RTL2 Assignment 2

Mitchell Cavens

Overarching Question: How can teachers improve Secondary student engagement based in

the classroom?

Sub-Question: How does the teachers views and method of use of ICT in the classroom

influence their perception of their students’ engagement?

Part A

This review attempts to answer the question of ‘How does the teachers views and

method of use of ICT in the classroom influence their perception of their students’

engagement? The synthesis and analysis of eight selected peer-reviewed articles demonstrate

a variety of views on this topic, highlighting the need for further research in the area. Topics

discussed will include how a teachers’ view on classroom leadership, as well as the teacher’s

flexibility of views can change their views on ICT, influencing how they perceive their

student’s engagement. Also discussed will be the topic of how a teachers view on a specific

ICT tool, as well as the classroom environment influences their perception on their students

engagement.

In ‘What factors facilitate teacher skill, teacher morale, and perceived student

learning in technology-using classrooms?’, researchers interviewed and surveyed a total of

94 teachers from 12 different ‘high-technology use’ public schools across the United States

with the purpose of understanding how school personnel can achieved their desired results
using ICT (Baylor & Ritchie, 2002). After a close analysis of the teacher’s backgrounds,

Baylor and Ritchie argue that generally speaking, a teacher’s perception on the effectiveness

of ICT in engagement in the classroom is negatively influenced by the very high value placed

on student content acquisition of their students, as it detracts from using ICT for creative and

critical thinking tasks which are generally more engaging (Baylor & Ritchie, 2002). This

suggests that a teacher’s perception on the effectiveness of the use of ICT in the classroom

can influence the success and engagement of their students. This is echoed in ‘Teacher beliefs

and technology integration practices: A critical relationship’, where the correlation between

a teacher’s pedagogical belief and their classroom practices in relation to ICT are reviewed

(Ertmer et.al., 2012). In this article, twelve K-12 classroom teachers were individually

interviewed following from an in-depth analysis of their websites in order to determine the

belief behind their pedagogical practices (Ertmer et.al., 2012). In similitude with the previous

article, the results suggested that teachers with student-centred views had a very positive

effect on the student’s engagement with ICT tasks.

Researchers found the same to be true in ‘Teacher and student reflections on ICT-rich

science inquiry’. Here, researchers and six science teachers of year nine and ten students in

New Zealand schools worked together to understand how the use of ICT within the

classroom can provide an engaging avenue for inquiry-based learning to further improve

student discussion, problem solving, and solution finding (Williams, & Otrel-Cass, 2017). It

was discovered that teachers with authoritarian pedagogical beliefs struggled to make use of

the inquiry-based student-led ICT approach, however, in correlation with previous research,

teachers with student-centred pedagogical beliefs could adapt to the changes more rapidly

(Williams, & Otrel-Cass, 2017). Williams and Otrel-Cass concluded that teachers must be

flexible in order to cater for the option to make use of ICT within the classroom, as their

views can hinder the opportunity for students to be engaged (Williams, & Otrel-Cass, 2017).
A correlation of views is reflected in ‘Exploring ICT Integration as a Tool to Engage Young

People at a Flexible Learning Centre’, which describes how Kimberley Wilson and Suzi

Boldeman work with staff at the Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) Flexible

Learning Centres (Queensland, Australia) in order to “explore the value of integrating ICT”

to allow students who attend the centre every opportunity to improve engagement levels in

the subject of science (Wilson & Boldeman, 2012). Students who attend these Flexible

Learning Centres (FLCs) have often experienced extremely challenging life circumstances

and have subsequently found themselves disengaged with mainstream schooling (Wilson &

Boldeman, 2012). In this report, following a 4-year longitudinal project, Wilson and

Boldeman conclude that ICT integration was a major factor in improvement in the students’

engagement, and due to the positive results, teachers favourably perceived the use of ICT in

an educational environment, again demonstrating that a teacher’s perception and flexibility of

views on ICT can influence student engagement.

