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Department of Educational Psychology & Instructional Technology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Department of Learning Technologies, The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
c
Program Evaluation Group, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
b
h i g h l i g h t s
< Teacher beliefs (i.e., epistemology and conceptions of teaching) were examined.
< The goal was to understand why technology is integrated differently among teachers.
< Such beliefs were related to teachers technology integration practice.
< Teacher beliefs need be considered in order to facilitate technology integration.
< Several suggestions for positive changes in teachers beliefs are provided.
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 7 November 2011
Received in revised form
13 August 2012
Accepted 14 August 2012
The purpose of this exploratory mixed methods study was to investigate how teacher beliefs were
related to technology integration practices. We were interested in how and to what extent teachers (a)
beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, (b) beliefs about effective ways of teaching, and (c)
technology integration practices were related to each other. The participants were twenty two teachers
who have participated in a four-year professional development project funded by the U.S. Department of
Education. Specic relations between teachers beliefs and technology integration practices are presented. The implications for professional development and suggestions for teacher belief change and
technology integration are discussed.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Technology integration
Teacher education
Teacher beliefs
Diffusion of innovation
1. Introduction
As an international phenomenon, technology is an important
part of our everyday lives and efforts to improve teaching and
learning (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997; Voogt, Tilya, & van
den Akker, 2009; Williams, Linn, Ammon, & Gearhart, 2004).
With the importance of technology in education, technology integration has been greatly emphasized in teacher training and
professional development (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). However, it
has been criticized that teachers have not been provided with
adequate support that goes beyond learning specic technology
skills (e.g., using a particular tool or software program) (Llorens,
Salanova, & Grau, 2002).
In recent years, technological pedagogical content knowledge
(TPACK; changed from TPCK in Thompson & Mishra, 2007) has been
77
78
Structure of
knowledge
Source of
knowledge
Stability of
knowledge
Speed of learning
Ability to learn
79
80
Table 2
Levels of use (Hall et al., 2006).
0: Nonuse
1: Orientation
2: Preparation
3: Mechanical use
4B: Renement
5: Integration
6: Renewal
team rated each item independently and then the team debriefed
each observation and reviewed scorings as a group to reach
a consensus on scores, which were used in the data analysis. Interrater reliability was over .70; however, this reliability score is not
statistically interpretable due to the small number of observations.
For the teacher interviews, one of the researchers led all the
interviews but each interview had two other researchers participating. Each interview was audio-recorded. Two of the research
Fig. 2. Branching chart in (From: Measuring implementation in schools: Levels of Use (Fig. 3.1: Branching Chart, p. 18) by G. E. Hall, D. J. Dirksen, and A. A. George, 2006,
Austin: SEDL. Copyright 2006, SEDL. Reprinted by ChanMin Kim with permission of SEDL).
81
Technology
Integration
Measures
Variables
Mean (SD)
Structure of knowledge
Source of knowledge
Stability of knowledge
Speed of learning
Ability to learn
Class discussionb
Learning processc
Teacher roleb
3.27
3.72
3.13
3.75
3.65
3.30
2.81
2.67
Lesson designd
Lesson implementationd
Level of technology usee
2.69 (.56)
2.62 (.82)
3.79 (1.43)
(.25)
(.27)
(.39)
(.26)
(.34)
(1.27)
(.70)
(.55)
r = .673 to .882
Teacher Beliefs about
r = .422 to .447
Effective ways of
teaching
(Conceptions of
teaching)
The nature of
knowledge and
learning
(Epistemology)
Notes: Possible ranges: 1e5 for a, b, d; 1e6 for c; 0e7 for e. Date sources: d was
obtained from observations; e was determined from interview data.
Fig. 3. Correlations among teacher beliefs and technology integration.
Table 4
Correlations among variables.
1
1.Structure of knowledge
2.Source of knowledge
3.Stability of knowledge
4.Speed of learning
5.Ability to learn
6.Class discussion
7.Learning process
8.Teacher role
9.Lessson design
10.Lesson implementation
11.Level of technology use
e
.027
.101
.138
.110
.143
.233
.292
e
.196
.064
.203
.077
.065
.179
e
.446*
.532*
.692*
.549
.882*
10
e
.390
.372
.673*
e
.752*
.826*
e
.849*
e
.477*
.486*
.288
.190
.213
.444*
.447*
.233
.235
.125
e
.189
.410
.071
.151
.422*
.361
.327
.157
.197
e
.146
.133
.103
.299
.064
.047
.154
.428
e
.556*
.024
.016
.479
82
Table 5
Example scenarios illustrating different technology integration practices according to epistemological beliefs and teaching philosophy.
