Rui Ma’s research while affiliated with Beijing Normal University and other places

In this study, an integrated collaborative learning and knowledge map approach was developed for online teacher professional development. An online teacher education environment based on that approach was constructed. To investigate the interaction between the knowledge map and collaborative learning strategies on teachers’ learning performance and self-efficacy of group learning, a 2 × 2 experiment was acted out. The study subjects were 179 in-service teachers from primary schools in China. The participants were divided into four groups to learn theories and cases of educational research methods using different online learning strategies (individual learning or collaborative learning) and knowledge map strategies (using a knowledge map or not). The results revealed two notable findings. First, both the knowledge map and collaborative learning strategies were significantly conducive to enhance the teachers’ learning performance. Second, the interaction between the two kinds of strategies showed that the knowledge map strategy was potential to promote the self-efficacy of group learning among teachers who used the collaborative learning strategy. Thus, we conclude that the collaborative construction of group knowledge map could be an effective approach to promote teachers’ knowledge construction and provide visual interaction support for teachers’ online professional development.