or patterns then
will be articulated in terms of ideas, materials, and social relationships between human beings
that collectively serve a particular purpose for the individual. Each idea, material, and social
relationship is an actant that is a result of a heterogeneous aggregate of other actors while
simultaneously serving as a single node of a greater network, which can be called a PLN.
Theoretically, two individuals sharing exactly the same ideas, using the same materials to share
these ideas, maintaining the exact same human relationships, would still be two very distinct
PLNs. The overall implication then in discussing a PLN avoids theoretical classifications and
produces rich descriptions of relationships between human and non-human entities.
Professional knowledge and community existed within and outside a PLN throughout the
study. The five participants belonged to different nationalities, resided in different parts of the
world, and taught in different educational situations, yet each formed their respective PLN
around ideas, materials, and social relationships. Ideas, materials, and social relationships can
also each be defined as an actor (or actant). An actor is anything that has an effect on other
137
things – it can be any size, real or unreal, physical or non-physical, and an actor contains other
actors ad infinitum (Latour & Harman, 2010). So an individual, an idea an individual has, a
relationship an individual has with someone else, a technology an individual uses, all can be
considered separate actors resulting from a respective collection of other actors (or nodes). From
this vantage point, professional knowledge demonstrated by the participants of this study can be
described as an aggregate of actors which are potentially ideational, material, and social.
Similarly, a professional learning community resulted in a network of heterogeneous actors
which were both physical and non-physical: different people, different technologies and how
they were utilized, and different ideas being expressed throughout each PLN. For this reason,
describing one’s PLN could also be highly representative of what most understand as
professional knowledge and could also be a subset of a broader notion of what is meant by a
professional learning community. Stated another way, instead of placing professional
knowledge solely within an ideational sphere, professional knowledge is best viewed in terms of
an ideational, material, and social network. Similarly, a professional learning community is also
a network of ideas, materials, and social relationships but on a much broader scale than the
professional knowledge network.
Networks scale. Professional knowledge, the personal learning network (PLN), and the
professional learning community are each ideational, material, and social networks. The
difference between these three networks are the types of nodes and the typology of those nodes
specifically. In a professional knowledge network, an idea or a set of ideas are central to the
network; in a professional learning community, a group of individuals are central to the network;
and in a PLN, the individual is central to the network. The same could be said for any social
media tool. Taking Twitter as an example, the results of this study show that to understand
138
Twitter as a communication tool is to understand the network of ideas, additional materials or
technologies, and social relationships that collectively provide the networking concept behind
this mental representation (i.e., Twitter). Twitter (like any other tool, idea, or social relationship)
then is not the same for any two individuals - it depends on how its used. To say it depends on
how it is used is to say it depends on the network of ideas, materials, and social relationships.
Networks are proportionate to themselves (i.e., they scale) as they come together for a particular
purpose.
Amber, Donna, and Erik shared similar experiences in that they were either finishing a
degree program or a professional development course. For each, their respective PLNs were
influences by these activities. In some cases, the PLN was used to assist their endeavors while
other times the PLN that took place openly online was less active. Although the scope of this
study was limited to interactions that took place openly in public spaces, the theoretical concepts
that apply to an actor network apply equally to face-to-face interactions. One of the limitations of
this study is separating open and public interactions with those that occur face-to-face – a
concept that is antithetical to the scalability factor of networks mentioned above. Amber, Donna,
and Erik undoubtedly had face-to-face interactions with others related to their professional
learning programs (as well as other pursuits) that easily could have influenced how they chose to
interact openly online.
Barry shared an experience where an idea for a lesson plan emerged from his PLN which
ultimately translated into a lesson for his business English class that then led to a potential
learning experience for his colleagues. In this case, a material semiotic resulted from having a
material sustainability in how subsequent interactions took place. A material semiotic comprises
of ideational, material, and social relationships that form and exercise force in how they persist,
decline, and mutate over time (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010). Since Twitter was consistent
139
throughout the exchange, a strategic durability was maintained that perpetuated ongoing
dialogues and the sharing of ideas online. Strategic durability refers to the sustainability of
processes or activity patterns within the actor-network over time (Law, 2009). Thus, the
sustainability of a PLN relies on the degree of material durability, ideational connections and
relevance, and the willingness of an individual to activity participate. When any one of these
three cease to exist, then the PLN is likely to decline or morph into something different.
