Abstract:
My paper poses the provocation:
How and why personal, social and systemic factors influence or impede (middle years) teachers to adopt technological pedagogies and integrate digital resources in their teaching of subject content.
Hitherto, systemic initiatives by state and federal governments have tended to concentrate on technologically equipped schools, production and supply of curriculum aligned digital resources, and access to WIFI connectivity. These systemic initiatives also extended to standards about teacher quality, assessment of curriculum and general capabilities, and building a technologically capable workforce. Currently, the reality of this vision in the classroom seems more difficult to realise. Like a mashrabiya that bars the harem from real life on the other side of the decorative screen, so the illusion of a technologically pedagogically enabled teaching profession remains unrealised by many teachers.
This research adopts a social constructivist paradigm to investigate, describe and construct an interpretation of the socio-cultural factors as affordances and constraints on teachers’ judgements, behaviours, beliefs and professional practices. I use instrumental case study to analyse the beliefs, knowledge and processes of middle years teachers in two schools and their efforts to implement curriculum and assess student learning, using technological-pedagogical approaches. Overarching this study is Mishra and Kohler’s TPCK framework to explain how and why the adoption and alignment of digital resources and technologies is influenced by the beliefs, motivations and prior knowledge of teachers and learners, the learning environment, and expectations of the schooling system.
My study is also supported by past research findings, recent education debates and international reports that indicate supply of classroom technologies alone will not, and has not, improved student learning performance, and that the “missing link” is how knowledgeable and experienced teachers are in adopting technological pedagogies to engage students and teach the curriculum.
How and why personal, social and systemic factors influence or impede (middle years) teachers to adopt technological pedagogies and integrate digital resources in their teaching of subject content.
Hitherto, systemic initiatives by state and federal governments have tended to concentrate on technologically equipped schools, production and supply of curriculum aligned digital resources, and access to WIFI connectivity. These systemic initiatives also extended to standards about teacher quality, assessment of curriculum and general capabilities, and building a technologically capable workforce. Currently, the reality of this vision in the classroom seems more difficult to realise. Like a mashrabiya that bars the harem from real life on the other side of the decorative screen, so the illusion of a technologically pedagogically enabled teaching profession remains unrealised by many teachers.
This research adopts a social constructivist paradigm to investigate, describe and construct an interpretation of the socio-cultural factors as affordances and constraints on teachers’ judgements, behaviours, beliefs and professional practices. I use instrumental case study to analyse the beliefs, knowledge and processes of middle years teachers in two schools and their efforts to implement curriculum and assess student learning, using technological-pedagogical approaches. Overarching this study is Mishra and Kohler’s TPCK framework to explain how and why the adoption and alignment of digital resources and technologies is influenced by the beliefs, motivations and prior knowledge of teachers and learners, the learning environment, and expectations of the schooling system.
My study is also supported by past research findings, recent education debates and international reports that indicate supply of classroom technologies alone will not, and has not, improved student learning performance, and that the “missing link” is how knowledgeable and experienced teachers are in adopting technological pedagogies to engage students and teach the curriculum.