Abstract:

There is a growing interest in peer relations among children in inclusion-related research and practice (Almási et al., 2018; Horváth et al., 2021). There are many different kinds of peer nomination instruments in use of exploring peer relations in classroom, but most of them are paper-pencil based and using them can cause fatigue to the students (Frederickson & Frunham, 1998). In 2013 we started to develop an ICT-based peer nomination instrument which creates a user-friendly environment for both students and teachers. After almost a decade of using the instrument with wide variety of professionals in general education, we still experience difficulties in the usage. The reasons have been already identified: the use of the instrument requires a wide methodological knowledge and a certain level of digital competence. To overcome these obstacles, we started to develop an in-service teacher training.

After the COVID-19 pandemic blended learning gained more attention in higher education (Hammad et al., 2018), or in entrepreneurship education (Viebig, 2022). Since blended learning is highly based on ICT and has several advantages, we decided to use this model for our training. The development of the three-day (30 hrs) training had started in 2020 and finished in 2021 by the accreditation of the Hungarian education office. The training is fully online based, blending asynchronous and synchronous online modalities. In the synchronous parts the attendees take place in interactive presentations, discussions and groupworks. In the asynchronous parts they can practice in an interactive online environment facilitated by the instructors. During the training we use formative evaluation continuously and summative evaluation at the end of the training which is fully carried out by our self-developed environment.

In our presentation we introduce the training and the online environment, also outline the advantages and disadvantages of bichronous online learning based on the experiences of the first training held in 2022.

Keywords:

Online learning, in-service teacher training, peer relations, community development.