The findings showed that all participants viewed their personal contacts they maintained
openly online as being a part of a whole network of personal learning. However, some contacts
were more professional in nature while others were more personal; some contacts participants
had met face to face first while others participants had never met face to face. Some contacts
served a particular purpose around certain goals or projects that participants were interested in
while other interactions with contacts were more emergent. Thus, the ties that participants
formed with their personal contacts were both strong and weak. Strong ties are those formed
among friends or colleagues who sustain close contact with each other whereas weak ties are
those one has little contact with and can also include interacting with a friend of a friend, for
instance (Granovetter, 1973).
Barry’s weak tie with Fran emerged through a careful selection of technologies. Barry
had deliberately selected Falcon Pro, which was a social media tool that he preferred to use when
interacting with others publically online. His initial interaction with Fran, a weak tie, led to a
classroom experience with his students which led to subsequent interactions with his colleagues
from a pedagogical standpoint. Indeed, this small-world effect demonstrated how Barry was
directly and indirectly effecting his PLN and how his PLN was directly and indirectly
influencing him. This iterative and reciprocal process of influence provides the basis for
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professional learning that exist within the individual and throughout the PLN.
Throughout the study examples of professional learning through a connectivist lens was
evident. Interactions involved a diversity of opinion, connections were made with individuals
and with non-human devices, potential to interact and learn from others existed outside the
individual, interactions evolved around current ideas, and purposeful decisions were made
around relevant circumstances. Learning within these parameters align with principals that
support a connectivist learning theory that goes beyond what a cognitivist and social learning
theory set out to achieve (Siemens, 2005). The PLN of the language educator is where learning
affordances reside so that knowing where to find information or skills sets needed to serve some
future aspiration become more important than actually having acquired this knowledge or set of
skills. In other words, when it comes to professional learning (i.e., development), the act of
becoming (i.e., ontology) supersedes what an individual knows or viewing professional
knowledge as a static phenomenon (i.e., epistemology).
The implications of this study are that professional development is a collective network
of ideas, materials, and social interactions. The unit of analysis of this study is the PLN or
individual, but this just provides a starting point for understanding one particular node of an
entire network (i.e., the individual). A PLN is a network of ideas, materials, and social
relationships where the individual person remains the focus. The same could also be said for
Twitter as a social media tool (i.e., a material). Focusing on Twitter would entail understanding
the relationships or trace associations between ideational, material, and social relationships that
aggregated to form a network. The same could be said for any idea. The implication then is to
recognize that even though the PLN was the unit of analysis for the purposes of this study, that
141
every entity can be viewed as a material semiotic (i.e., network) and that networks 1) continue to
grow, decline, and stay the same and 2) have the potential to scale. As a result, professional
development might be better viewed as professional learning since the former implies a
dichotomy: developed or not developed. In reality, professional learning implies a more ongoing
process that personal growth that depends on ideas being shared, the materials used to share such
ideas, and the human relationships that are formed to use the materials to share the ideas. The
alternative is to continue to look at professional development as learning about an idea in
isolation, or learning about a tool in isolation, or using the term networking to only refer to
interacting with others while disregarding the ideas and materials involved.
Recommendations
Practical applications. The first recommendation is for educational practitioners (i.e.,
educators) to assess their own PLN and how it might help assist in ongoing professional learning.
It begins with being willing to share successes and and failures online and perhaps publically
with strangers online. It also might mean getting more engaged with others through public
online spaces, learning more about social media tools, and learning how to connect what others
are doing with what the practitioner is doing locally. The practitioner should retire the term
professional development for a term more appropriate for the professional: professional learning.
Assume a leadership mentality based on authority and not on power. Leadership by authority
assumes one has the will or desire to make learning and one’s own practice more transparent so
that others might benefit. Authority is less about position, rank, or title and more about having
the professional knowledge, skill sets, and disposition to help others. Finally, leadership
authority recognizes that everyone has the potential to help someone else in some area – the key
is finding the professional context to make it happen. This requires looking at PLNs,
142
professional knowledge, and professional learning in terms of a network of scale.
The second recommendation is for instructional leaders, administrators, and supervisors
to assess the PLNs of teachers within the school and how they might yield affordances for more
effective, efficient, and engaging professional learning experiences for teachers. That is, create
an environment where teachers have the potential to continue cultivating their PLN throughout
their professional career. The scalability of the individual PLN then becomes trace networks that
form an overall organizational learning network. The instructional leader can see how individual
ideas, materials, and social relationships work at both the individual level and at the institutional
level, and how both relate to each other. Just as individuals are recommended to make their own
learning more transparent, so too are instructional leaders, administrators, and supervisors at the
institutional level.
