You are here:

Virtual school pedagogy: Beliefs, goals, and practices of K–12 virtual school teachers
DISSERTATION

, University of Florida, United States

University of Florida . Awarded

Abstract

K-12 virtual schools provide online opportunities that give students access to anytime, anywhere learning. The educational access offered to students by virtual schools also serves the nation‘s educational agenda by providing an additional option for enacting school choice legislation. Virtual school courses also introduce students to valuable skills, such as communicating and collaborating online and accessing information on the Internet, which help to prepare students for joining a global technological workforce.

Just as teachers in face-to-face classroom settings, K-12 virtual school teachers serve as a cornerstone for online courses, directly impacting students‘ success through their orchestration of content, pedagogy, and technology. Understanding the instructional practices of virtual school teachers is vital to the field because of the increasing interest in virtual schooling and the important role teachers play in the courses offered. Although there is research-based evidence for the instructional practices used by teachers in face-to-face K-12 classrooms currently, there is little known about the practices of virtual school teachers.

The purpose of this study is to form an understanding of the pedagogic practices of K-12 virtual school teachers. Gaining teachers‘ perspectives about the use of general, content-based, and technology-based practices in their virtual school courses developed this understanding. Using grounded theory methods, a recursive process of data collection and analysis was implemented in conjunction with the method of constant comparison to indicate repeating patterns and themes in participants' descriptions. The findings resulting from analysis highlight the relationship between the participants‘ beliefs, goals, and practices related to virtual school teaching. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study indicate several skill sets associated with virtual school teaching that have relevant implications for the training programs educating virtual school teachers, the developing body of policy underlying virtual schools, and future research.

Citation

Dipietro, M.K. Virtual school pedagogy: Beliefs, goals, and practices of K–12 virtual school teachers. Ph.D. thesis, University of Florida. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

For copies of dissertations and theses: (800) 521-0600/(734) 761-4700 or https://dissexpress.umi.com

Keywords

Cited By

View References & Citations Map

These links are based on references which have been extracted automatically and may have some errors. If you see a mistake, please contact info@learntechlib.org.