Innovation in open and distance learning and teacher education: the case of pre-service secondary vocational education and training at an Australian Regional university

摘要

[Abstract]: Debate continues about the appropriateness of open and distance learning as a delivery mode for teacher education. Nevertheless, as with other manifestations of open and distance learning, there is a growing recognition that the potential flexibility afforded by new communication technologies can be aligned with new approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to provide educational opportunities to prospective and/or current teachers who would otherwise not be able to attain such opportunities.udDespite these distinctive advantages, the pressure on open and distance learning approaches to teacher education is undoubtedly greater than with face-to-face models, not least because the latter constitute the default mode of formal education. UNESCO’s recent report Teacher education guidelines: Using open and distance learning: Technology, curriculum, cost, evaluation (Perraton, Creed & Robinson, 2002) provides a useful synthesis of the main elements of this pressure.udThis paper takes up that challenge in relation to a program of pre-service secondary vocational education and training teacher education (itself often considered marginal to ‘academic’ or ‘general’ secondary teacher education) at Central Queensland University, an Australian regional university. The program is interrogated from the perspective of three of the UNESCO report’s principal concerns: planning; technology; and teaching practice. Denning’s (2004) recent distinction between innovation as a novel idea and as a transformation of practice is used to argue that the program is an educational innovation in both of Denning’s applications of the term, with significant implications for understanding and valuing open and distance learning and teacher education in the early 21st century.