Share Paper: A Social Network Analysis of a Teaching Science as Inquiry Online Learning Community

  1. Thanh Truc Nguyen, CRDG, College of Education, University of Hawaii, United States
  2. Francisco Jumawan, CRDG, College of Education, University of Hawaii, United States
Wednesday, October 23 4:00-4:30 PM Las Vegas Ballroom 3

Abstract: A professional development series was analyzed for teachers’ use of an online learning community (OLC) embedded within four teaching science as inquiry modules. The interactions of teachers in the OLC were designed to foster extended discussion and sharing of inquiry science. We used social network analysis (SNA) to explore the structural patterns of online connections between actors on levels of importance. Raters coded the OLC comments (N = 492) and determined that 64% related to OLC activities, 35% were teacher to teacher, and 1% were technical. Teachers interacted with each other about 35% of the time when given free reign ...