Cultivating lifelong learning: Pre-service teachers and their MOOCs

Abstract

The South African Council for Educators (SACE) is in the process of implementing their Continuous Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) management system. Each teacher working in South Africa is required to sign-up electronically before they participate in their 1st CPTD cycle with each cycle repeated at three year intervals. With the increasing accessibility to online learning for pre-service and in-service teachers, access to CPTD is not limited to SACE endorsed programs and teachers are opting to enroll in less structured opportunities to enhance their own learning experiences through participating in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). With the advent of the MOOC in its many guises and the subsequent proliferation of service providers, there is a pressing need to provide some practical guidance to teachers planning to enrol in a MOOC for their own professional development purposes. This paper reports on pre-service teacher's participation in their first MOOCs as part of their own journey in becoming teachers in the 21st Century. Online and open learning provides many challenges and opportunities for continuous professional development.