Self-Efficacy: A Definition
Social Cognitive Theory
Triangulation Data analysis
Teacher Self-Efficacy
Problems for the researcher
Data Analysis and Related Literature review.
Baseline Group
Gender Deviation
Age Deviation
Comparison of data with other literature in the field.
Everyday Integration
Efficacy, Self-esteem, Confidence and Experience
Barriers to use
Integration paradigm.
Co-oping and Project design.
Organizational Climate
Teacher Integration Education.
Meta-evaluation of data and related literature.
Data Analysis and Comparison
Recommendation for Further Research
Data Review Report
Teacher efficacy in the classroom is facilitated by a number of different factors for different professions. However, in the case of the teaching classroom, and adapting to new technology, Bandura's belief that the environment and the person's attitude toward / interactions with the environment are reciprocally affective.
Bandura (1993) identified 4 specific ways that self-efficacy is formed:
Through cognitive experiences
Through motivational experiences
Their affective interactions with environment
Through selectional experiences and choices.
Cognitive Experiences
Bandura believed that the effects of self-efficacy beliefs on cognitive processes take many directed by individually selected, and personal goal setting is influenced by self-appraisal of capabilities. The stronger the teacher perceives their self-efficacy, the higher the goals and challenges people will set for themselves and the firmer is their commitment will be to them (A. Bandura, 1991). Most courses of action are shaped in thought through in this way.
People's beliefs in their abilities influence the types of scenarios they construct and rehearse. Those who have a high sense of efficacy visualize success scenarios that provide positive guides and supports for performance. Those who doubt their efficacy visualize failure scenarios and will often dwell on the many things that can go wrong. Or the person with the low self-efficacy will deliberately not plan the needed steps to complete a goal successfully. The ensuing failure thereby reinforces their personal belief.
It is difficult to achieve and accomplish goals while fighting self-doubt. Initially, people relied heavily on their past performance in judging in order to evaluate their personal efficacy and set their aspirations. But as they began to form a personal history of success and failure concerning their abilities through further experience, their performance attainments were powered more and more strongly and by their individual beliefs which have evolved from their history in their personal efficacy. (Bandura 1993) Because of the repetitive nature of the teaching profession, teachers can pursue there craft for years without encountering significant outside influences which challenge their goals setting practices. While settling into a 'rut' is not a conscious choice, in any profession, especially one which facilitated similar activities year after year, the likely hood that teachers will settle into a comfortable pattern is high. In regards to introducing technology into the classroom, technology itself introduces a completely new paradigm.
Technology is rapidly changing in the marketplace. The computers that are installed in a school today will likely be outdated within 2-3 years. Application and software also is changing at a rapid pace. So the teacher, in order to integrate technology in the classroom in a manner that is reflective of the marketplace must be adaptive to the changing technology at all times. Choosing a cognitive perspective that limits the interaction of technology with the students, or treats the technology as an 'add on' to the main subjects matter will likely put the teacher behind the learning curve regarding the technology's use.
In the same way, the school district that invests in technology must also invest in an ongoing meta-evaluation of the technology which it employs. Technical support staff, and ongoing support for the teaching staff are vital onramps into the information superhighway. Without the adaptive aids to assist teachers in integrating technology into the classroom, the investment will likely be underutilized, and the teaching staff frustrated by their lack of ability to fully integrates the technological aids.
Motivational Influences
Bandura identifies that most human motivation is cognitively, and specifically generated. People motivate themselves and guide their actions by the exercise of planning and forethought. They form beliefs about what they can do based on their goals, and their past history. They anticipate likely outcomes of future actions and they set goals for themselves and plan courses of action in order to realize those events and future goals which they value.. "Forethought is translated into incentives and appropriate action through self-regulatory mechanisms." (Bandura, 1993)
Bandura distinguished three different forms of cognitive motivators around which different theories have been built. These include:
Casual attributions and the attribution theory.
Outcome expectancies and the expectancy - value theory.
Cognized goals and the goal theory.
Teacher self-efficacy beliefs operate in each of these various forms of cognitive motivation. People who regard themselves as highly efficacious ascribe their failures to insufficient effort. Those who regard themselves as inefficacious, who do not have the confidence in their own efforts attribute their failures to low ability (Alden, 1986; Collins, 1982; McAuley, Duncan, & McElroy, 1989; Silver, Mitchell, & Gist, 1989).
This cycle is evident in the surveys taken of the teaching staff, as will be detailed further on in the study. Those who had a high confidence in their personal technological abilities have a high degree of efficacy regarding using technology in the classroom. The reciprocal statement was also true. However, in the case of using technology on the classroom, the teacher's perception of the schools support structure for technology was also a highly determinant influence on their effectiveness and efficacy with technology in the class room. Having the presence of technology, and technological devices in the classroom was not sufficient for the teacher to be able to function well, and integrate the technology into their activities. The teachers also needed the support of the school and administration to solve problems, and proactively manage the equipment in order for it to be valuable assed to the classroom. These details will also be born out in the data below.
Affective Process
People's beliefs in their capabilities affect how much stress and depression they experience in threatening or difficult situations, as well as their level of motivation" (A. Bandura, in press). This is the emotional mediator of their self-efficacy. Perceived efficacy to exercise control over stressors plays a central role in the presence of anxiety, and the presence of anxiety regarding any specific activity plays a significant role in determining whether or not the person will undertake a specific actions. People who believe they have control over environmental threats don't conjure up disturbing thought patterns. But those who believe they may not be able to manage threats experience high levels of anxiety arousal. "They dwell on their coping deficiencies. They view many aspects of their environment as fraught with danger. They magnify the severity of possible threats and worry about things that rarely happen. Stress is affected not only by perceived coping efficacy but by perceived efficacy to control disturbing thoughts." (Bandura 1993)
Applying this process to the teacher's role with technology in the classroom, teachers must be equipped and enabled to rise to a level of mastery of their technological tools in order to gain a positive efficacy. The teacher who encounters technology which they cannot master, or cannot adapt to the classroom is likely to develop anxiety arousal at best, or depression at worse over the prospect of using the technology in every day work. Another way to evaluate the possible response of the teacher in the classroom is the "fight or flight' response. While the teacher cannot fight against the technology, nor run away from his or her classroom, the teacher can choose to ignore the offending devices. The significance of this process in the classroom is seen in the date below.
Schools which do not have a support system for the teachers to assist them in integrating their technology into the classroom are responding in a modified flight or fight response by limiting their involvement with the technology. Therefore the schools which do not specifically set out to create a positive and supportive technology organizational environment are experiencing less inclusion of technology by the teachers into their everyday activity.
Selection Process
According to Bandura, (1993) people are partly the product of their environment, just as the environment is a product of the people who interact with, and create it. Therefore, beliefs of personal efficacy can shape the course lives take by influencing choice of activities and influencing the nature of the environment we live in. As mentioned above, people avoid activities they believe exceed their coping capabilities, but they are willing to undertake challenging activities and select situations which they believe they are capable of handling. By the choices the teachers make, they cultivate different abilities, interests, and social networks that ultimately determine their directional courses and their environment. Therefore any factor that influences choice behavior can profoundly affect the direction of person's development.
As applied to our setting of technology in the classroom, the choices teachers make to include technology in the classroom is a choice which affects both their efficacy toward teaching with technology, their abilities to continue to do so in the future, and their student's lives. A cycle self supporting cycle is created by the teacher of wither utilizing the technology in the class room as an important part of the instruction, or treating it like an unwanted add on to their standard teaching methodology. The course of actions taken by the teacher is one which will support itself, and duplicate itself unless acted on by an outside force.
Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory
Bandura believed that cognitive theories which attached human behaviors exclusively to external stimuli were simplistic perspectives on personality. His work has arisen from the belief that a person's personality and their environment determine and influence each other. His work, while begun with adolescents, developed these four steps in the process which he believed modeled and shaped a personal character. While this dissertation is not measuring personal character development, the application is similar. The person who is learning a significantly new process, and integrating that process into everyday activities is like a person earning to be kind to their neighbor, or learning how to integrate any other social skill, In order to learn the new behavior, the person follows these same four steps.
Attention: The level to which a person was affected by their environment was a measure of the attention paid to it. Bandura suggested that we pay attention to what which is most like ourselves, or that which we receive positive motivation in return.
Retention. We remember that which we have paid attention to. Therefore these influences will likely have the most influence on us.
Reproduction. Those things which we have given our attention, and applied via retention will be those characteristics which resurface in our life. Angry children were likely treated with anger in their home. The same can be said about patient children. Teachers who have a positive integration of technology in the classroom have learned that ability, either in their personal life or because of the school's support environment.
Motivation. Even with the patterns of attention, retention, and preproduction, these three forces will likely remain ineffective on our life unless we perceive a motivation to apply what we have taken in. The motivations Bandura suggests are most influential are reinforcements for behavior, or punishment for our actions. (Boeree, 1998)
Bandura's theory regarding behavior found its roots in his believe that behavior and environment are mutually reciprocal in influence. (VerWys, 2001) The person who develops specific behavior does so because he or she has applied himself to that learning process, and has received positive reinforcement as motivation, or negative reinforcement to eliminate other specific behaviors. Bandura continues by writing that person who develops avoidance behaviors is likely a person who has experienced disappointments, and developed maladaptive response to his environment. The personality categories which are at the center of these experiences most often are depression from failure and phobias from personal injury. But developing maladaptive, or avoidance behaviors is not limited to depression and phobic behavior. Typical passive aggression is a maladaptive behavior directed toward the object of the person anger.
