Teacher social capital and student achievement: impact of a cyber-enabled teacher professional development program
Abstract
This is an evaluative research study of a NSF-funded, DRK-12 cyber-enabled teacher professional development program in elementary engineering education. The finding shows the significant impact of the program on students' science and engineering knowledge in the second year of the program's implementation. However, student learning gain varies significantly across teachers, and teacher social capital is positively associated with student learning achievement. The study uses social network analysis to analyze teacher social capital and visually represent it by teacher attributes such as schools, grades, cohorts, subgroups, and specific level of interaction. In addition, each teacher's social capital is calculated. The information from this formative evaluative research study provides the empirical evidence needed to recognize problematic areas and make recommendations for the program's improvement. Lessons learned from this program will also help other researchers who may want to follow or build upon what has already been done for future cyber-enabled teacher professional development in engineering education.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Newby, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Instructional Design|Teacher education
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