The Study On Knowledge Construction In Virtual Learning Communities Of Teachers

Virtual Learning Community is product of the development of education in the Information Age. Its powerful open resource, interactive environment, sharing and learning autonomy makes it widely used in the field of education. The birth of virtual learning community provides a more effective way for teachers' professional development, the virtual learning communities of teachers has become new platform for teachers'development. The 21st century is knowledge economy era; knowledge construction has been pushed to a very significant status, while the level of knowledge construction is a key indicator for measuring the quality of communities. Study on knowledge construction in virtual learning communities of teachers is of great significance for guiding the effective study of teachers in virtual learning communities and further promoting teachers'professional development. It can also provide a new idea for the design of the virtual learning communities of teachers.The research raises the question how to better support knowledge construction in virtual learning communities of teachers, then analyses what influences the knowledge construction in virtual learning communities, at last proposes the strategies:scheme the function of virtual learning communities and propose strategies in order to support teachers'knowledge construction.First, this paper masters the basic knowledge, clarifies the theoretical context, and summarizes the principles of knowledge construction, the classification model of teachers' knowledge and the processes of knowledge construction in virtual learning communities of teachers.Second, this paper surveys the existing virtual learning communities of teachers and determines a case-K12 Education Forum. Through empirical research of this case by content analysis method, this paper concludes the factors that affect knowledge construction in interaction and further understands the process of knowledge construction in the virtual learning communities of teachers.Then, the author conducts a questionnaire survey of teachers and comes to the factors that affect knowledge construction out of interaction.Finally, this article analyzes the function demands of the virtual learning communities from the perspective of the teachers' knowledge classification; and proposes strategies to promote teachers'knowledge construction.There are five areas that affect knowledge construction in virtual learning communities of teachers:site factors, social networking, teacher's own factors, expert factors, activities and emotion factors. The virtual learning communities of teachers have three major functions: resources joint building and sharing, experience-sharing and intercourse collaboration, so they need to set resource center, experience-sharing, collaborative lesson preparation, virtual staff room, and teachers'forum. Virtual learning communities of teachers can implement effective strategies to promote knowledge construction from four aspects:the physical environment, organization management, knowledge management and social environment. For the physical environment, the platform should provide perfect learning support services, personalized services and humanistic services. For organization management, the community needs to be a learning organization, there should be set norms, the roles of members need to be managed effectively. For knowledge management, the administrators and experts should take measures from the following prospective:process management and space management, the individual and collective knowledge management, tacit and explicit knowledge management. For social environment, in order to promote knowledge construction in communities, the administrators should design activities reasonably, create specific cultural atmosphere in communities, adopt positive emotional strategies, while the experts should intervene activities effectively as well.