While these emotional quotients are not often applied to whether a teacher works with a computer in the classroom, the principles which are developed by Bandura apply. It is also important to lay this foundation to understanding the factors which are behind the teacher's self- efficacy in order to understand the data that if reviewed in the next section of this chapter.
The teacher who is using, or not utilizing technology in the classroom, is making their choices based on emotionally connected reasoning. The teacher who does not adapt through positive experiences to a new behavior within his environment, will tend to develop protectional habits. These learned protectional responses, which appear in the person as a number of different activities then interfere with his ability to function in a positive and proactive manner with his environment. Therefore, the teacher who does not feel self-efficacy toward the integration of technology in the classroom will likely develop maladaptive behaviors toward the technology, thereby limiting his or her interaction with the technology. The critical result of this experience is that the student experience with technology is also limited. In the end the student and teacher do not experience the full benefit of having technology on the classroom. The result is that the student is not educated to the extent of the opportunity which is available to the, and the school does not receive a return their investment in the technology brought into the school.
Triangulation Data Analysis
Another brick to lay in the foundation regarding the data analysis before beginning the analysis is the idea of triangulation. Triangulation analysis seeks to develop multiple forms of overlapping and diverse pieces of evidence and perspectives in order to develop an intimate and expanded understanding of the data collected. (Shafer, 1998) The simple diagram below is a visual representation of the process. Process 1, 2, and 3 are all performed on the same experimental research evaluation. The individual processes can return data that is skewed for a number of reasons. The researchers own bias or influence on the subjects can affect the quality of the data. The individual process can return inaccurate data because of the study design, or the way the questions are asked, or any one of a number of reasons. However, by performing multiple processes, the results that overlap each other are those results that can be heavily relied upon as accurate.
Triangulation is a key factorial tenant of the approach to data gathering when studying people groups and their behaviors and therefore, key to educational research. The researcher should gather a wide variety of evidence for the purposes of triangulation (Jacob, 1990; O'Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996; Wiggins, 1998).
Triangulation works because, as opposed to relying on one single form of evidence or perspective as the basis for findings, multiple forms of diverse evidences are used to check the validity and reliability of the findings (Jacob, 1990; O'Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996; Maxwell, 1996; Wiggins, 1998). By using multiple forms of evidence and perspectives, a truer portrait of the subject of the study can be developed (Wiggins, 1998). Researchers unknowingly bring their own perspective into the research, and while it is impossible to eliminate these same biases in evidence collection process, the data collection and research rises to a level of increased integrity because more types of evidence are being used to form the opinions of the study. Through triangulation, there are more cross checks on the accuracy of the data, and on the conclusions drawn.
These observations by Bandura support at following hypothesis of this dissertation.
The teacher's personal sense of efficacy toward technology has a great amount of influence on the level to which the teacher will include technology in the classroom.
The teachers personal attitudes and behaviors, which have been created by their experience with technology, will greatly affect their willingness and effectiveness to include technology in the class room
In order to change, the teacher's attitudes and efficacy must be acted upon by an outside force which crease the motivation, and affect internalized change in the teacher.
Teacher's specifics:
The task of creating environments which are conducive to learning rests heavily on the talents and self-confidence of teachers. Evidence indicates that classroom atmospheres are influenced by teachers' beliefs in their instructional efficacy. The idea that the teaching quality critically affects student's learning has been confirmed by many research programs (Shulman, 1986). A teachers "Sense of Personal Efficacy" is an "internal, thinking variable which influences teachers' actions, student actions and ultimately the learning success" (Onofre, M., and Carreiro da Costa, F, 1995). In fact, "Teacher Efficacy" research has demonstrated the relationship between the teacher's "Self-efficacy" perceptions and the quality of teacher's performance (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). These results support the idea that if the teacher's behavior is according to the interactive teaching pattern suggested in a "Process-Product" method, it is because they have a high sense of efficacy capacity. Through a study analyzing PE teacher's "Self-efficacy" in implementing effective pedagogical principles (Onofre & Carreiro da Costa, 1992), it has been demonstrated that the teachers do not present a similar "Self-efficacy" perception in their interactive teaching efforts. These differences can be explained by teacher values about teaching and through their pedagogical and technical knowledge. In fact, on general teaching research, Anderson et al. (1988) have demonstrated that teachers with a higher sense of efficacy revealed a more pragmatic conception of teaching.
Gibson and Dembo (1984) found that teachers who have a high sense of instructional efficacy, a high degree of self-confidence in their abilities which they turn into action in the classroom, devote more of their classroom time to academic learning. These teachers provide students who have difficulty learning with the individualized help they need to succeed. These teachers are more likely to engage the students emotionally as well as intellectually, and praise them for their accomplishments.
In contrast, teachers who have a low sense of instructional efficacy, or a diminished sense of confidence in their abilities, tend to spend more time on nonacademic pastimes. This is part of Bandura's construct, that the maladaptive experiences create behaviors which negatively affect the teacher's interaction with others. These teachers tend to give up on students if they do not get quick results. These teachers tend to me more critical of students failures, or set backs. The results in the classroom is that teachers who believe strongly in their instructional ability - efficacy create experiences for their students that encourage them on toward mastery of their subject matter, while those beset by self-doubts create a classroom environment that will likely undermine students' sense of personal efficacy, ability, confidence and thus retard the student cognitive development.
As Woolfolk and Hoy (1990) reported, teachers' sense of personal efficacy affects their perspective toward the educational process, and the way they structure specific instructional practices. Those who have a low sense of their instructional capabilities often favor an authoritarian orientation that relies heavily on external inducements and/or negative sanctions to get students apply themselves to their work. Teachers who believe strongly in their abilities support development of students' own internal motivations and educational self-directedness. Ashton and Webb (1986) documented the overall impact of teachers' instructional self-efficacy on students' academic achievements. Teachers' beliefs concerning their abilities and efficacy can be used as a predictor of students' achievement levels over the course of the academic year. These generalities and research findings are also supported in the data collected for this research study.
Methodology Support, and Data Collected.
Much work has been published in the filed of research methodology. Although each researcher wants to develop a survey that accurately records field data without any personal biases becoming part of the sampling, that ethereal goal is not possible A. Kinsey's landmark research into the sexual behaviors of Americans introduced a new methodology into surveying for social research. Although Kinsey's methodology received early criticism (Cochran, Mosteller, & Tukey, 1953), most writers have ignored this aspect of his work and have focused instead on the large number of interviews and the path-breaking nature of the his data collection methods. Kinsey established the example of an interviewing technique for the central approach to his methodology. According to a recent piece reviewing his methods, "He opposed the use of self-administered questionnaires by arguing that these would not provide the detail and accuracy a skilled interviewer could obtain. Kinsey et al.'s (1948) book The Sexual Behavior of the Human Male contained a chapter devoted to the interviewing technique, and Kinsey discussed everything from making contacts to training interviewers. He saw his technique as the closest thing to direct observation of human behavior and thought that his method alone could persuade respondents to tell the whole truth about their actions and thoughts... he criticized what he saw as the tendency for social science departments to train students to manipulate statistical data without worrying about the issues involved in obtaining the data." (Erikson, 1998)
What Kinsey did not expose to the public during his popularity, and during the research he performed was that his research was hardly an emotionless research for the true sexual patterns of the American male. Kinsey was "a man of missionary zeal" Epstein, 1998), "a crypto-reformer who spent his every waking hour attempting to change the sexual mores... Of the United States" (Jones, 1997) Kinsey was perfectly willing to bend the canons of science to serve his purpose of adapting the social mores of America in order to more closely reflect his personal desires. While traveling under the flag of a disinterested researcher, Kinsey himself led a life as a voyeur, an exhibitionist, a homosexual, and a masochist. In Jones's succinct words, "The beauty of sex research [was] that it allowed Kinsey to transform his voyeurism into science." (Epstien, 1998)
Richard Mitchell, Jr. (1993) further documented the difficulty of a researcher becoming and obtaining truly objective data. Mitchell explains that true objectivity is likely a myth. Even if the researcher is objective, there is not guarantee that the participants in his project are completely forthcoming in regard to their answers. Mitchell developed a 4 quadrant chart to describe and identify the likely difficulties which researchers have as they perform their craft. Entitled Cognition, Affect and the perception of the Researchers role, the diagram below outlines the affective and causal relationship which will exist between the researchers and his or her subjects.
Low - Affect - High
Cognition
Unsympathetic
Sympathetic
Informed
Informed - unsympathetic
Researchers are Spies
Problem: Researcher puts faith in transparent disguise, and faith in dispassionate observation.
Informed - Sympathetic
Researchers are Allies
Facilitate group solidarity
Problem: Paradox of intimacy with the group blinds researcher.
Naive
Naive - Unsympathetic
Researchers are Outsiders
Facilitate intra-group solidarity
Problem: Researchers is likely to miss the theatrical and make believe erratic data.
Naive - Sympathetic.
Researchers are novices.
Researchers are socialized or exploited
Problem: Researchers is prey. (Adapted from Mitchell, R. 1993)
Expanded Problems for the researcher.
