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Equipping the Next Generation of Teachers
Abstract
Prior research has indicated that all U.S. teacher preparation programs provide instruction on technology integration within coursework and related requirements. This study provides a more detailed investigation into the types and content of technology experiences U.S. teacher preparation programs offer teachers in training. The researchers analyzed data obtained from an online questionnaire, interviews, and artifacts to understand the differences among programs in regard to technology experiences. Eighty percent of respondents indicated all or some of their programs required a standalone educational technology course. Personal productivity and information presentation were the most commonly reported topics taught in all programs. This article also discusses limitations of the study and areas of future research.
... However, the journey is challenging for digital immigrant nurse educators (born before 1985), who are on the verge of adapting and learning new things in using and integrating technology into classes. They have to embrace and integrate FLO as a new scheme of teaching and learning that disfavors their traditional methods or conventional pedagogical approaches (Gronseth et al., 2010;Wargadinata et al., 2020). There seems to be a gap between educators, new methods of learning, and learners, with digital immigrant educators on the furthest line of the gap (Monsivais & Robbins, 2020;Wargadinata et al., 2020). ...
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled many educational institutions to employ flexible learning options (FLO), requiring technology integration in teaching. Digital immigrant nurse educators, who are educators born before 1985, may need help adopting FLO due to their limited technological knowledge and skills. This study explores the challenges digital immigrant nurse educators face in adopting FLO as a teaching strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Employing a qualitative phenomenological research approach, we researched 6 digital immigrant nurse educators with at least 10 years of teaching experience in the nursing institution at the College of Health Sciences of Mindanao State University in Marawi City, Philippines. These educators, expressing difficulty in adopting FLO, were purposively selected and interviewed from October 2021 to April 2022. Interviews were conducted through a scheduled Zoom meeting. For this purpose, an interview guide with open-ended questions was used. Colaizzi’s method of analysis was applied to analyze the data. Results: We identified 4 themes representing the challenges digital immigrant nurse educators face in adopting FLO. The themes comprised a lack of technological knowledge and skills, difficulty adjusting to new teaching methods, inadequate technological resources, and emotional stress and exhaustion. Conclusion: Given the challenges experienced by Filipino digital immigrant nurse educators in integrating FLO amid the pandemic, this study recommends providing support and resources to improve these nurse educators’ technical knowledge and skills. Continuous education is crucial for successfully integrating FLO into their teaching practices.
... While some attention has been paid to the support required by teachers (Ajuwon et al., 2016;Gronseth et al., 2010) as well as their perceived competence in | 3 ASSISTIVE DEVICES using AT to teach students with VI (Zhou et al., 2012), the perceived impact of AT on both the learning and the environmental experiences of students with VI has not been studied. Specifically, available studies have explored the impact of AT generally without studying how devices are addressing the learning and environmental needs of students with VI. ...
Students with disabilities such as visual impairment (VI) face challenges in accessing education, mainly owing to their inability to participate in learning activities in the classroom. While experts in special education have discussed the deployment of assistive technology (AT) to support the learning of students with VI, research on its impact is very scarce, especially in non-western countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To bridge this gap, this study explored special education teachers' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of AT in supporting the learning and mobility of students with VI in schools. A total of 228 special education teachers from three regions in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, participated in the study. The participants completed an assistive technology for VI scale, and the data were subjected to mean score computation, multivariate analyses of variance and correlation and hierarchical multiple regression. Participants rated the impact of AT highly with regard to the reading, writing and orientation and mobility skills of students with VI. Interestingly, the orientation/mobility sub-scale showed an association with teacher experience and location. The article discusses the practical implications of the findings as well as directions for future research
... While various models exist for how candidates are prepared to use technology, teacher preparation programs frequently require only a stand-alone course focusing on technology integration (Gronseth et al., 2010). Unfortunately, recent teacher education graduates continue to indicate their lack of preparation to implement technology within instructional practices. ...
Teacher education programs struggle to infuse educational technology (edtec) throughout the curriculum. Edtec faculty can play several roles within the programmatic design of teacher education programs. The purpose of this study was to explore edtec faculty perspectives of technology infusion efforts within their preparation programs. Q methodology research design and factor analysis were used to examine data from Q sorts completed exclusively by edtec faculty members (N = 16). A Q set of 44 statements was used to explore their perspectives on value of technology for teaching and learning, confidence levels, educator preparation program design, and leadership support. Results revealed participants’ strong beliefs in the value of technology for teaching and learning, and their confidence in modeling technology integration. Participants loaded on two factors demonstrating that some held a broader view of educator preparation at their institutions and were more critical of programmatic structures and leadership support for candidate development. A question remains about the role of edtec faculty as they negotiate various opportunities and expectations within teacher education.
... The integration of technologies into teaching before the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have been low and therefore ineffective (Gronseth et al., 2010;Tondeur et al., 2012). Teachers have played and continue to play a vital role in incorporating technology into teaching. ...
