The focus of this research study was on the experiences and perceptions of Mandarin Chinese teachers who used technologies and innovative instructional methods to teach second language skills to young learners. The conceptual framework drew on 3 theories: (a) Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory, (b) Schӧn’s action theory, and (c) Mishra and Koehler’s technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The research questions focused on the experiences of early childhood teachers integrating TPACK to teach Mandarin Chinese and how do early childhood teachers perceive the use of instructional methods to teach Mandarin Chinese. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 8 Mandarin Chinese language teachers who taught Mandarin Chinese to students in preschool through 3rd grade. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, a questionnaire centered on TPACK, and a reflective journal entry. The data were analyzed through thematic inductive analysis using cross-case analysis to identify codes, patterns, and emerging themes that explored the teacher’s experiences. The overall findings in this study indicated that teachers experienced positive outcomes integrating technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge in the early childhood language learning classroom. The finding has the potential for social change by increasing technological and instructional resources and materials in early childhood language learning classrooms and providing on-going professional development for Mandarin Chinese language teachers in American schools.

The purpose of this study was to examine technology integration and the application of Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT). This inquiry evolved as a result of trying to understand the unique intersectionality of student identity, which is inclusive of youth culture, and whether teachers understood this dynamic and hence leveraged it in the classrooms and school communities they taught. Given that youth culture is a “mash-up of cultures and the membership transcends ethnic and racial lines,” there was evident value in exploring how youth cultural competence is unpacked and applied by educators to both deliver content and build relationships (Keuss, 2012), Understanding that a major youth cultural referent is technology, the study observed how teacher’s Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge manifested itself in the classroom and the types of technology students shared they were exposed to, in addition to their perceptions of teacher competence of technology and/or youth culture. This exploration was further framed by using a Culturally Relevant Teaching framework to analyze teacher-student interactions, based on the principles, behaviors and mindsets outlined by Ladson-Billings in her construction of defining the characteristics of a CRT educator (2009). This was a qualitative study that included 10 teachers and 20 student participants that were members of a technology-rich middle school in an urban environment. Teachers participated in classroom observations, interviews, and CRT reflective tasks. Students participated in grade-level focus groups that leveraged interactive and reflective tasks. As a result of the data analysis, implications from the study presents school leaders with practical insights on how technology integration can be woven into the fabric of the school to strengthen teacher development, support content delivery and enhance the quality of student learning experiences. Additionally, there is evidence of a need for commitment by schools to train teachers in Culturally Relevant Teaching practices in order to attend to the whole child, operate with a more student-centered approach, and adequately prepare scholars for the digital world. / Educational Administration

Low-income students and blacks make up nearly half of public school students, and on nearly every indicator of educational access, particularly technology, these students have less access than white affluent students (Darling-Hammond, Zielezinski, and Goldman, 2014). The National Center for Education Statistics (2005) reported that teacher quality and missed opportunities to learn accounted for 93% of African Americans, and 87% of Hispanics performing below proficiency in mathematics. Students that do not master mathematics standards by the end of compulsory education are less likely to complete general mathematics courses in upper secondary school and beyond successfully (Levpušček, Zupančič, & Sočan, 2013). Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) can support student engagement, interest and possibly increased achievement in mathematics if used effectively. The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the perspectives of secondary mathematics teachers with regard to the use of IWBs for teaching, (b) determine how secondary mathematics teachers in one school district use the IWB to guide students toward mathematical proficiency, and (c) consider how secondary mathematics teachers’ perspectives in one school district were influenced by 1st order and 2nd order barriers to technology integration. The following factors were considered when examining the context needed to better understand the complexities using IWBs effectively in mathematics: (a) Niess et al. (2009) Mathematics Teachers’ TPACK Development Model, (b) Miller and Glover (2005) stages of IWB use, and (c) Ertmer (1999) first-order and second-order barriers to technology integration. The data revealed that at each stage of IWB use (a) supported didactic, (b)interactive, and (c) enhanced interactivity, teachers faced a unique combination of first-order and second-order barriers to IWB integration that affected how IWBs were used for teaching mathematics. The results of the data suggest that as barriers are resolved at each stage of IWB use, the likelihood mathematics teachers will effectively use IWBs to teach mathematics will increase. Suggestions including administrator support and modifying professional development practices are included to provide educators and policy makers the practical knowledge needed to inform sustainable plans for integrating IWBs effectively.

Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur lärare i SO-ämnen i årskurs 4–6 beskrev sina val att kombinera digitala och tryckta läromedel i sin undervisning. Undersökningen har bestått av en kvalitativ datainsamlingsmetod bestående av intervjuer med verksamma lärare. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats med hjälp av ramverket TPACK. Studiens resultat visar att majoriteten av lärarna kombinerar digitala verktyg med tryckta läromedel för att utfylla information som fattas i de befintliga läroböckerna eller för att styrka den information som redan finns. Ett fåtal av de intervjuade lärarna berättade att de kombinerar tryckta och digitala läromedel dagligen i sin undervisning för att främja elevers kunskapsinhämtning. Undersökningen visar även att majoriteten av lärarna prioriterar tryckta läromedel framför de digitala. Lärarna som kombinerar läromedel dagligen gör det för att de anser att inget tryckt läromedel är komplett. Ett ytterligare resultat var att lärarna uttryckte att digitala verktyg blir ett distraktionsmoment för eleverna och fokus från ämnesinnehållet bortprioriteras. Däremot visade resultatet även att elever blir mer motiverade och involverade när de använder digitala verktyg. / <p>SO</p>

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The EEdnaS study “Development and testing of digitally enriched science-related subject matter teaching in digital teaching-learning labs and university classrooms” aims to promote the professional competencies of prospective teachers that are needed for teaching science content in a world shaped by digitalization. To achieve this goal, university teaching units (seminars) that directly address cognitive components of a teacher’s professional competencies, which are important to teaching science content in primary school education, were developed. In addition, prospective teachers were asked to plan, implement, and evaluate primary school science education with a particular focus on digitization, as well as sharing the developed units as open-educational resources. This article reports on the impact of the first part of the seminar concept, in which the promotion of digitization-related, subject-specific teaching methodology, as well as content-related knowledge (TPaCK) was systematically promoted. In a standardized survey, it could be shown that the prospective teachers demonstrated positive developments, particularly in the components PCK, TCK, TPK, as well as TPaCK, regarding the self-efficacy in cognitive characteristics about one’s own ability within the reference frame of self. Furthermore, the development of knowledge, especially in the areas of TK, PCK, TCK, and TPK, could also be determined, but not in relation to TPaCK itself.