The researcher as prey: According to M.L. Wax (1980) the naive and sympathetic researcher may perceive that because of his or her honesty and respect for the subject, that the subject will reciprocate the same good will back to the researcher. This is a dangerous pitfall of which the researcher must be aware, or the researcher could be played as "fair game, or a sucker" (Mitchell, 1993)
The researcher as Outsiders: According to Coates (1987) and Ullman (1964) when the researcher is an outsider to the group he or she is studying, the researcher must be aware of the danger of accepting information at face value. Different than the scenario above, the researchers would receive accurate date, but the details may be exaggerated for any of a number of reasons. The researcher in this setting could receive accurate information, but the scope and level to which details were claimed could exacerbate error in the final review.
Researcher negatively affected by their own familiarity: This is the setting for this research, as the researcher is also a member of the teaching community which she is studying. The danger in this setting is that the "familiarity carries with it expectations the can constrain the scope and forms of the inquiry" (Mitchell, 1993) the researcher can also 'lead' the participant with information from their own experiences that can affect the quality and integrity of the data being collected via personal interview.
Researcher as a Spy: Like James Bond who seemed detached from everyone, and everything (expect pretty women) but yet he knew something about everything, the researcher who is neither informed nor sympathetic can believe he or she is receiving accurate date because of their third person objectivity. This assumption can render the data completely useless, because the researcher may not be able to identify fabrication from truth, or may not know the questions to investigate in order to facilitate accurate information gathering.
So how can the researcher guard against the above arguments, and against the slanting of research data which can render the conclusions of their research inoperably damaged. Mitchell suggests the following:
would first urge activism. Fieldworkers can act constructively toward opposition in several ways. Qualitative researchers should seek every opportunity for participation in that decision - making bodies defining research propriety. Institutional review boards and professional ethics oversight committees must learn from practicing fieldworkers firsthand of the ethnographer's circumstances, and they must be urged to consider these circumstances in developing and interpreting regulations. Vigilance too is required. To question codes and other institutional constraints on covert qualitative research is not to advocate careless complacency... If the record of abuse of the subjects of social scientists is brief, every effort should be made to keep it so." (Mitchell 1993)
These examples demonstrate the difficulty with which a research must work in order to obtain data is accurately represents the object of his or her study. This researcher is still aware of the connectedness between her own experiences with education and technology in the classroom. This researcher is aware of the tendency to use this research to connect the dots between her own experiences in the classroom, and the experiences of those who have been interviewed. In order to defend against this possibility, the research has been undertaken in a multi-modal approach.
Outline of the Interview Survey
As mentioned in the methodology, the research data was collected via interview, as well as static questionnaires and Likert scale questionnaires. By combining the research collection methods, the data for this research is assumed to be an accurate representation of the principles and experiences which are sought to be measured. The following questions were asked during the interviews. The questions were divided into three categories.
General Demographic data. The participants were asked to identify:
Age gender,
Amount of time spent in the teaching profession
Whether they taught in the primary or secondary level.
Whether they use a computer outside of the school environment.
The second category of questions addressed their person level of comfort level and perceived self- efficacy regarding technology in the schools, and the level of support they felt was provided by the organization. These questions were both open ended and "rank your response" type questions. These questions provide the bulk of the questions asked. The questions included the following:
Does computer technology help in the classroom?
Rank the technology's contribution to the teaching activities in the classroom on a scale of 1-10.
Was the introduction of technology into the school successful?
Rank the contribution of technology to the overall classroom environment on a scale of 1-10, and tell why this ranking was chosen
What could have been done to make the rollout of technology more successful?
What could have been done to make the introduction of technology into the classroom more sustainable?
Rank the teachers contribution to the overall integration and successful usage of technology to the classroom on a scale of 1-10
Discuss: does the teacher play an important role in the integration of computer technology in the classroom.
The final section addressed possible barriers to the integration and effectiveness of the impact of computer technology in the classroom.
Does the class behavior affect the ability to use technology in the classroom?
Does the student's family background affect the use of technology in the classroom?
Does the teachers comfort level with technology affect the successful integration of technology into the classroom?
Does the student benefit from the presence of technology in the class room.
Have there been any other barriers to successful integration of technology in your classroom.
Data Analysis: Baseline Data.
The baseline for the data collected is the average data response which is largely representative of the 31 respondents to the interview questionnaire. This baseline has been identified for the 4 questions which participants were asked to answer with a rating from 1-10. The rating of one represented a no, or a low level of agreement, and the rating of 10 corresponded to yes, or a high level of agreement. The median age of the teachers in the study was 35, and the average years teaching is 18, so these responses are to a great degree from career teachers.
Answers given on a scale of Contribution of technology to teaching activity in the classroom
Contribution / importance of teachers contribution to the integration of technology in the classroom
Overall contribution of technology in the classroom
Do students benefit from having technology in the class room?
Baseline
The following are representative samples of specific answers to the interview questions. These answers were taken from these respondents who are included in the baseline responses that are calculated above. Specific departures from the baseline data were uniquely qued to two groups of participants. These will be addressed in the following section, under Demographic Differences.
Does computer technology help in the classroom? Most participants agreed that having technology in the classroom was a positive aid to the teaching process. The availability of computers to do research, and to teach children about the digital processes which are commonly being used in the marketplace were an invaluable asset to the class room, especially in the secondary levels. One teacher replied: " (The presence of technology is helpful) by using Webquest for research no projects when the students are looking up information because if it's someone who's recent like Ian Thorpe, you can't find much research on him in the library. The students have to use the net to research those people that they relate to because it's their generation."
Another caught the essence of the positive computer experience in the classroom this way: " It enables the children who have different perspectives on the programs like presented on a computer, and that enhances the learning, couples too with research and access to the internet, you know, problem solving sore of-based learning.
Some teachers were using the computers for little more than word processing, and power point presentations. The interviewer presented a common set of tasks to the teachers in attempts to discover the depth to which computer technology was being pursued. The tasks were:
Using a digital camera to take pictures
Transferring the digital image to a compute
Making a web page which included the picture
Uploading the image and web page to an active server on the World Wide Web
Of the teachers interviewed, appx. 50% answered that they felt confident enough to follow this procedure, or that they has already completed a similar task.
Was the introduction of technology into the school successful? The majority of teachers in the survey said that the introduction of technology had been successful. Ten percent of the teachers taught in schools which had been constructed within the past 5 years, and these facilities had included a fully staffed computer lab,. These schools had a computer resource person on staff and available for assistance during the day. These schools also had computers in the classroom available for the students to use, and the computers were networked so that the assignments could be collected and reviewed without the additional difficulty of changing computers in order to collect work. However, 20% of the participants expressed a negative response as to the introduction of technology to the school. These teachers cited reasons for their dissatisfaction of the usage of technology in the classroom.
Equipment being used for word processing, and little more. "I feel as though they mainly just it, or use MS Word - for research and then they take notes sown and they use those notes to write reports.
They're not actually learning what the computer can perform, or how it can perform, and what other way's they can use it."
Outdated equipment and outdated applications. " It depends on the hardware you've actually got, and the software - the programs you've got. Yes, (technology) can benefit but if you don't have the right software; if you don't have hard that can use it - like I had some Cd's, and I've only got one computer with a CD drive."
Not enough equipment to share without creating bottlenecks in the flow of daily activity in the class room. " We don't have enough computers, we dong have the right software, the computers are too slow, and time is wasted."
Not enough training to know how to use the equipment, or applications. " (In order for the transition to computer equipment to go more smoothly) I think more professional development; I think that yea, just knowing that a lot of money has been spent and that... The computer's are all provided, but I really don't think that enough has been done for the professional development of teachers." Other teachers put it more succinctly "Computer education in the classroom faces a barrier because teachers need more professional development"... " Lack of knowledge amongst the teachers and the fear that comes with technology"
The lack of presence of an IT professional to aid when computer problems occurred. " We have It support from the computer room, but it's never there when you need it."
What could have been done to make the rollout of technology more successful? In response to the objections above, the interviewer asked what could be done in the school to make introduction of technology more successful. I the school's which teachers experienced / epxrpessed problems with integrating computer technology into the classroom, three answers were given consistently.
Having an IT professional availale and on site
Having more professional development so the teachers understoon how to use, manage, update the equipment, and trouble shoot common problems.
Having more equipment, and updated equipment.
What could have been done to make the introduction of technology into the classroom more sustainable? Sustainable differes from successful in that the teachers were asked to discuss the ongoing nature of the computer equipment's integration into the classroom. The answers to this question were identical to the previous question, with these additional suggestions. One participant suggested that the school create a coop purchase program for teachers to be able to purchase personal equipment on a school account, and then repay the school over time. For the teacher who wants to augment their abilities in computer usage, but cannot afford to duplicate the schools resources at for personal use, this creative solution could assist teachers with the learning curve. Another teacher suggested that laptops and digital projectors be added to the classroom so teachers could make more applications between computers and every day usage for their students. Another teacher suggested mandatory PD in order to get teachers up to a similar level of professional ability.
Discuss the topic: does the teacher play an important role in the integration of computer technology in the classroom. To this question, every person in the baseline agreed that the teacher played the most important role in integrating the computer technology into the classroom. Without the teachers input, the computers were treated as glorified word processors, from which students did not receive a high level of return. Without the teachers input, computers time was used as reward time, and students were allowed to play educational games, but they did not learn about integrating computers productively into their lives.