The article is based on research aimed at exploring how teachers from the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University integrated digital technologies into their teaching in connection with the transition to emergency remote teaching. The main research question was aimed at identifying the role played by peer learning among university teachers in integrating digital technologies into higher education teaching. The data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 34 teachers from the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in the fall semester of 2020. The results indicate that although teachers valued the support of a technological workplace, they more strongly considered consultations with and advice from their colleagues. I identified four main roles played by peer learning among university teachers in integrating digital technologies into higher education teaching. The roles are: offering emotional support, understanding needs, providing intelligible advice, and mediating experience. I also address two limitations to peer learning that need to be considered: the limited variety of technological tools and fragmented and unsubstantiated procedures. Studies have repeatedly shown that peer learning plays a long-term role in the process of integrating and adapting technologies into higher education; however, until now we have lacked information on the significance of peer learning for teachers in integrating digital technologies and on its limitations, both of which I address in this study.
... By changing teaching strategies and continuously strengthening effective teacher education interventions, it is possible to promote teacher TPACK development. Since the introduction, there have been many ways to help teachers develop TPACK [18], and this includes focusing on learning technology [19] or trying to inject it into other educational courses, such as educational psychology or teaching methods [20]. ...
Teacher education is an important strategy for developing teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Many schools in the world have incorporated the training into teacher education plans. However, there has been controversy in academic circles concerning the effects of teacher education intervention in promoting the development of teacher TPACK. Therefore, this study used a meta-analysis approach to review the published literature on teacher education programs to determine the impact on TPACK. The results showed that teacher education intervention positively affected TPACK (d = 0.839, p < 0.0001). Besides cultural background, experimental participants, types, sample types, intervention durations, differences in measurement methods, intervention types, and learning environments are the reasons for the differences in the effects of the interventions. The research design using random experiments had a significant positive effect on the size, which was significantly higher than that of the quasi-experiment. The longer the duration of teaching intervention, the stronger the improvement effect of teachers’ TPACK. There are significant differences in improving TPACK between teaching interventions, and the effect is more obvious. Teacher education intervention has a greater and slightly smaller impact on theoretical and practical knowledge. However, cultural background, experimental participant, sample type, and learning environment have no significant effect on teacher education intervention.
The paper presents an overview of challenges and demands related to teachers’ digital skills and technology integration into educational content and processes. The paper raises a debate how technologies have created new skills gaps in pre-service and in-service teacher training and how that affected traditional forms of teacher education. Accordingly, it is discussed what interventions might be applicable to different contexts to address these challenges. It is argued that technologies should be viewed both as the field where new competences should be developed and at the same time as the method used in developing learning environments for teacher students.
Purpose:
The present study aimed to investigate teachers' use and perceptions of digital technology to promote learning and participation for all young students in early reading and writing education in inclusive primary schools.
Methods:
Primary school teachers [N = 289] in Sweden were asked to complete a survey about digital technology in reading and writing education. The data were analysed statistically and with summative content analysis.
Results:
The results showed that 82% of the teachers were interested in teaching young students to read and write using digital technology. More than 50% of the teachers included digital technology to promote students' learning of phonological awareness, decoding skills, vocabulary, spelling, or text editing every week, and 74% used digital technology to support students with special needs every week. Those who perceived digital technology as a facilitator of all students' participation in early reading and writing education also reported that they used digital technology to promote different reading and writing skills more frequently. Their perceived knowledge of managing digital technology was also positively related to their perception of digital technology as a facilitator of students' participation in reading and writing education.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONTeachers who are positive about digital technology perceive such technology as beneficial for all students in reading and writing education, also for those students who have special needs.Teachers use digital technology to compensate students with special needs in reading and writing. However, there is an unawareness of the advantages of using digital technology in inclusive education.
Often, educators teach the way they were taught. To graduate pre-service teachers (PTs) and in-service teachers (ITs) who are power users of innovative web-based technology, teacher educators (TEs) need to enhance their own technology competence and model technology-rich instruction in traditional, online, and hybrid learning environments. TEs can accomplish this by using a technology integration model and professional standards to guide meaningful integration of emerging technology. In this chapter, the authors describe how they used the 2017 ISTE Standards for Educators and the Replacement, Amplification, and Transformation (RAT) Model to redesign six assignments at two universities in the USA. In addition to enhancing TEs' pedagogical technological knowledge, disposition, and skills, these modified assignments enhanced PTs' and ITs' 21st century skills (21st CS).
Research continually demonstrates that a significant learning curve exists related to educators integrating technology into classrooms. This learning curve was exacerbated when instruction shifted entirely online following school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines the complex process of preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) to transition to a new world of online teaching, shedding light on critical components of teacher education during this time. Looking across multiple sources of data (i.e., interviews, Zoom lessons, written feedback, lesson plans), findings point to the importance of creating opportunities for PSTs to collaborate and to practice teaching virtually.
