Abstract

This paper describes research currently being carried out into the changing professional identities and practice styles of a group of student teachers during their participation in an online teaching and learning programme.  The programme involves the students in a range of distributed Problem Based Learning (dPBL) activities.  The research is structured around a longitudinal mapping exercise across a variety of professional contexts in which possible changes in their professional identity and practice styles will be recorded and critically examined.

The research will focus upon individual and group identities, and will involve an investigation, firstly into the way in which online cultures can play a part in shaping the development of individual minds and, secondly, how the thoughts and activities of individuals can be seen to influence the cultural milieu.  The research will be grounded in spatio-temporal contexts.  In the first instance this will involve a mapping of possible changes across a variety of practice situations and in the second through a given time, allowing for cross cultural and historical perspectives to be taken within the process of the research.

The ongoing research practice will involve the collection and analysis of data drawn from individual and group reflective practices, professional biography and self-assessment, transcripts from online participative activity and peer assessments and through the use of videoconferencing, practice journals and interviews.