The third recommendation is for conference and workshop organizers to assess how
individual sessions might integrate within a teacher’s PLN before, during, and after the overall
event. Instead of looking at a conference as an isolated event, it becomes more of an extension of
professional learning that might mean sharing discussions before a session and extending the
discussions via social media after the event. If broadband is available during the conference for
example, topics can be discussed via Twitter, Google+, or facebook beforehand which could
have an impact on what will subsequently be discussed during the session. And teachers could
continue sharing ideas and experiences about the topic after the session, which might also lead to
building stronger social relationships that might take the professional learner to new educative
experiences.
143
The three recommendations are an integrated approach to ongoing, transparent
professional learning. The teacher practitioner has a responsibility to cultivate a PLN around
individual goals and objectives. The school and its instructional leaders have a responsibility to
leverage the PLNs with respective individual goals and objectives around institutional mission
and vision statements as well as linking them to external organizational learning networks (e.g.,
other schools and conferences). The cultivation of a PLN focuses on the individual, who
maintains much control in how one learns, but also is very much dependent on external forces at
the institutional level and forces external to the institution. All actants play a role, but the success
of any singular PLN comes from a holistic awareness of how associations are forms throughout
the nodal connective.
Future research. For further research, a social network analysis (SNA) could be done to
seek greater complexities and patterns between ideational, material, and human nodes within a
given network, and would also numerically identify prestige and other power relationships that
might exist. Complementing the SNA with qualitative data via a mixed method study would
provide even greater insight into how and possibly why networks were being added to, depleted,
or remained the same. Also, since using pseudonyms was a limitation in this study, further
research should reveal the real names of the participants, the actual hashtags, and anything else
that was being shared publically so that the act of participating in the study would have greater
potential benefit for the participant themselves. As long as participants are chosen in an unbiased
fashion, more retrospective studies of this type will further the literature base on professional
learning through a connectivist lens.
Conclusions
144
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how PLNs immerged
and how EFL educators explained any changes to their PLN over time so that alternatives to
professional development might be made. Professional development that consists solely of
conferences and workshops neglect that potential for how teachers are able to learn publically
online. It also does not go far enough in providing the support necessary when providing
professional development opportunities for the novice teacher (e.g., via induction and mentoring
programs). This study described how five EFL educators interacted publically online and how
their respective ideas, materials (i.e., technologies), and social relationships immerged given the
individual case and the overall purpose for using the PLN to promote professional learning.
Although processes were put in places to protect the identity of the five participants, this
also was a limitation of the study. The nature of this research resided in making professional
learning experiences transparent and known throughout the network. Reporting the findings
while sharing the real names of the participants would have provided a benefit to them by
potentially allowing them to extend their PLN to others. Another limitation was that this study
provides little insight into the PLN of a non-native speaking teacher would undoubtedly would
look different in terms of the ideas being shared and perhaps the types of human relationships
being formed.
The implications of exploring the PLNs of these five EFL educators are that the case
study demographics have little to do with specific patterns that result from analyzing ideational,
material, and social networks. However, clearly ideational, material, and social actants within a
PLN influence one another that is complex. The associations between ideational, material, and
social nodes are iterative and reciprocal when it comes to causing the potential to change the
145
other. The nodal influence requires understanding that nodes (i.e., actants) are both an effect
based on a collection of network nodes and a potential for cause as it might generate a change in
other nodes. Establishing a PLN based on complexity recognizes that ideas, materials, and social
relationships are each a network and also form a network.
Professional knowledge, PLN, and a professional learning community make up a material
semiotic that is continually growing, pruning, or staying the same. The unit of analysis for this
study was the PLN, but to understand the PLN is to understand the ideas, the materials, and the
social relationships that make up the PLN. In other words, to understand any one of these is to
understand the relationships between all three. From a professional development standpoint, but
means replacing the term with a more suiting word that better represents the complexity of what
it means to learn: professional learning. To cultivate a PLN or to assist others to cultivate their
own PLN, understanding ideas, materials, and social relationships as a network phenomenon is
essential to designing learning environments that provide the most potential for engagement.
Networks scale, which means that instructional leaders, administrators, and supervisors
should learn the relationships between a PLN and professional knowledge, professional learning
community, and external organizational networks such as other schools, conferences, and
external workshops. A PLN is a result of not only the individual taking responsibility of one’s
own professional learning, but also administrators, and others who have a vested interest in
contributing to the PLN. The simple premise is that have helping others, we help ourselves. This
mantra implies a shift in perspective in that professional learning becomes more transparent at
the individual and organizational level. Thus, the three recommendations suggest that 1) the
individual teacher should find ways of making one’s learning more transparent by sharing ideas
and experiences publically online, 2) instructional leaders, administrators, and supervisors should
146
align personal goals and objectives that provide the bases of a PLN with the mission and vision
statements of the institution, and 3) that external organizational networks such as schools and
conferences find ways to leverage PLNs of teachers within their own goals and objectives they
have established for themselves. The PLN begins with the individual but has the potential to
influence and be influenced by others according to how external forces of an overall network are
formed at any given time and how these forces are organized over time.
