Reflection on the TPACK assignment PART 2

2. Reflection on the process à developing a professional development program

2.1 How did we came up with the idea?

During the lecture of the international students we came up with the idea of designing a lesson plan form for students in teacher training education.  We focus on this target group because these are the future teachers. Next to this we want to involve teachers of teacher training education and teachers of primary education by designing the lesson plan form in a teacher design teams. By this way of designing we can reach a larger target group to inform about TPACK. We chose for a lesson plan form because all students in teacher training use these forms for preparing their lesson during their internship. By integrating TPACK into their lesson plan form they will implement it in their way of teaching.

2.2 What kind of design model did we use for designing the professional development program?

For the design of the professional development program we used the model of J. Pieters (2008). This model consist out of the different phases: analyse, designing, developing and implementation. During these phases you keep the way of implementing in mind. You also evaluate after each phase and at the end. Because we designed a design process for a lesson plan form  it went slightly different. We started with the analyse phase to state the problem definition. After this we started to design and develop the professional development program. By this designing process we kept the different phases of the model in mind. For example during the training there will be 2 different moments for evaluation.

2.3 How did we collaborate?

Although we had huge time pressure (and working with three part-time students doesn’t benefit this), we managed to deliver the assignment on time. Another barrier was the distance because we live far away from each other we needed to be flexible and worked online by using e-mail. During the first lecture time we made a planning and wrote down the actions that needed to be done. We started with the first activities and during the second meeting we divided the activities that still needed to be done. By dividing the tasks we kept everybody’s talents in mind. So is Linda an expert in finding literature and background information. Jeffrey is the didactical talent and Mariëtte was responsible for the visual aspects of the assignments and presentations. She also took care for the lay-out. It was my task to design the evaluation and example lesson plan form (together with Linda). I also looked after the designing process  itself. To make sure we reached the deadline. Overall I could say that I’m glad about our collaboration. My group members where flexible and professional in their way of working.  

2.4 what did I learn from the designing process?

What I’ve learned from the design process is that it is hard to design a professional development program in which participant design an instrument. Because you have a design process for a design process. Sometimes it became a bit vague. For example with writing the implementation. It wasn’t clear if we needed to work out the implementation of our training or about the training results, in our case the lesson plan form. If I will design a design process again I will make sure the my assignment will be more clear.