Teacher X
Teacher Y
6. Discussion
6.1. Summary of ndings
As stated previously, our core interest was in relationships
between teachers beliefs and their technology integration practices. The overall goal of the professional development aspect of the
project was to increase the technology capacity and competency of
teachers in poorly performing rural schools and the goal was achieved as shown in research on the project (e.g., McKeown, 2008).
However, to nd ways of improving professional development and
to contribute to larger communities of teacher education and
technology integration, it was necessary to examine why teachers
differently integrated technology into classrooms (e.g., using an
interactive whiteboard to show content vs. to interact with
students).
As fundamental beliefs, teachers beliefs about the nature of
knowledge and learning (epistemology) and beliefs about effective
ways of teaching (conceptions) were examined. We found that
teachers beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning and
beliefs about effective ways of teaching were related to their
technology integration practices. This nding is consistent with
prior research that has shown that teacher beliefs are strongly
connected to teaching practices (Kagan, 1992; Nespor, 1987;
Pajares, 1992). Although technology integration is about how
teaching is practiced, there has not been much research on the
connections between teachers epistemology and conceptions and
their technology integration practices.
Our study ndings suggest that teacher beliefs should be
considered in order to facilitate technology integration. Especially,
teacher beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning that
inuence their beliefs about effective ways of teaching should be
further studied since those fundamental beliefs can be a starting
point to overcome the second-order barriers to technology integration. For example, the nding that teachers beliefs about the
speed of learning and the source of knowledge are most strongly
related to their conceptions suggests that personal epistemology
determines decision making on how to teach in general as well as
how to teach with technology (Chan & Elliott, 2004).
It is worth noting that we only indicate that teacher beliefs are
related to technology integration. Correlation does not imply
causation. Correlation-coefcients are obtained by standardizing
the covariance between variables, which makes it possible to
compare the relative strength of covariances. There is an empirical
consensus of the magnitude of the value in social sciences (Glass &
Hopkins, 2008). Values in this study indicate either strong or very
strong relationships since they fell into the range either between .4
and .6 or between .6 (strong) and 1.0 (very strong; see Table 4). We
also would like to highlight the practical signicance of the correlations in this study. The associations of the beliefs about the nature
of knowledge and learning on technology integration seem implicit
and medicated by more explicit beliefs such as beliefs about
effective ways of teaching. Those ndings imply that designing
interventions for changes of the beliefs about effective ways of
teaching could be more effective and efcient to lead changes of
technology integration as well as positively inuence the beliefs
about knowledge and learning.
It should be further studied what should be done to make
positive changes to teachers beliefs to enact technology integration
that promotes student learning. This is critical in the 21st century
when it is expected that the teacher is a facilitator or coach for
learning rather than a purveyor of expert knowledge (Deakin
Crick, 2012, p. 175). To fulll the expectation, teachers beliefs
that students can be a source of their own knowledge, for example,
can be a gateway belief to facilitate changing how technology is
integrated into teaching and learning. The role of teachers as
a facilitator is shown to be important in McCombs, Daniels, and
Perrys (2008) study; that is, students perceptions of their
teachers facilitation of thinking and learning were positively
correlated with their perceptions of their own competence and
interest in school (p. 29). The following section describes what can
be done to help with positive changes in teachers beliefs.
6.2. Suggestions for teacher belief change
Researchers have discussed how and to what extent teacher
beliefs can be altered. Pajares (1992) argued that changes in adults
beliefs are rare and if changes occur, a gestalt shift enabled the
changes (p. 325). Kagan (1992) acknowledged that teacher beliefs
do not change by reading about newer beliefs but change through
conceptual change that requires them to critically recognize their
own beliefs as well as to observe, evaluate, and alternative beliefs
(p. 76). Although many agree that beliefs are resistant to change,
they also agree that the difculty changing teacher beliefs comes
from experience that teachers bring into their beliefs (Kagan, 1992;
Kane et al., 2002; Pajares, 1992). This suggests that we ought to
allow experience that can be built up to challenge teachers current
beliefs but ultimately optimize their beliefs for student learning.
The argument that teacher beliefs ought to be considered to
improve teaching practices is consistent among researchers who
study teacher beliefs in relation to technology integration. Changes
in teacher beliefs are recommended as a critical part for facilitating
teacher change in the contexts of technology use (e.g., Ertmer &
Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Some attempt to change teacher
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