An investigation of teaching context factors perceived to affect the enacted practice of online VET teachers

ABSTRACT

It has long been understood that a teacher’s conception of teaching – that is, what they believe and know about teaching – influences their enacted practice. However, it has also been found that enacted practice is affected by teaching context. This small study of online vocational education teachers at a single institution in Australia investigated what factors affect enacted practice in that online teaching context. The study included a quantitative questionnaire of 46 online VET teachers, and qualitative interviews with 11 of those participants. Analysis revealed 13 factors that were indicated as affecting enacted practice in this context. From these findings a conceptual model is advanced whereby two types of teaching context that affect enacted practice are represented. These are (a) the functional teaching context, such as class size and discipline being taught, and (b) the nature and purpose of the education context, such as vocational education. These findings may be of interest to practitioners and to researchers and institutions seeking to support online teachers and leverage the affordances of online teaching contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Online pedagogy
• enacted practice
• conceptions of teaching
• vocational education

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge and thank the teachers who generously gave freely of their time and enthusiastically shared their perspectives thereby enabling this work to be completed.

Disclosure statement

I confirm this work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. However, the work is derived from parts of a completed PhD dissertation.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Deniese Cox

Deniese Cox is a sessional lecturer in online pedagogy at Griffith University and runs a consulting business mentoring educators in their shift to teaching online. Her PhD thesis from which this article stemswas concerned with developing an understanding of online pedagogy within the context of Australia’s VET sector. Deniese transitioned to adult education in 2011 when called on to utilise her two decades experience in executive corporate roles to develop and teach management and leadership programmes firstly in China and later online. In 2014, Deniese added a Master of Learning and Development to her 2010 MBA (Hon), and she has been awarded by Griffith University for her work building university-industry relationships.