This case study, executed in school network driven by a private foundation for underprivileged children in Cambodia, provides a perspective from a unique situation of technology enablement in an environment with a predominantly instructivist teaching tradition.   The said environment is strongly influenced by private sector donors with strong constructivist traditions and expectations. The environment is thus unique in the sense that a relatively asset rich environment, with expectations of 21st century pedagogical skills, is transported into an asset poor environment that was/is strongly rooted in instructivism. The case study thus give a perspective on if technology itself is a possible solution for better teacher education/educational delivery, or if the underlying pedagogy first needs to be evolved to allow web-based platforms and tools to be fully leveraged.     In the specific environment being studies, teacher in-service training plays a larger role than formal teacher qualifications, and peer-to-peer, in-person, learning is the cornerstone of development (offline connectivism). Rather than changing the way the teachers learn, there should be opportunity in further strengthening the current practices of communities. Connectivist MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) do provide the community engagement and together with technology mediated professional learning platforms there should be opportunity to provide enhanced support for teachers’ education.   The two main hurdles to overcome, beyond functioning technology assets and web access, are teachers own comfort levels with technology platforms, as well as provision of platforms that support local language options. The comfort level with technology is important to address as, assuming technology and web access works, the openness and lack of control in a web environment is in direct contradiction to instructivist teaching. Unlocking the potential of the web requires that teachers are comfortable with the web itself and also truly support inquiry based learning over didactic teaching, and that they have the skills to help children navigate the openness of the web.   As economies shift towards becoming knowledge societies, collaborative problem-solving and navigation to knowledge are skills of increasing in importance, relative static knowledge recall that was previously viewed as value adding. This case study contributes to pedagogical theory and in particularly gives one more perspective on the shift from instructivist to constructivist teaching as a pre-requisite for capturing the power of the internet, and the shift to leveraging networks in a connectivist pedagogical approach. This case study also calls out the need for evolved frameworks to better describe technology mediated learning in least developing country environments. The case study also provides contribution to practice to technology mediated teacher education as it specifically addresses some of the opportunities in strengthening the support to teacher education in least developed countries.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Carla de Araújo.pdf: 3264656 bytes, checksum: 1866892d1a4b24aa824000070bae9359 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Our research work aimed to investigate technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, if any, of the pre-service Mathematics teachers on the use of multimedia resources. Linked to the Program PRODOCÊNCIA/UEPB, our research work intended to instill critical thinking processes in the education Mathematics teachers, particularly in Mathematics Education, with the use of information and communication technologies (TIC) that may contribute to improve under graduation courses. Our research work had a qualitative approach with the application of a didactic proposal carried out between the months of March and June of 2015. The participant subjects were ten students of the Mathematics Teacher Education at the State University of Paraíba UEPB, who attended the third period of the curricular component Applied Computing to Education II. The pre-service teachers were organized in couples. We use as instruments to our data collection research, participant observation, questionnaires, interviews (audios) and field notes. Firstly, we intended to trace the couple profiles in relation to knowledge of digital platforms and conception on coursing a different curricular component, of which was the scenario to this research work. Then we analyzed the knowledge technological, pedagogical and of content, if any, presented by the couples. We relied in Koehler and Mishra’s TPACK theoretical model (2005). We also analyzed the multimedia resources with the construction of virtual classes by the couples. At this analysis stage we used some of the Mayer Multimedia Principles (2001) that assists in the construction of well elaborated multimedia materials, being able to promote better learning. Based on the analyzed data, we could conclude that our research work enabled opportunities for pre-service Mathematics teachers to be in full movement as individuals and couples. We noted that, for many times, the pre-service teacher graduated with lacks on the classroom management, that is, the pedagogical knowledge is poorly explored by making the continuing teacher education overloaded of responsibility with this teacher on new tendencies and facets of practices linked to the students` reality. By analyzing the virtual classes done by the couples, we noted that some of the Multimedia Principles were used, as the elaborations of good pedagogical material could empower the teaching and learning. Our research studies makes possible to the pre-service teachers reflect and develop technological, pedagogical and content knowledge by planning virtual classes using the Moodle Platform. / Em nossa pesquisa objetivamos investigar conhecimento, se algum, tecnológico, pedagógico e de conteúdo de professores de Matemática em formação quanto à utilização dos recursos multimídias. Vinculado ao Programa PRODOCÊNCIA/UEPB, nossa pesquisa busca incutir processos de reflexão crítica na formação inicial do professor de Matemática, em particular na Educação Matemática, com a utilização das tecnologias da informação e comunicação (TIC), podendo vir a contribuir para melhoria dos cursos de licenciaturas. Nossa pesquisa se deu por abordagem qualitativa, com a aplicação de uma proposta didática realizada entre os meses de março e junho de 2015. Os sujeitos participantes foram dez alunos do Curso de Licenciatura em Matemática da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba UEPB, que cursavam o terceiro período da componente curricular Informática Aplicada ao Ensino II. Os professores em formação foram organizados em duplas. Utilizamos como instrumentos de pesquisa para nossa coleta dos dados, observação participante, questionários, entrevistas (áudios) e notas de campo. Primeiramente, buscamos delinear o perfil das duplas com relação ao conhecimento de plataformas digitais e concepções ao cursar um componente curricular de formato distinto, no qual foi cenário desta pesquisa. Em seguida, analisamos o conhecimento, se algum, tecnológico, pedagógico e de conteúdo apresentado pelas duplas. Baseamo-nos no modelo teórico TPACK de Koehler e Mishra (2005). Também analisamos os recursos multimídias com a construção das aulas virtuais pelas duplas. Nesta fase de análise, foram utilizados pelos professores em formaçãoos Princípios Multimídias de Mayer (2001), que auxiliam na construção de materiais multimídias bem elaborados, podendo promover melhor aprendizagem. Com base nos dados analisados, podemos concluir que nossa pesquisa possibilitou oportunidade para professores de Matemática em formação estar ativos e engajados de forma plena tanto de modo individual como de dupla. Percebemos que por muitas vezes o professor em formação se forma com lacunas sobre gestão de sala de aula, ou seja, o conhecimento pedagógico é pouco explorado, fazendo com que a formação continuada fique sobrecarregada de responsabilidade com esse professor diante das novas tendências e vertentes de práticas coligadas com a realidade dos alunos. Ao analisarmos as aulas virtuais construídas pelas duplas, notamos que alguns Princípios Multimídias foram utilizados, tendo em vista a elaboração de bons materiais pedagógicos que podem vir a potencializar o ensino e a aprendizagem. A nossa pesquisa possibilitou professores em formação refletirem e desenvolverem conhecimentos, tecnológico, pedagógico e de conteúdo ao planejar aulas virtuais utilizando a Plataforma Moodle.

