Dimensional evaluation of a rural mobile learning teacher professional development curriculum

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the adaption and scaled application of a Teacher Professional Development (TPD) course, towards, not only changing classroom practice, but empowering teachers to become lifelong learners. The ICT for Rural Education Development (ICT4RED) TPD Curriculum was designed and validated as a standalone intervention in a single district, for rural teachers, but did it carry Higher Education Institution accreditation. This implementation gap is addressed in its adaption to a Short Learning Programme which will be part of a module towards the Advanced Certificate in Teaching at the University of the Free State (UFS) as part of the DRDLR ICT4E project. This adaption necessitated some reflection on methodology and methods implemented and presented opportunities to incorporate experiences gained at the IDEA Lab at the UFS. The research initiative applied Evaluation research as a research methodology, through considering the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, working hypotheses were developed to capture the various dimensions of the rural mobile learning ICT4RED TPD Curriculum. These dimensions were evaluated and prioritised by reflecting on the requirements that the accreditation and scaling would impose. The results of the evaluation are presented and the outcomes and the subsequent design decisions are outlined and discussed.