Teacher Beliefs and Uses of Technology to Support 21st Century Teaching and Learning Introduction (original) (raw)
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This study explores how teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and beliefs in students’ readiness to use technology are related to their classroom uses of technology. The participants in this study were 202 foreign language teachers in China because these teachers often use technology in language teaching, hold a wide variety of beliefs, and represent an understudied population of teachers when it comes to technology usage. We found support for four types (i.e., clusters) of teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, and that these types led to statistically significant differences in levels of both traditional and constructivist uses of technology. We also found that teachers’ who held higher levels of beliefs about students’ readiness to use technology led to significantly more uses of constructivist classroom technologies (but not traditional uses of technology). We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners.
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Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 2006
This paper reports on an exploratory, longitudinal study that analyzes and interprets the evolution of teachers' beliefs regarding learning, teaching, and technology, and their instructional practices, in the context of integrating technology-based information-rich tasks in six 4th-6th grade classrooms. The study used multiple research tools, interviews, questionnaires and observations, focusing on both teachers' beliefs and classroom practices. The findings reveal that following multi-year experiences in technology-based classrooms, teachers' educational beliefs had changed quite substantively, demonstrating multiple views rather than pure beliefs. The study argues that teachers' beliefs form a mosaic of complementary visions, even conflicting ones. It also shows that it is easier to change classroom practices than educational beliefs.
Teacher Beliefs and Their Influence on Technology Use: A Case Study
In this article, the authors describe a case study approach used to examine the complexities and contradictions of ways teachers perceive and implement technology in a seventh-grade social studies class. The participants in this qualitative research study were a 13-year veteran social studies teacher and the student intern who worked with this teacher during a year-long professional development school experience in a culturally and economically diverse middle grades school. Using interviews and classroom observations, the authors portrayed the beliefs and practices of the two participants in relation to their views of technology and its uses in the classroom. The findings support and deepen current literature and suggest that, although teachers believe that technology can be used to help engage students in thinking critically to promote self-regulated learning and improve literacy skills, such beliefs do not always come to fruition in actual classroom practice. Teacher Beliefs As beliefs help guide individuals' interactions and interpretations of the world, the same can be said about the beliefs a teacher might have regarding teaching and learning and the instructional decisions that might result (Kagan, 1992; Pajares, 1992). Thornton (1989) contended that teachers act as gatekeepers controlling both the content and the instructional strategies that are utilized. He suggested that these curricular-instructional decisions are " ecological in character…part of an interactive system of beliefs and contextual factors " (p. 9), making it important to acknowledge this relationship, as such decisions may be executed subconsciously without regard to unchecked assumptions. Findings that associate teacher beliefs with teacher actions (Chan & Elliott, 2004) have suggested a similar relationship between beliefs and technology integration (Kim,
Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs And Technology Integration
European Proceedings of Educational Sciences, 2022
Teachers' beliefs on teaching, learning, and evaluation represent one of the strongest predictors of the way in which technology is capitalized. Whenever we aim at the change of the practices regarding the use of technology for obtaining different learning outcomes, we must consider also the transformation of the beliefs that support and facilitate these practices. The present paper analyzes the relevant research regarding the relation between teachers' pedagogical beliefs and the use of educational technologies. The main aim is to identify key aspects and significant results concerning the impact that the beliefs on teaching, learning, and evaluation have on the way in which digital technologies are used in educational frameworks. The analysis revealed that pedagogical beliefs may support or obstruct the implementation of certain educational practices and also condition the profound changes occurring within these practices. In order to optimally take advantage of technology, it is important to subordinate it to some coherent teachers' beliefs attuned to the student and learning centered pedagogical paradigms.
Teachers’ Beliefs and Technology Practices
Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 2009
In a sequential mixed methods design, we sought to examine the relationship between teachers' beliefs and their instructional technology practices among technology-using teachers who worked at technology-rich schools to ultimately describe if change in practice toward a student-centered paradigm occurred. The integrated mixed-methods results provide evidence for the following: (a) teachers use technology most frequently for preparation, management, and administrative purposes; (b) teachers' use of technology to support student-centered practice is rare even among those who work at technology-rich schools and hold student-centered beliefs; (c) teachers in technology-rich schools continue to use technology in ways that support their already existing teacher-centered instructional practices. We conclude that future technology professional development efforts need to focus on integration of technology into curriculum via student-centered pedagogy while attending to multiple contextual conditions under which teacher practice takes place. Future technology research must use mixed methods and consider teachers' beliefs if change in practice is the desired outcome.
This review was designed to further our understanding of the link between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their educational uses of technology. The synthesis of qualitative findings integrates the available evidence about this relationship with the ultimate goal being to facilitate the integration of technology in education. A meta-aggregative approach was utilized to analyze the results of the 14 selected studies. The findings are reported in terms of five synthesis statements, describing (1) the bi-directional relationship between pedagogical beliefs and technology use, (2) teachers’ beliefs as perceived barriers, (3) the association between specific beliefs with types of technology use, (4) the role of beliefs in professional development, and (5) the importance of the school context. By interpreting the results of the review, recommendations are provided for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers focusing on pre- and in-service teacher technology training.
Beliefs about teaching and uses of technology among pre‐service teachers
Asia‐Pacific Journal of Teacher …, 2008
In the current learning environments, technology is integrated in different ways. Teachers acting in the capacity of main change agents bring with them beliefs about teaching which effects their use of technology in the classroom. This study aims to examine the possible relationship between teachers' beliefs about teaching and uses of technology. Unlike past research on this issue, the results from this study show that belief in constructivist teaching correlates significantly with both constructivist and traditional uses of technology. However, a belief in traditional teaching is only significantly correlated (negatively) with constructivist use of technology. Implications for teaching training and future research are discussed.
How Teachers Integrate Technology and Their Beliefs About Learning
Jl. of Technology and Teacher Education, 2006
Research indicates that teachers who readily integrate technology into their instruction are more likely to possess constructivist teaching styles. Evidence suggests there is a parallel between a teacher's student-centered beliefs about instruction and the nature of the teacher's technology-integrated lessons. This connection between the use of technology and constructivist pedagogy implies constructivist-minded teachers maintain dynamic student-centered classrooms where technology is a powerful learning tool. Unfortunately, much of the research to date has relied on self-reported data from teachers and this type of data too often presents a less than accurate picture. Versus self-reported practices, direct observations that gauge the constructivist manner in which teachers integrate technology are a more precise, albeit protracted, measurement. In this study 32 classroom teachers completed a survey to measure their beliefs about instruction, but they were also directly observed and rated with the Focus on Integrated Technology: Classroom Observation Measurement (FIT:COM). The FIT:COM measures the degree to which technology integrated lessons are aligned with constructivist principles. Analysis did not reveal a significant relationship between practices and beliefs. Although most teachers identified strongly with constructivist convictions they failed to exhibit these ideas in their practices.