The final section addressed possible barriers to the integration and effectiveness of the impact of computer technology in the classroom. These responses were also taken from the baseline response group.
Does the class behavior affect the ability to use technology in the classroom? The teachers were evenly divided over this issue. Those which responsed positively, that child behavior did play a role in the integragion of technology to the classroom were those who insisted on a level of behavior form the students. If the students misbehaved, or did not display behavior which was fitting for the classroom, their computer time was taken away. The other way in which behavior affected computer integration was how student could disrupt the entire class, and thereby make it difficult to teach any lessons, much less use computer technolofy as part of the classroom experience.
The teachers who did not allow classroom behavior to affect the ingtegration of computers into the classroom experience expressed one of two reaponses.
The get excited because they really like what they're doing and they start working in groups. You know, whereas in a classroom you can keep the noise level reight down, when your working in a computer lab and the kids share computers... they have to work together and of course they are going to talk a lot more... The noise level is going to rise.
The second response to this question communicated that some teachers seemed to be resigned to the misbehavior of the students, and went ahead with computer lessons as they would any other lessons.
Does the student's family background affect the use of technology in the classroom? The teachers for this study are teaching in the northere province of Australia, where some aboriginal tribes send their children to school. So the contrast of student home life from one family to another can be extreme. Every teacher, save one, agreed with thie statement that the family background affected the students ability to learn and adapt to computers in the classroom. The home which has a computer, or an environment which supports computer driven advances will produce childresn which are ready to acclimate to the computers in the classroom, whereas the opposite is true. If the home life of a student does not reinforce the school environment, then the student will be less likely to adapt to a computer or technology base educational environment. "We have some very well off children at our school, but the mahjofrithy are from extremely low imcone families. The children who are well off and have computers at home often come back to school and say to the other kids who, from the low socioeconomic area 'this is what I've learned on the computer, come and have a look at this.'"
Does the teachers comfort level with technology affect the successful integration of technology into the classroom? The majorithy of the teachers agreed with this tatement. Only one teacher relied 'No' and this elderly teacher seem to have accepted the fact that she did not feel comfortable with computers herself. Hre response indicated that she accepted failure and frustration with the computer technology, and therefore accepted the fact that she had little to offer the student in the way of computer driven instruction. This teacher replied "If I fail, or make a mistake at the computer tasks, someone will come and help me out... I find that its been all trial and error for me. I've been self - taught really" The majority of teachers responded with ideas echoed by this teacher: " I feel comfortable with computers even thoru as I said, I'm not an expert with them. I'm very much an ongoing learner, but, you know, the ract that I use them all the time I guess - and I expect kids to be using them in the classroom as well"
Does the student benefit from the presence of technology in the class room. Except for the elderly teacher identified in the question above, each teacher of the baseline group agreed that the students benefited from the presence of technology in the classroom. As one teacher put it: " It's opened up a new world to them, so yes, of course I agree. You know just being able to research using the web for researching, being able to look at different ways of presenting their work from power point to web pages an so on I - well, yes, I'd give this one a Ten."
Have there been any other barriers to successful integration of technology in your classroom? The barriers which teachers identified in question 2 were repeated in this question. The barriers to computer technology integragion in the classroom include:
Not having an IT person on staff
Outdated equipment and software applications
Not having enough computers to make an effective integration with technology into the classroom activity.
Lack of professional training among the staff.
Having a limited amount of physical space to dedicate to the computer equipment.
Demographic differences.
Within the group, there were two demographic groups which consistently contributed different responses to the above questions. These two groups vary with a level of statistical difference that they warrant mentioning separately. The first group is male teachers. The second group is female teachers who are over 50 years of age. These groups offered significantly different statistical rankings of the four questions than did the baseline group.
Male Teachers
Answers given on a scale of Contribution of technology to teaching activity in the classroom
Contribution / importance of teachers contribution to the integration of technology in the classroom
Overall contribution of technology in the classroom
Do students benefit from having technology in the class room?
Male Teachers
Contributrion of Technology to the classroom:
Each of the male teachers replied that technology 'can' have a positive impact on the teaching activity in the classroom, but that it had not performed to the level of its potential. These teachers responses centered much more on the effectiveness of technological integragion. The make teachers each had a high level of experience with computers personally, but they were not able to make the transition to integration them into the classroom experience. Reasons cited include:
don't have access to computers when I want them"
Computers are too slow" computers have limited software" don't have time to familiarize myself with them." use it mostly for word processing" can't get a network connection (in my room) because we are too far away from the rest of the school"
When asked to identify what it would take for the computers to make a bigger impact on the classroom, one of the male teachers replied "If I had half a dozen computers that were really fast, and then had some professional development and some time to play with the compute3rs an dthe software that they had on there, and if I could install some of the software that I'm familiar with, particularly what I have on my computer at home, I's make great - much greater used of the computers."
Regarding the importance of teacher's contribution to the integration of technology into the classroom the male teachers' responses were within the statistical variance of the rest of the sample. However, for the last two questions regarding the overall contribution of technology into the classroom and the level to which the students benefit becasue of technology in the classroom, the make teachers rankings were again significnalty lower thatn the rest of the population. The reasons cited by teachers include:
From a math teacher, the reply came that students are relying on technology too much, and not learning the algebraic and calculus principles. Students are allowed to bring programmable calculators into the classroom for exams. The teacher felt that the contribution of technology was actually hindering the ability of students to learn materials because they could rely on computers too heavily.
From a primary teacher, he felt that some of the buttons on the computer were too small, and the programs too diffucult for his students.
The male teachers seem to put a higher level of importance on their personal contribution to the use of technology in the classroom than to the intrinsic value of technology itself. These teachers made it clear from their comments that the addition of technology to the classroom was not as smooth of a transition was they would have liked. In response, their approache was to limit the application of the technology in the classroom, and remain focused on a more traditional teaching delivery style. These teachers seemed to feel that the technology must perform to their expectations, or the technology was not going to be able to be an effective teaching aid..
These objections did not surface to this extent in the female teachers responses. Whereas the female teachers seem to be more willing to adapt their teachings style to the technology that is available, the male teachers seem to have a higher expectation of the efficiency of the machinges to congtribute to their teaching efforts. The lack of immediately applicable ingtegration affected the male teachers responses, and the technology was quickly considered a hinderance to the progress of the class. These answers seem to be a function of the willingness, and attitudinal expectation of the male teachers. And this expectation is likely a driving force behind their teaching styles.
Elderly Teachers
The second group of teachers which profided statistically divergent data from the baseline group is the older teachers, form the group which is over 51 years of age. This groups rankings of the same four questions are listed in the table below.
Answers given on a scale of Contribution of technology to teaching activity in the classroom
Contribution / importance of teachers contribution to the integration of technology in the classroom
Overall contribution of technology in the classroom
Do students benefit from having technology in the class room?
Older Teachers
This group of teachers seems to have overall difficulty integrating technology into the classroom experience. While their opinion of the benefit afforded the student by having technology in the classroom was the same, if not higher than the baseline group, these teacher experiences greater difficulty adapting thie technologhy to the class, and greater difficulsty addaptint their teaching skills to integrate the technology which was available. These teachers have been teaching for a greater number of years, and have established their own teaching patterns. All of these teachers included in this discussion are elderly female teachers.
Regarding the contriburion of technology to the classroom, the teachers from this group responded that they felt the computers made a smaller contribution to the class that they would like to expect. One teachers said that she only had 1 small computer, and that it was not on a network. The functionality which she could bring to the classroom was diminished. The teachers' common complaint was that the cost of the equipment and the maintenance of the equipment was an issue which kept the machinery from making a larger contribution to the classroom.
Perhaps these teachers responses were skewed from the baseline because 3 out of the 4 were early primary teachers. tHese teachers were conserned with teaching content which could not be as easily addressed on the computer, such as hand writing, and basic communication skills. But the most apparent theme from these teachers was the apparent culture shift the teacher has difficulty negotiating, changing from paper communication to digital communication. These teachers also experiences the same trouble which the base line group experienced. When there was no IT support available to help them, this group of teachers move more quickly away from attempting to use the technology in the classroom, gecsue they had less of an ability to trouble shoot the equipment as did younger techers who had more personal experience with computer technology.
The combines effect of a lower familiarity with computer technoloty, a longer personal history of teaching without integrated technology, and the fact that these teachers were early primary gteachers all affected their surveys in the direction of not relying heavily on the presence of tedhnology in the classroom. These teachers efficacy was built on educational delivery systems whch did not include technology, so adapting to use technology actually lowered their feeslings of self-efficacy in the classroom. From their comments these teachers seems to rely less on the technology, and have more conficende in their teaching styles which had been developed over 30 years. These teachers simply did not place as much personal emphasis on the technology in the classroom, and therefore did not rank it's contribution to the classroom as highly as the other teachers who choose to utilize the data and equipment more actively.
