Volume 42 Number 3
|
Journal o Research on Technology in Education |
255
Copyright © 2010, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191(U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.3777 (Int’l), iste@iste.org, www.iste.org. All rights reserved.
Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge, Confdence, Belies, and Culture IntersectJRTE | Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 255–284 | ©2010 ISTE | www.iste.org/jrte
Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge,Confdence, Belies, and Culture Intersect
Peggy A. Ertmer
Purdue University
Anne T. Ottenbreit-Letwich
Indiana University
Abstract
Despite increases in computer access and technology training, technology isnot being used to support the kinds o instruction believed to be most pow-erul. In this paper, we examine technology integration through the lens o the teacher as an agent o change: What are the necessary characteristics, or qualities, that enable teachers to leverage technology resources as meaningul pedagogical tools? o answer this question, we discuss the literature related to our variables o teacher change: knowledge, sel-ecacy, pedagogical belies,and subject and school culture. Specically, we propose that teachers’ mind-sets must change to include the idea that “teaching is not eective without the appropriate use o inormation and communication technologies (IC)resources to acilitate student learning.” Implications are discussed in terms o both teacher education and proessional development programs. (Keywords:teacher change, teacher knowledge, teacher belies, technology integration)
P
roessionals o the 21
st
century think and act dierently than those o previous centuries, due at least in part to the radically dierent toolsthey use to perorm their jobs. Police ocers instantly search onlinedatabases to determine i the driver o a speeding car has a valid driver’slicense or outstanding tickets or warrants or his/her arrest. Mechanics usecomputerized diagnostics to identiy which part o your engine or vehicleneeds to be serviced aer you notice that the “check engine” light is on.Doctors use high-requency sound waves to scan a woman’s abdomen tocreate 2-D, 3-D, or even 4-D images o an unborn child, nearly eliminatingthe guesswork involved in determining the age, sex, and health status o theetus. Most o us today would not consider the uses o these tools to be par-ticularly unusual or innovative; rather, they are simply the expected “tools o the trade.” Furthermore, i our mechanics or doctors did not use these tools,we would deem them out o date and take our business elsewhere.Not surprisingly, most citizens expect their medical and law enorcementproessionals, and even their mechanics, to be up to date regarding the latesttechnologies that enable them to perorm their jobs eciently and eectively.
256
|
Journal o Research on Technology in Education
|
Volume 42 Number 3Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Letwich
Copyright © 2010, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191(U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.3777 (Int’l), iste@iste.org, www.iste.org. All rights reserved.
However, this expectation is rarely applied to classroom teachers. each-ers o the 21
st
century use roughly the same tools as those who came beorethem (Cuban, 2001). Furthermore, whereas the benets o technology inother proessions are determined by comparing the results to the intendedoutcomes (e.g., Did the police ocer arrest the speeding driver who had asuspended license? Did the mechanic accurately identiy the problem andget the car running again? Did the doctor identiy potential health concernsor the baby?), teachers’ uses o technology are rarely linked to the studentlearning outcomes they are designed to acilitate (Lawless & Pellegrino,2007). It is time to shi our mindsets away rom the notion that technology provides a
supplemental
teaching tool and assume, as with other proessions,that technology is
essential
to successul perormance outcomes (i.e., studentlearning). o put it simply, eective teaching requires eective technology use.Recent research, resulting rom both large- and small-scale eorts (Bauer& Kenton, 2005; Project omorrow, 2008), suggests that we have yet notachieved high levels o eective technology use, either in the United Statesor internationally (Kozma, 2003; Mueller, Wood, Willoughby, Ross, &Specht, 2008; Smeets, 2005; ondeur, van Braak, & Valcke, 2007a). Further-more, i and when technology is used, it typically is not used to support thekinds o instruction (e.g., student-centered) believed to be most powerulor acilitating student learning (Cuban, Kirkpatrick, & Peck; 2001; Interna-tional Society or echnology in Education [ISE], 2008; Partnership or 21
st
