Exploring Teachers' Perceptions of Wikis for Learning Classroom Cases

This paper explores three potential affordances (social, technical and pedagogical) of wikis in the context of designing 32 teachers’ learning of classroom management cases. Two learning environments were designed and two groups of the teacher-participants posted their own written and audio cases, identified problems, discussed and proposed solutions with the input of their peers, in the respective wikis hosted in Google Sites® and Learning Activity Management System® (LAMS). The teachers’ perceptions of the wikis’ affordances to support their case-based learning were surveyed quantitatively. The fivepoint Likert scale survey ranked technical affordance highest, followed by social affordance and pedagogical affordance. Qualitative data from their online discussions and reflection logs were also analyzed to probe the variations in perceived affordances. Participants experienced ease of use and freedom from technical difficulties in achieving their learning goals (interaction with peers and sharing of resources). This paper discusses further work in harnessing wikis’ affordances for designing more effective case-based learning environments to cater for diverse learners. It also provides suggestions for further research into wiki