When Teacher Education Goes Mobile: A Study on Complex Emergence

Abstract

ABSTRACT The popularity of mobile devices brings on new challenges for teacher education. Based on complexity theory, this qualitative study1 seeks to better understand the dynamics of a social group, especially the conditions for the emergence of learning in a mobile educational experience. Sixty in-service teachers in Brazil participated in a six-week course via WhatsApp. The analysis of the answers to questionnaires and the corpus generated by the teachers’ interactions indicate that the devices’ mobility favored interactions, control distribution, and social repertoire of possibilities. The findings also indicate that the teachers recognize the potential of mobile technology for mediating learning experiences.

Keywords

• mobile learning
• whatsapp
• teacher education
• complexity theory