In ‘Teachers' belief and use of interactive whiteboards for teaching and learning’,

Yalin Turel and Tristan Johnson observed and gave questionaries to 174 Turkish teachers

ranging from years 6-12 in order to determine teacher’s perceptions of the use of Interactive

whiteboards (IWB) in the classroom (Türel & Johnson, 2012). In general, teachers perceived

that the use of IWBs positively affected their student’s engagement by increasing their

motivation (Türel & Johnson, 2012). However, their research indicates that teachers could

not utilise IWBs in creating an interactive student-led environment, a key element discussed

in earlier readings. Interestingly, this research discovered a correlation between frequency of

IWB use and perceptions of IWB effectiveness (Türel & Johnson, 2012). Therefore,

according to this research, as teachers utilise this particular tool of ICT more frequently, and

by extension, any ICT tool, their perceptions surrounding its effectivity for student

engagement becomes more positive. Other international research affirms this point. In ‘The
role of teacher, student, and ICT in enhancing student engagement in multi-user virtual

environments’, researchers analysed the effects of the use of a specific ICT tool, multi-user

virtual environments (MUVes), in the Singaporean English classroom (Rappa, Yip, & Baey,

2009). MUVe’s allow the class to role play in a virtual environment using avatars, interacting

with each other in an online environment. In this study, multiple groups of 4-5 17-18-year-

old students participated in an educational MUVe five times every term over two terms.

Here, the researchers noted along with the teachers that student engagement was positively

influenced by this exercise due to the change in learning environment towards a virtual

environment where there were no barriers to discussion, and where there was no risk in

failure (Rappa, Yip, & Baey, 2009). Here is another example of how a positive perception of

a specific ICT tool can have a positive effect on how the teacher perceives their students’

engagement.

In contrast to the previous research, a report on a study of student engagement in an

ICT course at Monash University demonstrated that educators can have a negative perception

on the effectiveness of the use of ICT on student engagement (Sheard, Carbone, & Hurst,

2010). In this report, the staff at Monash University were interviewed and surveyed in order

to determine how they perceived the levels of engagement of their students, and the students

were surveyed and interviewed in order to uncover their perceptions on why they were

disengaged (Sheard, Carbone, & Hurst, 2010). Seventeen staff were interviewed, and their

perception was that their students displayed behavioural disengagement by a lack of lecture

attendance, cognitive disengagement by an apparent lack of willingness to invest in their

work, and affective disengagement varying according to the motivation levels of the students

(Sheard, Carbone, & Hurst, 2010). Interestingly, it was discovered that many students explain

that their lack of attendance was due to the convenience of using ICT programs at home to

view the required material. This suggests that in this environment, and other educational
environments by extension, the use of some specific ICT tools or methods could direct the

teacher to perceive that ICT can have a negative impact on their students. In ‘Active Learning

and ICT in Upper Secondary School: an Exploratory Case Study on Student Engagement by

Debating’, researchers describe how an environmental change; from the classroom with low

ICT function to a larger hall with high ICT function can also influence the teachers

perception on their students engagement; but in contrast to the previous article, with positive

results. Within this article, teacher observations of the levels of their student’s engagement

were addressed in reference to a student-led classroom debate in an English classroom in

Leghorn, San Francisco (Panzavolta & Laici, 2017). 22 students were involved in this debate,

and it was noted by the teacher that her classroom climate and engagement improved when

she allowed her students access to a different room, as well as the opportunity to prepare for

the debate using ICT tools (Panzavolta & Laici, 2017). It should be noted that the students

use of ICT in this school is restricted to the room that they are in, with only teachers having

access to Wi-Fi. The teachers noted that this could have played a role in relation to the

engagement of their students (Panzavolta & Laici, 2017), also exhibiting the understanding

that the environment in relation to ICT use and methods of use can influence a teacher’s

perception on their students’ engagement.

In conclusion, it can be noted that a teachers’ view on classroom leadership, as well as

the teacher’s flexibility of views can change their views on ICT, influencing how they

perceive their student’s engagement. Also, the classroom environment as well as how a

teacher view on a specific ICT tool can influence a teacher’s perception on their students

engagement. Though these conclusions shed light on the question of ‘How does the teachers

views and method of use of ICT in the classroom influence their perception of their students’

engagement?’ there is room for more research in this area.

Part B

Interview questions

1. Could you describe to me the different ways you might use ICT in the classroom?

2. What are your beliefs on the effectiveness of ICT use in the classroom?

3. When you organise ICT tasks for your class, on average, how much of the task is
student-led, and how much is teacher-led?

4. What types of ICT do you use at home?

5. How often do you use ICT at home?

Questionnaire: To be completed by the teacher directly after the lesson

1. What class did you just teach? __________________

2. How many times a week on average do you teach this class? __________________

3. In your experience, generally, how would you rate the level of engagement of these
students in your class? Please circle

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Completely disengaged Completely Engaged

4. Please briefly describe the ICT components of this lesson:

E.g. “Students individually completed maths sums on their iPad’s using ‘Mathspace’.”