Part B: Comparing this research data with other research studies in the field
Everyday Integration
The need to integrate technology into every level of the classroom environment can be understood from the concept created by Papert (1980), who originally used the term "bricolage" to describe how children solve personal puzzles. "Much like a tinker ("bricoleur") fixes a broken pot using whatever supplies and knowledge are on hand at that moment, so do children approach problem solving, drawing on whatever tools are available, including whatever knowledge and experience they have had up to that time." (Davis and Shade, 1999) The learning in the anecdote below from the University of Delaware Laboratory Preschool, serves as an example of bricolage:
We introduced a new computer program into the four-year-old classroom -- " Just Grandma and Me" (Broderbund). This program reads and animates the Mercer Mayer book highlighting the text as it is read. Children can then select parts of the illustrations to animate or click on words to hear them pronounced. The children were intrigued by the new program. Sachi was exploring the program one day and discovered that the reading of the text, as well as the text on the screen, could be changed to Japanese. Sachi was thrilled. "That is my Dad's Japanese, and see, there is writing like in his newspaper." Santiago was equally excited to discover that the text could also be read in Spanish. The two boys began to explain to the other children what was being said. They would translate the story back to English. Knowing a different language gained the two boys a new status in the classroom as friends began to ask the bilingual children for words in their native language to label objects in the room." (Jane Davidson, Newark, DE)
The children utilized the materials at hand, which was the computer and software, and achieved on their own the teacher's objective, which was appropriate and comfortable sharing of native languages.
In an educational sense, bricolage means providing children or adults in learning situations with the materials they need to learn and grow and providing them with an opportunity to build the new learning on the knowledge they already posess. In the same way that a person cannot learn to drive without a car, or play the piano without a keyboard, active and effective learning takes place when children and adults have access to the tools necessary to do the job at hand. The Bricolage example goes one step further. Simply making these tools available does not guarantee that students will use them effectively. In the classroom, just putting technological equipment in the room, or in a computer lab does not necessarily mean that the teachers or students will use them wither. In order to become empowered in applying what they know to the new lessons of tomorrow, children and teachers must understand the application of the available materials. They need to recognize the resources on hand, and that these tools are practical, useful tools that have real-life application. This is the outcome which educators want the student to obtain from their experience with the technology. Therefore this is the perspective that the teachers must be enabled and equipped to present as they utilize technology in the everyday classroom activities.
This perspective can only be accomplished by providing the children with the experience of using these technological tools to solve real problems. In the case of technology, this means that the computer should be considered as an every day tool, and integrated into the curriculum in such a way that the children will view the devices as practical, problem-solving tools that are used to accomplish real goals.
An integrated curriculum reflects the sentiments of John Dewey (1943). Dewey taught that school was not a place to get ready for life. School and scholastic activites needed to represent life. Instead of being a place where children learn lessons that they will apply to their daily activities someday, an "integrated curriculum affords schools the chance to become a learning habitat, where children learn through directed living and exploration" (Dewey, 1943). The integrated classroom, then, is a "dynamic learning environment where children are active users of technology and they are participants in computer activities that serve a personally meaningful purpose." (Goodman, 1990).
As the educational system looks for ways to improve the academic achievement of students, and the effectiveness of teachers, contributions to the field of teacher and self-efficacy research have been many. The desire of schools to increase their level of effectiveness is increasing at an exponential rate. Note only are educational methods being reviewed in order to increase the effefctiveness of the learning environment, but the addition of technology to the classroom has created a new expectation of additionally increased productity and academic effectiveness within the academic circles.
Efficacy, Self-Esteem, Confidence, and Expereince
Efficacy is defined as having the capacity or power to produce the desired effect. According to Bandura (1997), "perceived self-efficacy refers to beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments." As we begin to review other related studies in the field, it is helpful to review this definition, and to understand the source of efficacy development. Bandura's expanded definition from earlier in this paper can condenses to a commonality. "Self-efficacy is developed through experiences in one's social environment." (Fasko and Fasko, 1998)
Self-efficacy is related to self-esteem, in that a teacher who will have the power to produce expected academic results in his or her classroom must also have a high regard for his or her abilitity to do the same. Without the confidence to attain the desired results, the person will not develop the beliefs that he or she can attain the same. Without the beliefs, the person will not move forward to develop the habits which are required to attain the desired results. And with out the habits and abilities, the teacher will not attain the desried results of an educated student populace which is ready to move into the next grade, or graduate.
Our perceptions of our abilities strongly influence our readiness to take risks, to persevere, to feel good about ourselves. People think of moderately high self-esteem as prerequisite for a person's well-being and success in life (Simon & Simon, 1975). Persons with high self-esteem are described as having a sense of belief in their own competence (Wilson & Fasko, 1992). Other studies found that self-esteem correlated positively with academic success in school. (Rubin, Dorle, and Sandridge, 1976, and Simon,1975)
Regarding the integration of technology into the classroom, the insertion of technology confronts the teacher with three specific challenges in regards to their confidence, self-esteem, and efficacy
Having the right equipment
Overcoming barriers to using the equipment in the classroom.
Adapting their personal teaching style to fully utilize the technology in the classroom..
Teachers need to be able to navigate each of these obstacles in order to continue to build on their self-confidence. Only be engaging the technology can a teacher continue to move in the direction of a positive efficacy growth. By remaining confident, and self assures, the gteacher can continue to post a record of educational success in the classroom.
This situation must be considered conversely in order to completely understand the position which the teacher is placed in. The primary goal for the teacher is producing an educated student populace. The entire reason for 6 years of education, a period of student and/or substitute teaching, and finally entering into a contract with the school system is to apply his or her desires and talents in order to create educational progress in a group of student. In order to do thie, the teacher must develop, and maintain a high sense of self-efficacy. In the introduction of technology in the classroom is accomplished in such a way that the teacher understands and believes that the technology will make a positive contribution to their psychological imperitive, then the technology will be treated with intrigue, and the teacher will likely be willing to integrate the technology into his or her teaching style
If the technology is introduced into the classroom without the traingin, support, and ongoing maintenance so as to empower the teacher to comprehend that the technology 'will' make a positive contribution to thie classroom, and so that the teacher understands 'how' the technology will make that contribution, the teacher is placed in a difficult position. The teacher in this setting must make a choice. The teacher can engage the gtechnoloyg which is unsupported, outdated, and unfamiliar, and suffering a drop in their confidence, esteem and efficacy. Or the teacher can avoid the technology, using it only as a glorified typewriter for reports, and enhanced encyclopedia for research projects.
Some may argue that teacher must have a high level of self-efficacy before addressing and overcoming the obstacles of becoming familiar with the technology and subsequently integrating it into the classroom. Others would insist that the teacher who overcomes these obstacles develops the efficacy, and then deomonstrates the same in the classroom. Since the definition of efficacy is "having the ability to produce the desired results" and the result include both working with technology in the classroom and producing educated students, arguing whether the efficacy comes first or the integration comes first is a like argueing about the proverbial chicken and the egg. The teacher needs a level of self-efficacy to engage the integration activites, and to overcoming any barriers between the point at which technology equipment is introduced into the classroom, and the point at which the technology is successfully integrated into the classroom environment. Both of these processes will require confidence, and build confidence in the teacher. The level to which the teacher overcomes barrier and obstacles he or she may face on the way to successful integration may not be sole related to efficace, but also confidence and motivation.
Results of a study (Demoulin, 1993) indicate a strong link between motivation and confidence, and how both contribute in developing a sense of self-assurance. Self-assurance is defined as the belief that an individual is in control of himself/herself and is capable of successfully reaching desired outcomes, and as such the combination of the two are closely aligned with efficacy. The link postulated by this study suggests that motivation and confidence are situation-specific. While an individual may possess different combinations of motivation and confidence depending on the specific of the task. It is the varying combinations vo confidence and motivation which lead to differing self-assurance levels.
High Motivation/High Confidence: Individuals with high motivation and high confidence generally possess a high degree of self-assurance, and therefore efficacy. These individuals like what they do and have the capability to accomplish required tasks. Having both high motivation and confidence is usually a good indicator for a proper degree of self-assurance, but the presence of a deficiency in either or both may have adverse consequences.
High Motivation/Low Confidence: Individuals with high motivation and low confidence generally are satisfactory producers but often lack the confidence to be completely self-assured about what they are doing. These individuals have the motivation to complete a task but when they are unfamiliar with the specifics, they will tend to hesitate, thus demonstrating low efficacy even though their motivation is high. The low confidence may only be temporary, and training or professional development can aid the individual in required knowledge and/or in required skill. Ultimately confidence tends to build with experience, which in turn increases the level of self-assurance and efficacy.
Low Motivation/High Confidence: Individuals with Low motivation and high confidence have the confidence and expertise concerning a specified task but often demonstrate a lack in the necessary motivation or drive to execute the task, or to see it to successful conclusion. Because individuals within this category exhibit low levels of motivation, their demonstrated self-assurance levels lend to fluctuate as does the efficacy with which they approach their tasks.
