Teachers Learning: Interaction and Discourse in a Virtual Community: A Design Model

This practice-oriented paper presents a model for a virtual learning community for teachers and examines teacher learning within this framework.The community's learning primarily occurs through discourse on the WhatsApp messaging platform.The paper begins by describing the community learning model, emphasizing key characteristics of online professional development.Using qualitative content analysis, we analyzed WhatsApp activity from the first month of the 2021 school year, encompassing 137 posts, and identified learning discourse topics, interaction frequency, and interaction types.The WhatsApp-based community addresses a major challenge in online learning: fostering frequent and spontaneous interactions among members.The paper demonstrates the model's potential to promote an active and engaging approach to professional development.