___________________________________________________________________________

5. In this class, how did your ICT task affect the level of student engagement? Please
circle

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Very negatively Very positively

Part C

I have decided to use interview questions and a questionnaire as my methods of data

collection due to its potential to attain results which are relevant to my sub-question of ‘How

does the teachers views and method of use of ICT in the classroom influence their perception

of their students’ engagement?’. This question directs the teacher to judge the level of their

student’s engagement. This is not intended or expected to be a thoroughly accurate

measurement of student engagement, but rather a means by which teachers can have an idea

of how their views and method of ICT use can influence their students.

Data collection through the means of interviews can be an effective method to gather

information, particularly on opinion and perception, as it can encourage useful dialogue if

constructed in an appropriate manner (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2014). This interview is

intended to be taken place between myself and each individual teacher who decides to

participate before the questionnaire is completed. As my question seeks to understand how a

teachers’ views on classroom leadership may influence their use of ICT in the classroom, my

interview questions seek to attain critical teacher background information which will assist

me in understanding how this is translated in the classroom when the questionnaire is

completed. The aim of these questions is to ensure that the teachers’ response can indicate to

me their level of familiarity and positive/negative views surrounding ICT, as well as their

views surrounding classroom leadership. I have used a mixture of question types, beginning

with an introducing question, followed by more direct questions and projective questions in

order to support relevant and high-quality dialogue. Though these questions are intended to

direct the interviewee to relevant answers, they are not intended to be prescriptive. Upon the

conducting of the interview, probing questions and follow up questions will be included also.

They have not been included above due to my intention of ensuring a relaxed and informal

interview environment to encourage quality dialogue.

 Following on from the interview, the above questionnaire will be handed to the

teacher to be completed upon completion of a lesson of their choice. Unlike the interview,

this questionnaire is intended to achieve results regarding how the teacher perceived how the

use of ICT influenced student engagement, as well as what the specific use of ICT was. I

chose to undertake this questionnaire over conducting another interview due to the speed at

which questionnaires can gather meaningful results, especially as measurement or

understanding of perception can effectively be achieved through questionnaires (Dana &

Yendol-Hoppey, 2014). Five questions are included in the questionnaire, intended to be far

more specific to avoid irrelevant data collection. ‘Lickert Scales’ are also used as a means of

providing meaningful data that is simple to understand and apply.

Through the employment of these two data collection strategies, meaningful data

should be attained which is intended to uncover whether or not a teacher’s perception on the

effectiveness of the use of ICT in the classroom, as well as their personal beliefs behind their

pedagogical approach, influences the engagement of their students.

References

Baylor, A. L., & Ritchie, D. (2002). What factors facilitate teacher skill, teacher morale, and
perceived student learning in technology-using classrooms?. Computers &
education, 39(4), 395-414.

Dana, N., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2014). Reflective Educator's Guide to Classroom

Research (pp. 85-145 (Ch4). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Ertmer, P. A., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T., Sadik, O., Sendurur, E., & Sendurur, P. (2012).
Teacher beliefs and technology integration practices: A critical
relationship. Computers & Education, 59(2), 423-435.

Panzavolta, S., & Laici, C. (2017). Active Learning and ICT in Upper Secondary School: an
Exploratory Case Study on Student Engagement by Debating. EAI Endorsed
Transactions On E-Learning, 4(14), 1-9. doi: 10.4108/eai.26-7-2017.152907

Rappa, N. A., Yip, D. K. H., & Baey, S. C. (2009). The role of teacher, student and ICT in
enhancing student engagement in multiuser virtual environments. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 40(1), 61-69.

Sheard, J., Carbone, A., & Hurst, A. J. (2010). Student engagement in first year of an ICT
degree: staff and student perceptions. Computer Science Education, 20(1), 1-16.

Williams, J., & Otrel-Cass, K. (2017). Teacher and student reflections on ICT-rich science
inquiry. Research in Science & Technological Education, 35(1), 88-107.

Wilson, K. L., & Boldeman, S. U. (2012). Exploring ICT integration as a tool to engage
young people at a Flexible Learning Centre. Journal of Science Education and
Technology, 21(6), 661-668.

Yalın Kılıç Türel, & Tristan E. Johnson. (2012). Teachers' Belief and Use of Interactive
Whiteboards for Teaching and Learning. Journal of Educational Technology &
Society, 15(1), 381-394. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.15.1.381