The literature base on technology professional development for teachers reveals that there is a long way to go in understanding methods of effective practice with respect to the various impacts of these activities on teaching and learning. In the No Child Left Behind era, with programs like Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology, the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education, and E-rate (the schools and library portion of the Universal Service Fund) that have been targeted as No Demonstrated Results, we need to move to a more systematic study of how technology integration occurs within our schools, what increases its adoption by teachers, and the long-term impacts that these investments have on both teachers and students. In addition to the findings of a comprehensive literature review, this article also articulates a systematic evaluation plan that, if implemented, will likely yield the information needed to better understand these important educational issues.
In this article, the authors explore how the pervasive availability of technology allows for new social arrangements in teacher education by connecting preservice teachers, school-based personnel, university faculty, and others in deep and engaging ways. The authors illustrate this perspective and then propose four implications for teacher education institutions that build on this view. Specifically, the authors recommend that technology be used in teacher education to (a) create technically literate education professionals, (b) strengthen the practice—theory connection, (c) provide more practice-centered training, and (d) reflect deeply into the scholarship and practice of teaching. The authors discuss each of the four implications in turn and provide examples of institutional practices aligned with these goals.
This article describes year two of an ongoing Goals 2000 Preservice Technology Infusion Project that sought to prepare higher education faculty, K–12 teachers, and preservice teachers to integrate technology into their instruction to facilitate a dynamic, constructivist vision of technology integration. Results indicate that project activities facilitated (1) increased proficiency in technology applications and instructional methods among all participants and (2) faculty integration of technology in education courses. In addition, higher education faculty and preservice teachers felt that project activities enabled a constructivist view of technology integration, as they now see technology as an instructional tool used to engage students in meaningful learning.
We launched a technology professional development initiative in a school district with the goal of extending technology use in the classroom beyond being a mere teaching tool. For teachers to teach expertly, we wanted them to “be the technology” by modeling technology use in the classroom, applying technology across the curriculum, applying technology to problem solving and decision making in authentic learning environments, and applying technology to facilitate collaboration and cooperation among learners. To implement this technology initiative, we established a set of technology standards and indicators to describe best practices for expert teaching and student learning using technology. We hypothesized that teachers would experience several stages as they developed into expert technology integrators and that we could evaluate this technology initiative by tracking their progress through these stages. We formulated and validated a developmental model for technology integration, the Technology Integration Standards Configuration Matrix (TISCM), based on the stages, standards, and indicators of our technology professional development initiative, as a tool for use in the evaluation of technology integration among the teachers in the school district.
To improve educational services to students with disabilities, the United States government has mandated that each state develop a Comprehensive System of Personnel Development. The following article highlights the results of a state-wide needs assessment conducted by one state's Department of Education in order to tailor their system of personnel development. Four percent of the state's general educators, and 6% of the state's special education teachers completed the surveys for a total of 289 surveys. Perceptions of ability to positively affect students, understanding of inclusion, self-efficacy in serving students in inclusive settings, the need for inservice training in various areas, and the availability of supports to promote inclusion were examined for both special and general education teachers. In every area assessed, special education teachers rated their efficacy, ability, understanding, and resources higher than general education teachers. These results are discussed in terms of meeting professional development needs for both groups of teachers.
The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act mandates that every student with an Individualized Education Program be considered for assistive technology (AT). As a result, future special educators need to have the knowledge and skills regarding AT. In this article, the authors report findings from a national study of special education teacher preparation programs using archival document analysis on the current practice of AT course delivery for the preparation of special educators. Findings indicate that AT training at the pre-service level may not be adequately addressed. Approximately one third of undergraduate special teacher licensure programs, 28% of initial postbaccalaureate licensure programs, and less than 25% of master'sdegree programs require AT coursework. In addition, licensure in severe and moderate disabilities requires an AT course more frequently than other types of certification programs. The findings have important implications for future practices in special education teacher preparation.
Assistive Technology (AT) devices and services have been legally mandated for several years. However, the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Act Amendments P.L. 105?17 (IDEA1997), which states that every student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) must be considered for AT, had enormous implications impacting approximately six million school-aged students identified with a disability. As a result, states have written assistive technology policies, procedures, guidelines, and technical assistance manuals to reflect the change in federal laws. In order to comply with state policies, school districts are in need of qualified personnel to plan, develop, and implement assistive devices and services. However, because of the lack of AT degree and certification programs at the preservice level, it is often problematic for districts to find AT trained personnel, thus, directly impacting the services that can be provided for students with disabilities.
Most policy makers, corporate executives, practitioners, and parents assume that wiring schools, buying hardware and software, and distributing the equipment throughout will lead to abundant classroom use by teachers and students and improved teaching and learning. This article examines these assumptions in two high schools located in the heart of technological progress, Northern California’s Silicon Valley. Our qualitative methodology included interviews with teachers, students, and administrators, classroom observations, review of school documents, and surveys of both teachers and students in the two high schools. We found that access to equipment and software seldom led to widespread teacher and student use. Most teachers were occasional users or nonusers. When they used computers for classroom work, more often than not their use sustained rather than altered existing patterns of teaching practice. We offer two interrelated explanations for these challenges to the dominant assumptions that guide present technological policy making.