Low Motivation/Low Confidence: Low motivation/low confidence individuals routinely exhibit low levels of self-assurance, and efficacy. They neither have the confidence to do well, nor the desire to improve. As a result they can become a hindrance to successful task completion. The important questions to ask when engaging this type of person in an unfamiliar task, such as technology integration in the classroom, is whether or not the person exhibits a low level of motivation and confidence in all areas. If the individual is systemically a low motivation and low confidence person, then no amount of training or assistance will aid them. However if the person is sporadically demonstrating confidence and motivation then there may be factors in the individuals environment which are negatively affecting his belief in his ability to complete a task. Therefore, as a defense mechanism against stress, the person engages a "cruise control" mentality as opposed to engaging the barrier with effort to overcome it. (DeMoulin, 193)
Before finishing this section of self-efficacy, a few words need to said regarding the differeince between self-esteem and self-efficacy. The terms have been used in an astounding amount of literature during the past 2 decades, and while the concepts are similar, their application into the classroom are dramaticly different. One concept has been demonstrated to be an effective predictor of teacher and student success, while the other has been promoted as such with no evidence to support it.
Researchers have yet to find that instilling positive feelings in students can better academic achievement. Yet principals and school staff have been taught that be creating an atmosphere in which students feel good about themselves, the students will enjoy school more, and perform better academically. However this approach has been denounced by some as not only faddish but unproductive and even, by some academics, potentially damaging (Colvin, 2000) strong sense of self-esteem may serve as a vaccine against such violent outbursts between students, but reaearchers have yet to find a causal link. People who felt good about themselves, self-esteem theorists say, should be less likely to strike out against others. Similarly, positive self-esteem would make it more likely that students would make good choices, avoid experimenting with drugs, possibly delay sexual activity and, maybe even work harder and do better in school.
Much to the consternation of many school administrators, however, is that those notions are being challenged on a variety of fronts. Academics, including deans of schools of education and leading educational psychologists, say having high self-esteem certainly feels good. But, contrary to intuition, researchers have yet to find a stable relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement or anything else. According to one review of the literature, more than 10,000 published studies have tried without success to make that link.
It's time for people who have been claiming that improved self-esteem will improve performance to put up or shut up," says Roy F. Baumeister, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "While self-esteem has some positive effects, we have yet to see it produce improvements in school performance or better grades." (Bushman and Baumeister, 1998)
Self-esteem, as it is used in academic circles, is tied to the students feelings about themselves, or their belief in their own self-worth. Covington (see 1992, 1998) defined a self-worth theory which postulated the motive for self-worth as the tendency within all people to establish and maintain a positive self-image, or sense of self-worth. This concept holds true for teachers as well as students. As human beings we want to be thought of well. For the student those feelings may come from their academic, or sports performance, the economic level of their family, or the friends thsy have. For the teacher whose career is spent educating students, their primry sense of self-worth is the achievements in the classroom.
Covington argued that "a key way to maintain a sense of self-worth is to protect one's sense of academic competence" (Eccles and Wingfield, 2002). Children need to believe they are academically competent in order to think they have worth as a person in the school context. Therefore, children will try to maximize, or in the case they feel like they cannot mazimize they will at least protect their sense of academic or social identity (competence) in order to maintain their self-worth. This research is directly applicable to the teacher who wishes to have, maintain, build and/or progect their academic self-worth in the class room. If the teacher is not able to accomplish this through new projects which are included in their duties as a teacher, the teacher is likely to avoid the new projects, and maintain / protect their academic self-worth be performing well in the tasks that they do know.
Covington & Omelich (1979) demonstrated that both college students' and younger individuals' most-preferred attributions for success are ability and effort; the most-preferred attribution for failure was not trying. Again, because these findings are built on the foundations of human nature, not the identities of students, the findings transfer to the teacher who is learning the new task of integrating technology into the classroom. The teacher will avoid being placed in the position of having to attribute failure to lack of personal ability, because the feeling associated with this expereince was a particularly problematic attribution that teacher will prefer to avoid.
When the person is unable to avoid settings which will likely result in the emotional conflict raised by personal failure, Covington (1992) discussed the strategies many develop to avoid appearing to lack ability. The person can, and often does procrastinate, or make excuses for the situation. The person is likely to avoid challenging tasks, and perhaps most important, adopt a posture of not trying. Covington & Omelich (1979) referred to effort as a "double-edged sword. " Although trying is important for success and is encouraged by peers, if children try and fail, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that they lack ability. Therefore, if failure seems likely, some people will not try, precisely because trying and failing is a larger threat to their concept of self-worth than not trying at all. Covington called such strategies "failure avoiding strategies." Furthermore, Covington discussed how even high-achieving students (and teachers) can be failure avoidant. Rather than responding to a challenging task with greater effort, these students avoid the task in order to maintain their own sense of competence, and others' conclusions regarding their abilities. (Eccles and Wigfield, 2002)
Barriers to Technology Usage
This discussion now turns toward identifying barriers which hinder the effective integration of technology in the educational arena. The objections and barriers listed by teachjers in this project are:
Technology is under-utilized
Technology is outdated, applications are outdated.
Not enough equipment for students / teachers.
Not enough training / professional development
Lack of IT support professional to maintain equipment.
Lack so physical space in the classroom and buildings.
Fear of new technology.
In consideration of these barriers, only two reside outside of the teachers' ability to change. The teaching staff cannot overcome the barrier of old equipment and applications if the school district does not have the money to relace them. The teacher aslco cannot oversome the obstacle of building size and school dimensions. However, even these barriers can be adapted in order to facilitate a higher level of integration in the classroom. The question of "can I integrate technologhy into the classroom?" should be changed to "How do I integrate the technology which is available into the classroom?"
In other literature, the question of "how to utilize" appears to produce positive results.
An Integration Paradigm
The concept of "integrated technology" is more than having a computer in the classroom, or a computer lab down the hall for regular use on specific projects. In order for technology to be integrated into the classroom, computers need to be accessible, in the classroom or computer lab, where children can use them in any number of ways in individual and small group projects. As Bredekamp and Rosegrant (1992) have noted:
series of unrelated or "Undisciplined" projects in not curriculum; If the conceptual dimensions of curriculum planning is considered on isolation from the others, the curriculum may be too idiosyncratic, lacking in direction or focus, or limited to "fun" activities that lack integrity."
The central concept for integrating software into the classroom is that the technology is used at any and every level which it is applicable, to assist the child in the process of learning.
The children may make signs or labels for items in the room. They may use a drawing program to illustrate a book they are making about dinosaurs. Some teachers use simple word processors to support integrated literacy. They have the children dictate their "weekend news project" while the teacher types it into the computer, Every area of curriculum can be accentuated by the computer, with appropriate software.
The potential richness of computer integration can be lost if the computers are only in a lab where activities are more structured, or the computers in the classroom are not up to current "technological speed." When a classroom is completely without computers, the teacher cannot make use of more spontaneous teaching moments.
True integration can be accomplished with a small core set of software programs are available to students. It is not necessary to have on hand a library of software titles which most schools and computer labs try to maintain. A quality integrated classroom requires less than one dozen pieces of superior software. Here are the basic software needs followed by some recommeded software which would vary given age.
File Manager Software
Immediate Success Software
Word Processing or Story Making Software
Graphics Software
Subject Area Software
Multi-Media Software
Content or Theme Software (Davis and Shade, 1999)
Co-oping & Project Design as a Means of Understanding Technology Integration.
The first approach in literature is to engage the upcoming teacher in a pegagogical paradigm which includes utilizing technology in the classroom, and teaching an intagreted approach to technology in the classroom from the very beginning of the teachers preparation for his or her career.
Learning Generation (LearnGen) is a project of the University of Kansas which develops technology integration plans for preservice teachers based on real world needs in educational institutions who hire them as consultants. Their plan, which is developed to meet the needs of the school, is developed from the input of the student teachers and then is submitted to a school committee. This committee reviews and accepts plans and negotiates he details, timelines, and the level to which LearnGen will support the project. After a plan is accepted, LearnGen creates a complete support and delivery package This package may include equipment or personnel support, or both to be provided by the teaching school. Once the plan is accepted, design group members meet and work according to their plan, with the resources that have been identified. They work according to the timeline to produce the deliverable lessons and materials. As each product is completed, a copy of it is provided to LearnGen to share with other workd groups and faculty members as they consider ways to integrate technology. The strength of this program is the combining or new ideas with the resources of LearnGen, and th oversight of the educational community. All three groups benefit from the combined synergy, and the experience of working on collobarative multimedia educational projects. (LearnGen.org, 2002)
In the process of completeing the agreed to tasks, the teacher education students who participate in a work group fulfill several invaluable roles:
Mentor: Because the project is designed to advance the technical skills of the teacher education students, the group members often relies on the expertise of the teacher education student members just as much as they rely on the teacher-supervisor.
Critic: Although the genesis of the group's efforts is often the work of the teacher faculty member, the teacher education students serve to provide a new and fresh student perspective on the group's work.
Innovator: Because the students have not yet been pushed into the "it can't be done that way," mold that is often the product of years of teaching experience, they bring fresh perspectives to old ideas that now need to be integrated with technology applications.
Development of technical expertise: Through access to a laptop and other technology hardward, the students develop a level of expertise that is impossible to reach solely through the instructional discourse. The idea of a working apprenticeship is applied to the student's efforts, and their drive is combined proactively with the experience and resources of the educational facility.
Application of instructional technology: By working directly on a group project, students can apply their newly developed technical expertise to the instructional setting which they will face once engtering the workforce. This enables them to take their knowledge and skills beyond the theory and use them directly in a university or K-12 setting as a professional educator as opposed to as a student.
Introduction to the profession: The students work with teacher education faculty members and at least one other practicing educator on a professional project of mutual interest. The intimate nature of the work group supports the idea that each member is an important part of the project who brings important contributions to the group.
