SECONDARY TEACHING AT A DISTANCE: A NEW ZEALAND CASE STUDY

摘要

This paper reports findings of a case study investigating how distance online teaching was supported in New Zealand at the secondary level. 48 teachers from NetNZ, a cluster of schools offering online courses to distance students, participated in this study in 2016. As part of a larger project investigating the pedagogical and cultural practices of New Zealand online teachers, this study investigated specifically (a) why New Zealand teachers engaged in distance teaching and how they felt about teaching online; and (b) what professional development and learning was needed to support and sustain online teaching. The respondents completed an online questionnaire containing 44 closed and open-ended questions. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. The quantitative analyses were primarily descriptive, although analyses on group differences based on gender and teaching experience were also conducted. Thematic analyses were conducted on the qualitative data. Findings of this exploratory study showed that while almost all the NetNZ teachers enjoyed online teaching, only a small proportion of them indicating a strong preference for online teaching, and a few of them felt that they were particularly successful in online teaching as compared to on-site classroom teaching. There was a clear gender difference in online and technology using experience, with female teachers being less experienced than male teachers. However, the lack of technology using experience did not seem to be a barrier for the female teachers to teach online. In terms of why teachers engaged in online teaching, while institutional pressure in terms of the need to provide students with more course options and increasing class sizes were important factors, proportionally more teachers in this study provided personal reasons such as the willingness of stepping out from one's comfort zone to develop different teaching skills as a major reason for engaging in online teaching. These reasons may have implications for future recruitment of online teachers. For the NetNZ teachers, they were keen to learn how to develop their classes as a learning community, develop learning materials, and how to develop their students as self-regulated and independent learners. Support on how to assess online students should be provided for beginning online teachers. For future professional development, most NetNZ teachers preferred to attend workshops run by experts, although they were also keen to participate in an ongoing community of practice. While less experienced teachers would like to work with an expert teacher on a one-to-one basis, more experienced teacher would like to take part in regular face-to-face peer-supported group discussions as a form of professional development.