The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
JiFUNzeni: A blended learning approach for sustainable teachers professional development
Onguko, Brown Bully

PublishedFebruary 2014
JournalThe Electronic Journal of e-Learning
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages 77-88

ABSTRACT
JiFUNzeni blended learning approach is a sustainable approach to provision of professional development (PD) for those in challenging educational contexts. JiFUNzeni approach emphasizes training regional experts to create blended learning content, working with appropriate technology while building content repositories. JiFUNzeni approach was field‑tested though a design‑based research intervention conducted in rural western Kenya. The field test included design, development and implementation o f a blended learning course for teachers professional development utilizing appropriate technologies including tablets powered by solar energy, open educational resources and open source software. One year after the intervention, follow‑up interviews were conducted with eight of the ten teachers and two professional development tutors (PDTs) who participated in the research. The findings from the follow‑up interviews shared in this paper revealed that: teachers still used cooperative learning and activity‑based learning strategies in their teaching. The PDTs on the other hand designed, developed and implemented one other jiFUNzeni blended learning course for twelve teachers in one school in Korogocho slum in Nairobi city. Implementation by PDTs of jiFU Nzeni approach confirmed that they had learned through a sustainable way of delivering professional development in challenging educational contexts. The PDTs utilized the instructional design approaches learned through their participation in the research in designing blended learning content, while they also innovated new ways of developing self‑study content as an important creative addition to what they had previously learned. Two teenage children participated in digital content development by advising the PDTs on some appropriate ways of applying technology thus, attesting to the fact that digital natives are important reciprocal supporters to digital immigrants and vice versa.

Keywords appropriate technology · blended learning · challenging educational context · jiFUNzeni approach · offline web content · Open Educational Resources

ISSN1479-4403
RefereedYes
RightsCopyright © 2003-2016 Electronic Journal of e-Learning
URLhttp://www.ejel.org/volume12/issue1/p77
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar



AVAILABLE FILES
ejel-volume12-issue1-article269.pdf · 876.5KB38 downloads



Viewed by 107 distinct readers




CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.

Click a star to be the first to rate this document


POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS

Teacher professional learning communities: A collaborative OER adoption approach in Karnataka, India
Kasinathan, Gurumurthy; Ranganathan, Sriranjani; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Arinto, Patricia B.
This chapter analyses collaborative Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption amongst Indian school teachers by examining the enabling and constraining techno-social, techno-pedagogical and sociocultural factors in an ...
Match: professional; open educational resources

Open education for a better world: A mentoring programme fostering design and reuse of Open Educational Resources for sustainable development goals
Urbančič, Tanja; Polajnar, Anja; Jermol, Mitja
An international online mentoring programme Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) has been developed to unlock the potential of open education in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The programme ...
Match: development; open educational resources

School-based professional development in a developing context: Lessons learnt from a case study in Zambia
Haßler, Björn; Hennessy, Sara; Cross, Andrew; Chileshe, Eness; Machiko, Brian
This paper reports on the development and outcomes of the second phase of OER4Schools, a school-based professional development programme supporting interactive forms of subject teaching in conjunction with Open ...
Match: professional; development; open educational resources

Women’s empowerment through openness: OER, OEP and the Sustainable Development Goals
Perryman, L -A.; de los Arcos, Beatriz
This paper explores the potential of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP) in helping achieve women’s empowerment in the developing world. Our evidence comprises the Open Education ...
Match: development; open educational resources

Equipping Language Educators at Scale: Open Educational Resources and Institutional Collaboration for Professional Development and Practice
Power, Tom; Deane, Michele; Hedges, Claire
In much of South Asia (e.g. India, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka) there had been a post-colonial emphasis on the use of mother tongue. For instance, in Bangladesh, a nation almost solely founded on the basis of the language ...
Match: professional; development

A collaborative approach to OER policy and guidelines development in the Commonwealth: The case of Botswana, Cameroon, and Sri Lanka
Abeywardena, Ishan; Karunanayaka, Shironica; Nkwenti, Michael; Tladi, Lekopanye
Access to relevant learning resources is an important aspect in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all as outlined in the sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4). ...
Match: development; open educational resources

Guidelines on the development of open educational resources policies
Miao, Fengchun; Mishra, Sanjaya; Orr, Dominic; Janssen, Ben; et al.
The publication provides guidelines and a systematic approach to develop and implement open educational resources policies in different contexts to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals 4. Using a ...
Match: development; open educational resources

Elementary STEM Teachers' Open Educational Resources and TPACK in a Professional Learning Network: A Case Study
Park, Yujin; Moon, Jewoong; Na, Hunhui
There has been growing attention on investigating elementary STEM teachers' Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). However, what types of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Technological, Pedagogical, and Content ...
Match: professional; open educational resources

The drivers of employer support for professional skill development in MOOCs
Hamori, Monika; Kloos, Carlos Delgado; Jermann, Patrick; Pérez-Sanagustín, Mar; et al.
This paper looks at the job-, employee- and organization-specific drivers of support from employers for MOOCs. A survey of 1481 employed learners is used to test the hypotheses. Results show that employers are more ...
Match: professional; development

MOOCs for teacher professional development: Reflections and suggested actions
Misra, Pradeep
Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has become a major policy priority within education systems worldwide. But keeping teachers professionally up-to-date and providing them professional development opportunities on ...
Match: professional; development