Artigo Publicado em Periódico
ComPratica: AVirtual Community of Practice for Promoting Biology Teachers’ Professional Development in Brazil
Fecha
2013Registro en:
0157-244X
v. 43, n. 4
Autor
El-Hani, Charbel Niño
Greca, Ileana María Rosa
El-Hani, Charbel Niño
Greca, Ileana María Rosa
Institución
Resumen
Teachers’ professional development is a key factor in improving science education,
but it shows limited impact when only a small number of teachers is reached, or when it
focuses on only one aspect of teachers’ development, such as learning science content, and is
disconnected from teachers’ practice. In order to increase the impact of our work on
teachers’ professional development, we implemented in 2007 ComPratica, an online network
intended to establish a virtual community of practice involving biology teachers and
biological education researchers. We present here the results of the first 2 years of this
project, obtained through an analysis of the number and distribution of actions performed by
the participants in the community, the kinds of activities in which they are engaged, and the
themes addressed in their messages. From these data, we conclude that ComPratica is
effectively functioning as a community of practice and is leading to changes related to both
teachers’ and researchers’ professional development, which seem capable of reducing the
research–practice gap in science education.