147
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162
Appendix A: Informed Consent Form
Cultivating a Personal Learning Network that Leads to Professional Change
Purpose: You are invited to participate in a research study that is being conducted for a
dissertation at Northcentral University in Prescott, Arizona. The purpose of this study is to
examine the link (if any) between an ongoing development of a personal learning network (PLN)
and the pursuit of one’s own professional development. There is no deception in this study as I
am interested in obtaining information with regard to current teaching practices in terms of
behaviors, relationships, activities, and actions.
Participation Requirements: EFL/ESL educators will be asked to participate in the following
way:
•
•
•
•
Complete a survey that takes approximately 15 minutes.
Participate in a face-to-face orientation that explains in greater detail the way English
language educators may choose to interact with each other over the next 10 weeks.
Take part in a 10-week interactive period where English language educators will be
asked to interact with each other through online spaces of their choice. Participants
will be able to discuss the topics of their choice (as they relate to the teaching and
learning of an additional language), that relate to current teaching practices that
participants are actively participating in during the 10-week data collection period.
Your participation will end with a 30-minute one-on-one interview that will allow
each participant to express any overall feelings about the course and any challenges
they faced while interacting with other educators over the course of the 10-week
period.
Research Personnel: The following person is involved in this research project and may be
contacted at any time: Benjamin Stewart, 449.910.8489; email: bnleez@gmail.com.
Benefit & Risk: The risks involved in participating in this study are minimal. There is no direct
benefit to participants for participating in this study, but participants may benefit from having
networked with others through building professional relationships that may extend beyond this
study. Data obtained from the survey and interview will remain confidential to the extent that
such data is not shared publically during the 10-week interaction period by the participants
themselves.
Anonymity/Confidentiality: Confidentiality will be maintained by 1) assigning a coding system
to participants and universities in order to protect the identity of the participants, 2) blocking out
any names, emails, or any other identifies in the event that any public websites are shared during
the reporting process, and 3) that all data collected for this study will be locked in storage
(accessible only by me) for a period of five years.
Right to Withdraw: Your participation is voluntary. Refusal to participate will involve no
penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. Also, you may withdraw from the
study at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.
163
Questions: If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, any complaints
about your participation in the research study, or any problems that occurred in the study, please
contact Benjamin L. Stewart, the researcher conducting this study, at bnleez@gmail.com or by
phone at 449-155-3246. Or if you prefer to talk to someone outside the study team, you can
contact Northcentral University’s Institutional Review Board at HYPERLINK
(mailto:irb@ncu.edu) irb@ncu.edu or 1-888-327-2877, extension 8014. We would be happy to
answer any question that may arise about the study. Please direct your questions or comments to
Benjamin L. Stewart (see above) or Alexandru Spatariu at aspatariu@ncu.edu or by phone at
702-319-1559.
Signatures:
I have read the above description for the Cultivating a Personal Learning Network that Leads to
Professional Change study and understand what the study is about and what is being asked of
me. My signature indicates that I agree to participate in the study.
Participant’s Name: ________________________ Researcher’s Name: ________________
Participant’s Signature:____________________ Researcher’s Signature: _____________
Date: _____________
176
Appendix C: Semi-structured Interview Guide
Curriculum: Reflect on how your classroom experience linked to the written (explicit)
curriculum and/or standards. How did you adapt your lesson (content, language, etc.) to account
for the students’ readiness levels, backgrounds, and learning experiences in other disciplines
(classes)? Were you compelled to share these successes or challenges with others? If so, how?
Assessment: How did you assess your students: informal discussions, homework, academic
prompts, performance tasks, tests, quizzes, etc.? Were your assessments predetermined? Did you
work with colleagues to determine keystone assessments? How will you share your assessment
successes and failures with others?
Instruction: How did the implementation of your class go as planned and what were some
unexpected events that transpired? Or what contingency plans are in place for a future class
should something not go as planned? Reflect on the differences between the planned and
implemented learning progression provides the greatest insight on how one reflects in action. Do
you or have you ever shared these experiences with colleagues? If so, explain.
Strategies: What affective, cognitive, and metacognitive strategies are appropriate for this
lesson? How much time will you allow for covering such strategies? Or did you have enough
time to cover these strategies from a prior class? How have you shared teaching or learning
strategies with colleagues in the past?
