Learning within MOOCs for mathematics teacher education

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Learning within MOOCs for mathematics teacher education Eugenia Taranto1,2 · Ornella Robutti1 · Ferdinando Arzarello1 Accepted: 21 June 2020 © FIZ Karlsruhe 2020

Abstract This paper addresses two examples of MOOCs aimed at developing mathematics teachers’ professional learning. The programme, named Math MOOC UniTO, was developed under the guidance of the three authors, in collaboration with some researcher-teachers from the University of Turin. This paper analyses the development of teachers’ learning while attending the virtual environment of a MOOC, where all resources are available online and where peer interactions take place in asynchronous mode thanks to specific communication message boards. To analyse the data, two theoretical lenses were considered, namely, Meta-Didactical Transposition and Connectivism. The first lens allowed us to describe teachers’ improvements at macro-level (praxeologies) and micro-level (agents); the second lens made possible the utmost consideration of the network of knowledge (learning is interpreted in the light of how nodes and connections within the network are determined dynamically). Using these theoretical lenses, we observed two different teachers’ learning processes, namely, one that evolved dramatically because of the interventions (we call it an explosion), the other less proactively (we call it linear). We discuss them, presenting two different emblematic examples of data. Keywords  MOOCs · Teacher professional learning · Online teachers’ interactions · Meta-didactical and didactical praxeologies · Agents · Network of knowledge

1 Introduction and literature review MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are courses offered openly to learners through the web, and appear as dynamic and diversified learning spaces with varying factors, such as flexible time frames, a massive number of students from different demographics areas, motivation to continue learning, and opportunities for designers to implement novel pedagogies including collaborative learning activities (Manathunga et al. 2017). MOOCs are generally attended by participants who are adults (university students, workers, teachers,…). Knowles (1980) tried to define adult education through the * Ornella Robutti [email protected] Eugenia Taranto [email protected] Ferdinando Arzarello [email protected] 1



Department of Mathematics ‘G. Peano’, University of Turin, Turin, Italy



Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

2

concept of andragogy, based on four principles: learners (1) moving toward independence and self-direction and playing an active role in shaping their learning processes and defining their outcomes; (2) using strategies and approaches to learning that they have found valuable and effective, according to their experience; (3) being ready to learn in effective ways specific things at certain stages in their development; (4) having motivation to learn because they see the potential application of their learning. St Clair et a

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