Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This research addresses the learning done by fifth and sixth grade teachers as they facilitate an innovative three-week unit on weather, incorporating c o m p u t e r communications for information research and inter-classroom information exchange between distant student groups. The teachers m a y be situated in a community of practice where they learn about computer use in regular classrooms while teaching. Little research has been done on teachers' learning in these types of settings and no communities of practice linked by computer networks have been reported in the education research literature. Teaching practices and learning were studied. Both quasi-experimental and qualitative methods were employed. To discern the differences in teaching practices, comparisons were m a d e of videotapes taken in classrooms with computers and others without. Teacher journals, questionnaires, and telephone interviews were employed to understand problems faced by the teachers, their contacts with experts, the problem resolution, and changes to their teaching practices due to both their learning experiences and to the innovations of the curriculum. With a better understanding of the teachers' learning, the research team will revise future field tests, anticipating teachers' needs w h e n they incorporate computer telecommunication technology in innovative science units.