Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Abstract
This paper explores three potential affordances (social, technical and pedagogical) of wikis in the context of designing 32 teachers’ learning of classroom management cases. With the requirement of teachers’ case-based learning and the potential affordances of wikis considered, two learning environments for teachers’ case-based learning process were designed. Two groups of these teacher-participants posted their own written and audio cases, identified problems, discussed and proposed solutions with the input of their peers, in the respective wikis hosted in Google Sites and LAMS. These teachers’ perceptions of the wikis’ affordances to support their case-based learning were surveyed quantitatively. The five-point Likert-scale survey results indicated that teachers perceive highest technical affordance, followed by social affordance and pedagogical affordance in these two wikis. Qualitative data from the teachers’ online discussions and reflection logs was also analyzed to probe why teachers perceived such varied affordances of wikis. The findings highlighted that technical affordance was perceived to be the most educationally rewarding experience to this group of teachers among the three affordances. They experienced ease of use and free of technical hiccups in achieving their learning goals (interaction with peers and sharing of resources) in these wikis. This paper discusses further work in harnessing wikis’ affordances for designing more effective cased-based learning environments to cater to diverse learners. It also provides suggestions for wiki-pedagogy for future research.
Recommended Citation
Quek, C., & Wang, Q. (2014). Exploring Teachers' Perceptions of Wikis for Learning Classroom Cases. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(2). https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2014v39n2.2