Meeting the Demands of the 21st Learner Delivering Elementary Science and Math Methods Courses Online an Auto-ethnographic Approach

摘要

In the last two decades, online enrollment in higher education has increased substantially. As more students enroll in courses, Universities may find that the demand within the institution will grow beyond current offerings. Within the field of teacher education, hundreds of online course offerings in teacher preparation programs worldwide are offered. The advantages to online versus face-to-face courses are numerous. Despite the marked increase in online course offerings and enrollment, however, some obstacles do exist in online classes. A review of recent literature indicated a need to study the challenges faced by faculty who teach hybrid courses and the need to better understand what constitutes quality online education. So, the importance of this research is how do teacher preparation programs meet the demands and charges of institutions while maintaining quality of instruction. Using autoethographic methods, two professors who teach elementary science methods and elementary math methods chronicle how they begin to address the challenges in online teaching and how they overcame those challenges to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. The participants in this study describe how they apply constructivist concepts solely online. These outcomes are what we call the call the good, the bad and the ugly.