Model of the Mediating Teacher in Distance Learning Environments: Classes That Combine Asynchronous Distance Learning Via Videotaped Lecture

 Aryeh Ben-Chayim, Beit Berl College
 Baruch Offir, Bar-Ilan University

Abstract

The study was based on Observing Mediational Interactions (OMI), Klein’s method for analyzing mediating interactions between teachers and students (Klein, 1988; Klein, Raziel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987; Klein, Weider, & Greenspan, 1987). The aim of this study was to propose a change in the distance learning method and the function of the teachers and to examine a model of a Mediating Teacher in the classroom in addition to the teacher teaching from a distance. The study included two groups of teachers, teachers who received training for mediated teaching and teachers who did not receive such training. The study compared the characteristics of the mediating interaction between teachers and students in high school classes (tenth to twelfth grade) that include asynchronous distance learning, in which a mediating teacher is present in the classroom in addition to an expert teacher who teaches from a distance via videotaped lectures. The findings indicate that teachers who had training for mediated teaching in the classroom in an asynchronous distance learning environment were better mediators than teachers who did not receive such training. The students’ evaluated the mediating teaching was higher, the dialog between teachers and students was longer, and of a higher quality and the students internalized some of the principles of mediating.