Exploratory Study of Teachers’ Decisions to Utilize Educational Technologies in Teaching and Learning

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Instructional Technology SIG: Poster Session 1

Abstract

This two-year study explored how participation in a 10-month technology-enhanced professional development program (PDP) influenced teachers’ decisions to integrate technology into teaching. It examined teachers’ thinking, stances, philosophies, beliefs, and views of technologies. A qualitative research methodology of Critical Ethnography provided the methodological framework to investigate teachers’ subjective experiences. Some of the findings revealed that the PD experience with technology did not influence teaching practices; conversely, it reinforced teachers’ beliefs that technology is not worth trying. Pressure to increase students’ scores, focus on content, and non-classroom related tasks overwhelmed teachers to the extent that technology was not relevant. Teachers had no reasons to believe that technology improves learning but they have to use it due to investment in state-or-the-art technology.

Author

• Maura J. Pereira, Indiana University