Century Learning, 2007).No doubt, teachers have increased their personal and proessional uses o computers (Project omorrow, 2008; van Braak, ondeur, & Valcke, 2004).In response to the eachers alk ech survey (CDW-G, 2006), 88% o theteachers reported using technology or administrative tasks, whereas 86%reported using technology or communication tasks. Similarly, 93% o theteachers who responded to the Speak Up 2007 survey (n = 23,756/25,544)reported using technology to communicate with colleagues or parents (Proj-ect omorrow, 2008).Alongside these increases in teachers’ proessional uses are increases inthe reported instructional uses o computers in the classroom (NationalEducation Association, 2008; Project omorrow, 2008). Unortunately, whenwe look closer at these data, reported uses still tend to be “low-level” (Mad-dux & Johnson, 2006; Russell, Bebell, O’Dwyer, & O’Connor, 2003)—thatis, those that support traditional, teacher-directed instruction (e.g., usingPowerPoint to present a lesson, searching the Web or inormation resources)or that ocus on the development o students’ technical skills (ondeur, vanBraak, & Valcke, 2007b). Based on the results o the Speak Up 2007 nationalsurvey (Project omorrow, 2008), 51% o the responding teachers (n =13,027 / 25,544) reported that their primary uses o technology to “acilitatestudent learning” comprised (a) asking students to complete homework
Volume 42 Number 3
|
Journal o Research on Technology in Education |
257
Teacher Technology Change
Copyright © 2010, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191(U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.3777 (Int’l), iste@iste.org, www.iste.org. All rights reserved.
assignments using the computer (e.g., writing reports, nding inormationon the Internet) and (b) assigning practice work at the computer (e.g., usingdrill-and-practice soware). Tese results are veried, to some extent, by thelarge percentage o students (grades 6–12) taking the same survey who re-ported using technology to (a) write assignments (74%), (b) conduct onlineresearch (72%), and (c) check assignments or grades online (58%).
Technology Integration or 21
st
-Century Learners
As with other proessionals, we expect teachers to use technology in waysthat extend and increase their eectiveness. It is no longer appropriate tosuggest that teachers’ low-level uses o technology are adequate to meetthe needs o the 21
st
-century learner. Using technology simply to supportlecture-based instruction alls ar short o recommended best practice (Law-less & Pellegrino, 2007; Partnership or 21
st
Century Skills, 2007; Zemelman,Daniels, & Hyde, 2005). Although survey data may suggest that the “teach-ing process is undamentally changing as proessional development is takingteachers rom learning how computers work to using technology to
change
how they teach” (CDW-G, 2006, para. 3, emphasis added), current data romclassroom observations do not support this view (Andrew, 2007; Bauer &Kenton, 2005; Schaumburg, cited in Schulz-Zander, Peier, & Voss, 2008).Even among teachers who claim to have student-centered, constructivistpractices, technology uses are described as not being particularly powerulor innovative (Cuban, Kirkpatrick, & Peck; 2001; Hermans, ondeur, vanBraak, & Valcke, 2008).o achieve the kinds o technology uses required or 21
st
-century teach-ing and learning (Lai, 2008; Law, 2008; Tomas & Knezek, 2008), we needto help teachers understand how to use technology to acilitate meaning-ul learning, dened as that which enables students to construct deep andconnected knowledge, which can be applied to real situations. Although“technology can make it quicker or easier to teach the same things in routineways,” it also makes it possible to “adopt new and arguably better approachesto instruction and/or change the content or context o learning, instruction,and assessment” (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007, p. 581). Tese latter uses areprecisely the ones that the majority o today’s teachers nd most challenging,perhaps because they require the most amount o change.With the No Child Le Behind Act (U. S. DOE, 2001) providing impetus,states are now placing strong emphasis on recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers. In addition to possessing both content and pedagogicalknowledge, recent denitions o high-quality teachers include being ableto support dierentiated instruction and data-based decision making, e-orts that benet immensely rom the use o new technology tools (Means,Padilla, DeBarger, & Bakia, 2009; Oce o Educational echnology, 2004;Patrick, 2008). According to the U. S. DOE (2003), “echnology is nowconsidered by most educators and parents to be an integral part o providinga high-quality education” (p. 3).
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Teacher Technology Change How Knowledge, Confidence, Beliefs, And Culture Intersect
1.7K
Reads
10
Readcasts
3
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
