Teacher Education in the Generative Virtual Classroom: A Web-Delivered Context for Developing Learning Theories.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper describes a research-based, Web-delivered context, the Generative Virtual Classroom (GVC), in which student teachers can develop their ability to recognize, describe, analyze, and theorize learning, and it reports findings of three investigations into its use. The learning environment aims to exploit the possibilities of advanced technologies for learning to bring about improvements on a larger scale than has so far been brought about by direct intervention through teacher education. The first two studies each involved one teacher as she engaged with the GVC, and the third study focused on five undergraduate education majors. Sustained periods of learning by teacher education students and shorter intensive engagement with the GVC during practice teaching are reported. Findings of these three studies suggest that the GVC can provoke understanding and learning, and affirm the significance of taking biological approaches to educational research. Implications for research based e-learning system development and for teacher education and teacher education research are drawn. (Contains 47 references.) (SLD)