CRITICAL ISSUE RESPONSE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teacher Professional Development:

Technology without the Necessary Supports
Introduction
One of my favorite sayings about educational technology is, Dont let it (the technology)
become a $300 pencil. This is a phrase that I have heard over and over and is very
characteristic and true if technology is purchased and not properly supported. Many schools fall
into the trap of using all funds available to purchase the technology hardware, while not spending
any time or money in the development of a professional development plan for technology
integration. While more and more teachers are becoming technology proficient when using
digital tools in classrooms, teachers technology skills are not at a level where they can stand
alone without supportive integration strategies (Gronseth et al., 2010). Being able to facilitate a
technology-enriched, student-centered classroom requires much expertise on the part of the
teacher (Gronseth et al., 2010). Acquiring these skills is a process that must intentionally
planned, implemented and measured for success and teacher supports. Ertmer, Leftwich and
York (2007) identify several barriers that could affect a teachers acquisition of these skills in an
educational setting. These barriers are both external and internal to the teacher wanting to learn
the technology and use it in their classrooms. External barriers include lack of resources,
training, support, and time, while internal barriers focus on the teacher themselves (Ertmer,
Leftwich & York, 2007). If teachers are provided some of the external supports in form of
technology hardware but not provided other external resources to help teachers influence their
internal barriers, then the internal barriers can work against the technology integration process
(Ertmer, Leftwich & York, 2007). These internal barriers include a teachers beliefs, overall
vision and lack of confidence when using technology.
How Do We Lower Internal Barriers?
These internal barriers may be lowered with the help of a number of different strategies
that schools can utilize. One of the ways to facilitate positive influences on these internal
barriers is the use of the face-to-face interactions as well as properly supported guided practice
(Schunk & Meece, 2006). These strategies can in turn promote a teachers confidence when
using technology in the classroom. Chen (2010) identified that a teachers confidence or selfefficacy was the strongest internal influence on a teachers technology use. The concept of selfefficacy was first constructed by Bandura (1977) and discusses the idea that people are more
likely to undertake a certain task when they believe they are capable of completing the task
successfully. A Teachers self-efficacy is affected by a number of influences including, a
teachers actual performance using the technology, seeing some use the technology effectively
and verbal coaching while using the technology (Schunk & Meece, 2006). Providing these
situations to teachers when they are trying to integrate technology into their classrooms can help
lower these barriers and positively affect a teachers confidence or self-efficacy (Gronseth et al.,
2010). The experiences of seeing someone demonstrate a technology as well as providing time
for the teacher to perform and practice the skills themselves will increase the likelihood of them
overcoming those barriers in their own classrooms (Gronseth et al., 2010).

CRITICAL ISSUE RESPONSE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teacher Professional Development Strategies

One of the ways schools can help teachers and lower these barriers by providing
successful professional development strategies. Kopcha (2010) notes that if teachers believe that
there are supports in place for technology integration, they are more willing to learn a new skill.
More importantly professional development must be specific to the needs of the teacher,
presented in small groups and must be supported in context over a long period of time (Wycoff,
Juntune & MacKay, 2003). The lack of effectiveness of traditional systems of professional
development is supported by Kopcha (2012), where he addresses the fact that many teachers
want to learn new technology skills, however, trainings often are very unspecific and lack
sufficient examples of applications. In addition, sometimes schools provide technology to
teachers with no form of training or professional development (Kopcha, 2012). Knowing this,
the need for specific and structured strategies is vital to the success of any technology integration
project.
When specific strategies, like the ones above, are used and properly supported by other
faculty and administrators the likelihood of teachers using those skills increases (Wycoff,
Juntune & MacKay, 2003). One of the strategies which can be utilized and has been proven to
drastically increase teacher technology use in the classroom is that of technology modeling (Kim,
Westoff & Rezabek , 2008). When teachers are given trainings that are followed up by feedback
support in the form of in-class observations and modeled lessons, the correlation of teacher
success is very high (Meyer, Abrami, Wade, & Scherzer, 2011).
All of the above research reinforces the ideals of the coaching model of professional
development. Using the principles of common coaching models, research shows that teachers
that received trainings as wells as coaching reported having the largest increase in their use of
collaborative team planning and self progress monitoring (Wilson et al., 2012). Coaching can
also play a critical role in the implementation of new practices of teachers if the coaching
involves regularly scheduled visits and grade-level meetings (Scott, Cortina & Carlisle, 2012).
Coaching can also ensure that teacher application of new practices can take place in a guided
setting that is familiar to the teacher (Carlisle & Berebitsky, 2012).
In the ever-changing climate of education today, teachers must be able to seamlessly
integrate technology into their classrooms. However, the lack of sufficient internal and external
support factors, as seen above, can often limit that a teachers use of technology. Considering the
evidence provided, schools must provide some amount of funding to support teachers and
arrange for meaningful professional development opportunities. These opportunities must center
around the practice, feedback and the application of technology integration strategies that focus
on the use of the technology they are provided. Using strategies like this can help school
technology integration efforts become more than students using a $300 pencil. With effective
strategies to draw from, teachers can help this effort and use technology its full potential;
fostering student-centered, technology-enriched learning environments.

CRITICAL ISSUE RESPONSE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

References
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