Information and communication technologies have changed the traditional concept of education and improved existing educational methods. Student Response System is a new teaching system that combines technology and education. Student Response System encourages immediate feedback on teaching content, which not only improves student engagement, learning, and satisfaction but also enhances their understanding of course materials. The purpose of this paper is to study the reasons and motivations that affecting the use of SRS also the challenges that are faced by teachers from technology faculty at Linnaeus University. In this study, a qualitative research method is used to conduct a semi-structured interview with eight teachers who have the experience of using the Student Response System and collect data as well. Data analysis and identification of three major themes based onresearch questions and related literature. According to the interview results, the reasons why teachers use such a system is that it can promote students' participation, learning and provide timely feedback, but they still face problems such as insufficient software functions, network instability, teaching time constraints. The study may provide suggestions for improving teaching methods and help other Swedish universities and departments to use SRS better.Also software designers can get some advice.

The goal of this study was to explore technology experiences from a preservice teacher preparation program that requires every preservice teachers and instructors to own a laptop. The participants were a) preservice teachers who were in the program and b) novice teachers who are the program graduates. The setting of this study was a preservice teacher preparation program that involves one-to-one computing throughout in a college of education in a large southwestern university. The research conducted a cross sectional case study. Two preservice teachers across the first, second, and third semesters of the program and two novice teachers in the first year of teaching participated in this research. Various data sources were collected with: a) technological skills and attitude survey, b) related documents such as lesson plans, assignments and school documents, c) observation, and d) interviews. Results of this study showed each participant’s learning environment, technology experiences and technology skills, attitudes and knowledge. All preservice teachers mutually had media cart, instructors’ laptops, students’ laptops, and wireless internet in university classes, and had innovation station, teachers’ computers, printer, telephone, students’ computers, headsets and wireless internet in PK-6 school classes. Throughout the program, university instructors mutually required Email, word processing and electronic submission of assignments to the preservice teachers. The instructors mutually modeled using PowerPoint and Learning Management System (LMS). Preservice teachers in the first semester mutually used video creation, preservice teachers in the second semester used Email and LMS, and preservice teachers in the third semester mutually used search engine, PowerPoint and innovation station. All participants’ technology attitudes were overall positive. Most of the preservice teachers’ technology knowledge was rated accepting level, except Neal, one of the preservice teachers in the third semester, who was rated adapting level. Novice teachers mutually had innovation station, web conferencing devices and students’ laptops in their school. Both of the novice teachers experienced barrier of technology integration due to the necessary devices were already checked out. The novice teachers mutually used innovation station, had overall positive technology attitudes and had technology knowledge at the accepting level. The results led six discussion issues, including a) alignment of technological infrastructure, b) accessibility of technologies, c) limited exposure to technological activities, d) preservice teachers’ technology skills, e) technology experiences from the program and preservice teachers’ technology attitudes, and f) programmatic impact on novice teachers. / text