Enhanced marketability: Because of the level of professional development provided to the students while engaged in these projects, they acquire skills and an understanding shared by few of their peers. This project often leads to a full-time teaching appointments for the students involved. (Robinson and Smith, 2003)
The purpose of using this example is to open the door to understand what it means to integrate technology into the classroom. Integrating technology in the classroom is not a matter of putting computers in the classroom without a substantial commitment teacher training. Integrating computer technology into the classroom will not happen without training. Integration is also not substituting 30 minutes of classtime reading exercises with 30 minutes of computer time. Computer integration is using computers to teach 30 minutes of reading. Integration is not providing application software like electronic encyclopedias, spreadsheets, databases, like new books put on the shelf of a library.
Defining what technology integration is and is not is the first step in deciding how to integrate it into the classroom. (Dockstader, 1999) Technology integration is using computers effectively and efficiently in the general content areas of instruction to allow students to learn:
How to use computers
How to apply computer skills in meaningful ways.
Computer skills take on new meaning when they used to integrate within the classroom curriculum. The goal of integration is incorporating technology in a way to enhance student learning. Technology integration is using software that is supported by the business world for real-world applications, so students can learn to use computers in the way they will be using them after graduation. Technology integration is molding the curriculum around the technology and using both as the driving force in the classroom, not having technology drive the curriculum. Technology integration is organizing the goals of curriculum and technology into a harmonious and contiguous whole.
Michael Eisenberg suggests these two requirements for effective integration of technology skills:
the skills must directly relate to the content area and to the classroom assignments, the skills themselves need to be tied together in a logical and systematic model of instruction." (Eisenberg and Johnson, 1996)
In another study, Davis (1992) reported that more than 50% of teacher education graduates surveyed felt that they were 'not prepared at all' or 'poorly prepared', and 20% stated that they were 'adequately prepared', 'well prepared', or 'very well prepared' to use technology for instruction.
Again, a more recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), found that even though a majority of teachers indicated that they have had some training in technology, only 20% felt they had become "very well prepared" to integrate educational technology in classroom activities (NCES, 1999).
Overall, schools can be placed along a continuum regarding the successful integration of technology into the classroom.(Beck and Wynn,1998) The source group for this continuum includes both schools who prepare teachers, and the elementary and secondary schools in which the teachers find employment. Some schools "are those who are seeking to maximize the integration of technology in their programs, others are doing the best they can, given the availability of resources and their comfort levels, working with these tools. Many teachers who have integrated technology to support teaching and learning have only used it for activities which they can control (e.g., drill and practice and tutorials). Other teachers, however, have used technology for instruction in ways which are more student-centered (e.g., collaborative learning activities) (Office of Technology Assessment, 1995). Yet other teachers may still be reluctant to integrate technology beyond the use of the traditional ones (e.g., overhead projectors, videotape recorders, 35 mm projectors) in their programs." (DuHaney, 2001)
The need to prepare teachers to make effective and efficient use of technology to support teaching and learning has not gone unnoticed.. One major U.S. agency responsible for the accreditation of teacher training programs, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), has been seeking to address this issue. In its report NCATE noted that in order for teachers to adapt and take advantage of technology for instruction, schools need to develop new understandings, and entirely new approaches, new forms of professional development, and new attitudes. NCATE has joined forces with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to develop standards for teaching technology integrations. Their purpose is to "encourage schools of education to increase their emphasis on the use of technology in teacher training" (NCATE, 1997; Roblyer & Edwards, 2000). ISTE recommended "that teachers acquire the competencies in basic computer/technology operations, in personal and professional uses of technology, and in the application of technology for instruction" (NCATE, 1997).
The standards developed by ISTE are the only nationally adopted guidelines in the United States for what should be taught about technology as part of teacher education (Willis & Mehlinger, 1996). As a result, teacher education institutes are using these foundation standards to instruct the development and/or redesign courses to direct the integration and use of technology in the teaching and learning activities in the classroom (see Willis & Mehlinger, 1996; ISTE, 1997; and Roblyer & Edwards, 2000 for a description of these standards).
One of the problems uncovered by NCATE (1997) is the lack of priority placed on planning and successfully facilitiated operations which integrate technology into the classroom. Some universities are placing an increasing level of priority on developing these skills, but then after insisting the skills be developed, the same schools are not offering a corresponding reward to the teachers. Developing a software application takes an enourmous amount of tiem and energy, yet these activities are not applied toward a teacher's reputation, and they are often not included in career review. In a recent Campus Computing Project (1999) survey, 75.8% of colleges and universities had instructional technology development programs and 65.9% had campus support departments to assist faculty in bringing technology resources into their courses. Yet, only 13.7% of these colleges and universities had a formal program to recognize and reward faculty for the use of information technology as part of the faculty review process. (Duhaney, 2001)
Teacher training programs need to adopt a posture that will educate teachers to employ technology in the teaching and learning process. These methods must be able to teach the teacher-students how to be able to adapt to the constant and rapid changes in technology while at the same time using the technology which is available. These programs must use technology to do more than drill and practice, tutorials, or games. Gillingham and Topper (online) discussed four methods by which teachers can be educated to adapt and use technology flexibly. The suggestions from Gillingham and Topper include:
Single course approach of a minimum of one course on technology within a teacher preparation program. An instructor familiar with technology and pedagogy teaches the course on order to begin the process of training teachers to use the current technology and learn how to learn and use evolveing resources.
Technology infusion approach which places multiple aspects of technology within each course in a student teacher-preparation program. This approach is especially beneficial to subject-matter experts by concentrating on pedagogical content knowledge as well as content specific applications.
Student performance approach which places the final responsibility of technology knowledge on students rather than on faculty. Using this approach, students choose their performances from a number of categories so they do not have to relearn information that they already know, but can concentrate on advancing their existing knowledge.
Case-based approach which provides teachers with a narrative "foundation" for classroom knowledge. This foundation can be constructed and analyzed as "wisdom of practice" and provides instances of teaching theory, and allows prospective teachers to study the efforts of existing teachers who have incorporated technology into their classroom practice.
These methods do not exhaust the different methods by which preservice teachers may be encouraged to use technology to support their impending teaching and learning careers. However, these approaches can begin to cast a new vision regarding the expectations of the teaching profession. These ideas can be used both singly or in combination to help preservice teachers become familiar with different technologies. This is the first step in idenfying how they can use them effectively, efficiently, and proactively in teaching and learning activities.
Adapting the upcoming teacher into an integrated technology paradigm is a matter which colleges and universities need to address. But for the teacher who is already in the field, who receives the announcement that a computer lab and new software applications will soon be added to the school in order to move toward a more technology literate campus, this teacher faces a much different challenge. As demonstrated in this study, many of the teachers which longer career records did not view the technology in the classroom as an important part of the educational environment. These teachers have been operation without computers for decades, and changing their approach to the classroom educational process is a diffucult task. Evidence from this paper, and the attached literature review suggests that without outside support, and resources, the teachers will resist adapting new teaching procedures and paradigms.
Just as the LearnGen preservice teacher - school project from the University of Kansas allowed preservice teachers to gain 'real world' experience in technology integration, taking on the following project provided this experienced teacher with an educational experience which she has been able to translate into a classroom technology integration strategy. Selma Wassermann was a techno-illiterate. She was a tyupical teacher who needed help with most technologies in the classroom. However, she did not let this educational gap in her personal experience prevent her from developing her own curriculum software fror her U.S. history class.
A grant from the Vancouver Foundation2 provided the funding that made it possible for me to test the hypothesis that intelligently created educational software could enrich the curriculum, extend students' thinking about issues of consequence, engage students' interest in the content, and give teachers a valuable teaching resource. A group of secondary teachers with whom I had been involved in an earlier study using case-method teaching urged me to consider developing a CD dealing with the internment of ethnic Japanese Canadians and Japanese-Americans during World War II, which is part of the junior-year high school social studies curriculum in Canada and of many similar courses in the United States." (Wassermann, 2001)
The process included hiring a technology professional, and a production studio. Wassermann created a steering committee to consult with and completed the work as a group. Their efforts included making story boards to develop the curriculum. They learned how to use Director, Photoshop, Premier, Freehand, and Sound Edit 16, and compiled the collected illustrative and content material into a "working draft." After more trips to the Local an university libraries, the visual story gradually began to take shape. According to Wassermann, the narrative of the CD-ROM, Presumed Enemies, told its story in five subsections.
Japan. From the 17th until the mid-19th century, Japan was a closed society, isolated from the West, and antagonistic to outsiders.
Immigration. When the first immigrants from Japan began to arrive in North America in the late 19th century, the newcomers were met with strong anti-Asian sentiments as were most of the ethic groups arriving in the North American region during this time. Japanese settled into cities on the West Coast and established thriving Japanese North American communities.
War. Japan became increasingly aggressive during the early 20th century; and while Japan was an ally of the U.S. And Canada during World War I, and Japanese-Americans and were, within limits, permitted to join the armed forces during that war. Japan allied itself with Germany during World War II, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor led to the almost immediate evacuation of and Japanese-Americans from West Coast cities, regardless of their citizenship status
Internment. Japanese-Americans and were held in internment camps in the interior of both the U.S. And Canada for the duration of the war. Most non-Japanese citizens were only vaguely aware of the evacuation and internment of their neighbors. Some said afterward, "They just disappeared." Many also believed that these acts of removal were justified by the general fear of sabotage and betrayal.