Reflection:
•
•
•
•
Consider how your lesson plans address an educational challenge with regard to
preparation, scaffolding, grouping configurations, etc.), and how this challenge links to
any changes to your outlook on teaching or learning.
Consider how the implementation of your lesson plans and the plan itself differ? Does
everything go as planned? How have past experiences affected your outlook on teaching
and learning in general?
How do the materials you use in class help or hinder your performance as both a teacher
and a learner?
How do open and online interactions with other educators help or hinder your
performance as both a teacher and learner? What challenges do you face?
Most Significant Change
Related questions that address the essential question, Looking back over the last one-to-two
weeks, what do you think was the most significant change in your personal learning network that
contributed to your own professional learning?
177
Appendix D: Multicase Study Preestablished Themes based on Research Questions
Theme 1: Conceptualizations
Subtheme 1.1: Curriculum
Subtheme 1.2: Assessment
Subtheme 1.3: Instruction
Theme 2: Materials (i.e., objects)
Subtheme 2.1: Technological
Subtheme 2.2.1: Blogs
Subtheme 2.2.2: Moodle
Subtheme 2.2.3: Ning and other similar online communities
Subtheme 2.2.4: E-mail
Subtheme 2.2.5: Cellular phone
Subtheme 2.2.6: Other (e.g., projectors, non-cellular telephone, fax, etc.)
Subtheme 2.2: Nontechnological
Theme 3: Individual Interactions
Subtheme: Colleagues
Subtheme: Friends
Subtheme: Online acquaintances who have never met face to face
Subtheme: Online acquaintances who have met face to face
Subtheme: synchronous (e.g., live videoconferencing, Google+ Hangouts, Skyping, etc.)
Subtheme: asynchronous (e.g., forums, etc.)
178
Appendix E: Matrix for Generating Theme-based Assertions
from Case Findings Rated Important
Case 1
Finding I
Finding II
Finding III
Finding IV
Finding V
Finding VI
Case 2
Finding I
Finding II
Finding III
Finding IV
Finding V
Finding VI
Case 3
Finding I
Finding II
Finding III
Finding IV
Finding V
Finding VI
Etc.
Themes
1
2 3
4
5
6
7
8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Appendix F: Matrix for Generating Theme-based Assertions
from Merged Findings Rated Important
Merged finding I
Merged finding II
Merged finding III
Merged finding IV
Merged finding V
Merged finding VI
Merged finding VII
Etc.
From which cases?
1
2
Themes
3 4
5
6
7
8
179
180
Appendix G: A Matrix for Generating Theme-Based
Assertions from Important Factor Clusters
From
Ratings of
Importance which
cases
Themes
1
2
3
Cluster 1
Cluster 2
Cluster 3
Cluster 4
Cluster 5
Etc.
4
5
6
7
181
Appendix H: Predetermined Codes
•
Case study
o Demographics (Case Study information)
•
Quintain (i.e., Personal Learning Network)
• Change Stories
o Ideations (conceptualizations)
UnderstandingsCS
• ExplainCS
• InterpretCS
• ApplyCS
• PerspectiveCS
• EmpathyCS
• Self-knowledgeCS
Understanding of how languages are learned (i.e., applied
linguistics)ALCS
• ExplainALCS
• InterpretALCS
• ApplyALCS
• PerspectiveALCS
• EmpathyALCS
• Self-knowledgeALCS
SkillsCS
• English as a foreign languageCS
• PedagogicalCS
DispositionCS
o MaterialsCS
Web TechnologiesCS
• BlogCS
• NingCS
• TILL MoodleCS
• Other MoodleCS
• Google+ Community ChatCS
• WikiCS
OtherCS
o InteractionsCS
Intra-institutional interactionsCS
Inter-institution interactionsCS
Types of communication
182
•
•
•
Asynchronous (e.g., Forums)
Semi-synchronous (e.g., Twitter, Google+ Community chats, etc.)
Synchronous (e.g., live video conferencing)
•
Ideations
o Understandings
Explain
Interpret
Apply
Perspective
Empathy
Self-knowledge
o Understanding of how languages are learned (i.e., applied linguistics)
Explain
Interpret
Apply
Perspective
Empathy
Self-knowledge
o Skills
English as a foreign language
Pedagogical
o Disposition
•
Materials
o Web Technologies
Blog
Ning
TILL Moodle
Other Moodle
Google+ Community Chat
Wiki
o Other
•
Interactions
o Intra-institutional interactionsCS
o Inter-institution interactionsCS
o Types of communication
Asynchronous (e.g., Forums)
Semi-synchronous (e.g., Twitter, Google+ Community chats, etc.)
Synchronous (e.g., live video conferencing)
Note: Codes may also emerge during the data analysis process.