Redress. Most north American citixzens of Japanese descent who were interned lost all their property and possessions. In the postwar years, the internment of Japanese peoples was seen as governmental adoption of racist policies that had no justification in terms of the war itself. (Wassermann, 2001)
The result of this endeavor was that the learning curve regarding technology integration in the class room for Mrs. Wassermann was all but eliminated. But the highest marks came from her students who were engrossed in the project. The customized materials, relevant to the region, and the way in which Wassermann was able to link printed materials in the classroom to the CD rom experience she had developed created a new level of interest and interaction with her students.
Organizational Environment and Climate and its effects on Teacher Efficacy.
Bandura (1977) defined self-efficacy as "a cognitive motivational construct that involves two components, outcome expectancy and self-efficacy. Outcome expectancy involved the belief that an individual holds regarding the specific results accruing from a particular action. Self-efficacy beliefs pertain to beliefs regarding personal ability and competency to affect and/or execute a given task." (Enderin-Lampe, 2002) Bandura described this cognitive, belief structured phenomenon and provided specific methodologies to use as we analyze teacher and system variables. As defined above, efficacy encompases all aspects of a persons belief and ability to attain specific results.
In order to increase teacher efficacy, teachers must believe that their behaviors can indeed effect the education of their students. They must recognize that they have the capacity and power to make decisions and execute policy which will effect their role and students education. Belief is at the core of efficacy, and belief about self's abilities is interwoven with the teachers understanding and experience of their support by their school climate.
Self-efficacy refers to a teacher's generalized expectancy concerning the ability of teachers to influence students, as well as the teacher's beliefs concerning his or her own ability to perform certain professional tasks. A teacher's sense of self-efficacy has been positively related to a number of specific classroom behaviors, including the tendency to use praise rather than criticism; to persevere with low achievers; to be task oriented, enthusiastic, and accepting of student opinion; and to raise students' levels of achievement in reading and mathematics. Teachers who believe that they can make a difference in students' performance appear to accept responsibility for student failure as well as success." (Kagan, 1992)
The key focus must be on determining how to bring about a systemic improvement in a teacher's sense of efficacy. Much evidence has been provided (Ashton and Webb, 1986) that teachers need to feel competent to do the job. Much of this competitance is derived from the sense that the educational system around them is willing and capable of supporting their role. Even more research (Morrison, G.M, Wakefield, P., Walker, D. & Solberg, Pajares, F. & Miller, M.D., 1994, Weber, B.J. & Omotani, L.M., 1994; Ross, J.A., 1994) supports the idea that teacher self-efficacy is a critical component in the restructuring not just the classroom, but the process of schooling itself.
Some researchers are suggesting that teacher efficacy is determined more by the surroundings of the teacher than from factors within the teacher themselves. Brought about from the co-mingling of a variety of sources which include their past training, interaction with the administration, peers and the community characteristics, the teachers sense of their own abilities to bring a bout the desired changes do not rest completely within the scope of their own abilities. Their research indicates that teachers frequently believe that they are either not competent to have an integral part in shared goal setting within the school organization, yet the teachers resist an authoritarian management style. Researchers have reported that investigated teacher attitudes toward efficacy and empowerment and the learning environment in their schools. Their work indicated that teachers want to be involved in the everyday decision making of education of the educational institution. Although they are desirous of the role, they believe that a more positive work environment can be found by a supportive administration, collegial faculty, and a shared focus on students. (Ruscoe and Whitford, 1991)
This desire represents a significant post-modern paradigmatic shift in the way schools are structured and operated. The collaborative work environment, in which teachers feel free to voice their opingions, and have the power to affect positive policy is one which the senior administration must be willing to devolve power into the hands of the teachers. In general, in order to "bring about a collaborative work environment supportive of shared decision making, the leader must embrace and promote the concept of empowerment and teacher efficacy by providing the opportunity for teachers to mutually determine the direction of the organization." (Enderlin-Lampe, 2002)
Since part of the definition is efficacy is the teachers belief that he or she can bring about the desires results, the support of the school administration will effect the teachers efficacy in real and measurable ways. One of the aspects which affect the teachers desire to make real and lasting improvement sin their classroom is the level of stress which is associated with every day job tasks. The level to which the teacher remains motivated in the direction of his or her goals remains high when stress is kept at a minimum.
The article, "A Study of the Relationships Among Teacher Efficacy, Locus of Control, and Stress," authorized by Forrest W. Parkay, Stephen Olenik, and Norman Proller (1988), reported on stress experienced by teachers. Their study concerned teacher's stress in connection with three variable: locus of control, feelings of efficacy, and perceptions of stress. The authors defined locus of control as" "the belief that one's behavior determines the events of one's life." (Parkay, et.al., 1988) There were two different types of locus of control that apply to our discussion of a collaborative work environment: internal and external, as reported in the article. The internal locus of control is a state of belief in which one feels in control of the situation. Conversely, the external locus of control is a state where one feels the events are beyond one's control.
In this study, the researchers reported the teachers with an external locus of control construct responded to stress with "more anxiety, neurotic symptoms, and self-punitiveness" (Forest et.al, 1988) than those teachers with an internal locus of control construct. The teachers with the latter construct were found to experience less stress and received higher scores on standard teaching evaluations. In other words, the teachers who perceived that they were ultimately in control of the daily activities in their school and classroom espereinced less daily stress. The teachers who did not have a sense that their lives were within their control experienced higher levels of stress.
The teachers who perceived less school related stress and also scored higher on their own assessments. Teacher efficacy, as defined by the authors, means teachers believe their actions and beliefs directly affect students. Therefore, this research found a correlation between teacher efficacy, teacher stress, and student performance. When teachers felt they could produce the desired outcome from their students, they experienced lower stress, higher levels of self-efficacy, and as a result, their students also produced positive achievements. The researchers also found teachers of low stress schools developed "fewer physical symptoms of job-related stress and fewer psychological/emotional stress symptoms of stress." (Bertock, 1989) Conversely, teachers in high-stress schools were those who felt powerless to control events and responded to job-related stress dysfunctionally, employing "ineffective stress management skills." (Mills, 1991)
Relating this research to the concept of integration of technology in the classroom, and the support the teacher receives from the administration in the everyday tasks revolving around technology use identifies a linear relationship between the three factors. Teachers who have the resources they need to integrate software into the classroom will feel less stress. They will experience and develop more efficacy toward their students and their tasks as a teacher. These teachers are likely to extend more effort into the application and integration of technology into their classrooms. These teacher are those which sense that the control of their classroom is within their hands, and the have been equipped with the materkials, training, technology, and support they need in order to pursue their task.
The converse is also true. The teacher who senses that the locus of his or her control is outside of there own efforts is facing a paradox of stress and effort. The more effort they exert, the more stress they will create. The more they try to use technology which is not up-to-date, or they do not understand, the more they will create stress by trying to affect change in areas which are out of their control. This is the definition of a typical 'no win' situation. If the teacher who senses an external locus of control in their daily actities regarging technology tries harder, they will create undesirable stress. If they do not use the technhology, they are failing at their goals of improving scholastic performance via technology. The teacher is likely to avoid the technology all together, and continue teaching in their traditional style. This teacher is likely to under-utilize the equipment, and look to an external locus of control for a solution to their dilemma, or a place to affix blame.
Self-efficacy can be applied to this situation of we identify the issue of having technology in the classroom, and integrating that technology into the daily class activities as a 'problem to be solved." Problem-solving skills is defined as the belief in one's ability to resolve an undesirable state of affairs by using a systematic approach to intervention. Research has shown that self-efficacy has many valuable applicatrions. For example, teachers' self-efficacy with respect to student learning has been related to a corresponding level of motivation that is developedn and transferred to students. (Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1989; Woolfolk, Rosoff, & Hoy, 1990). Though a considerable amount of research has been conducted on self-efficacy, there has been no direct application to problem solving within the parameters of the job. Nonetheless, research conducted by Williams and Kleinfelter (1989) suggests that investigations in this area may bring to light valuable insights. These researchers found that a lack of confidence in problem-solving skills could be related to use of inappropriate coping strategies, which relates directly back to our teachers, the idea of locus of control, and the stress level which teachers face in regard to integration technology into their classroom.
Mueller (1992) identified two types of self-efficacy: general and specific. The general type of self-efficacy concerned overall problem-solving skills, whereas the specific type of self-efficacy concerned planning and evaluating interventions for students with behavior problems.
Previous research (Ashton, Webb, & Doda, 1983; Hoy & Woolfolk; Newman, Rutter, & Smith, 1989) has indicated that organizational climate is an important antecedent to self-efficacy. Two climate factors related to self-efficacy, administrative support and cooperative work among faculty, suggest that the status of work relationships can have an important influence on self-efficacy. (Kruger, 1997) In light of the previos research, this link is all but a conclusion. Teachers need input into their skills, talents, and learned teaching styles if they are to adapt, and change those teaching styles to include integrated technologhy. Without the new teaching style, skills, and talents, the computer technology is little more that a calculator sitting on the desk, a tool to be used now and then to make repetitive processes simpler.
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