Technology Professional Development Research Articles

Does transformational leadership encourage teachers’ use of digital learning materials

To gain insight into how to promote teachers’ use of digital learning materials (DLMs) in their pedagogical practices we adopted the Integrated Model of Behaviour Prediction to investigate the relationships between organizational and teacher-related variables. A representative sample of 772 teachers from primary, secondary or vocational education took part in a survey study. Conjectured combinations of direct and indirect relationships between the variables were tested for the best model fit with structural equation modelling. The results suggest that a model with mediating relations from leadership through information and communication technology (ICT) policy and professional development activities to the variables self-efficacy, attitude and social norm, combined with direct relations from leadership to the latter, has the best fit for predicting teachers’ intention to use DLMs.

Twenty-Five Years Later: How is Technology Used in the Education of Students with Disabilities? Results of a Statewide Study

This study provides a snapshot of factors associated with assistive technology (AT) use in one large Midwestern state. Conducted about 25 years after the passage of the original Technology Related Assistance Act, the study presents results from a survey of 1,143 Michigan educators. Results of the study show that respondents use technology frequently in their personal and professional lives, but less so during the instruction of students with disabilities. AT is viewed positively and educators believe they are knowledgeable about some aspects of technology use. However, in other areas, educators provide low ratings of their knowledge of specific AT uses and functions, and have mixed impressions of the support they receive for technology use. Scores on measures of self-reported knowledge and perceived support vary significantly among different categories of respondents and are only moderate for special educators and low for general educators. Nevertheless, educators express interest in further professional development about AT. The need for additional professional development, along with better access to technology and more funding, are perceived as top barriers to more widespread AT use. Other findings include a lack of knowledge about how technology is used by students in and out of school and the low rate of participation of general educators, students, and parents in AT decisions. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for reforming practices related to technology implementation, professional development, and research.

Transforming Classroom Practice: Technology Professional Development that Works!

Technology professional development workshops primarily focus on technical skill training, and these skills are often taught out of context and seem remote from classroom practice. How can educators learn how to teach with technology in a variety of disciplinary areas so that their professional learning experiences are considered valuable and are readily integrated into their teaching practice? This paper presents a professional development workshop model, called the TPACK-based Professional Learning Design Model (PLDM), that is a practical and efficient method for engaging teachers and teacher candidates in the development of tech-enhanced teaching practice. The workshop model uses four specific types of professional development experiences to promote teaching with technology, rather than teaching the technology, with the goal that teachers leave the workshop being able to understand how to integrate one tech-enhanced activity into their own daily instructional practices.

Examining the factors of a technology professional development intervention

This article discusses technology integration literature used to guide the design and implementation of a technology professional development intervention (TPDI) for secondary education teachers. Qualitative multiple-case research methods were used to examine teachers’ perceptions of the TPDI factors to provide a deeper understanding of which factors teachers’ perceived to be beneficial to the quality of the TPDI. A content analysis methodology was used to compare teachers’ perceptions at two different phases throughout the study: Phase 1: while participating in the TPDI and, Phase 2: after transferring the knowledge and skills taught in the TPDI to teaching practice. The results demonstrated seven beneficial factors to include when designing technology curriculum for adult learners: relevant, learning, access, reactions, interactions, clear and easy, and instructor. While this study examined a specific TPDI, the instructional design incorporated factors rooted in constructivist design principles, making the implications of the findings relevant to the instructional design of technology learning environments for higher education and business environments.

First-Year Effects Of An Engineering Professional Development Program On Elementary Teachers

The ultimate objective of teacher professional development (TPD) is to deliver a positive impact on students’ engagement and performance in class through teacher practice via improving their content and pedagogical content knowledge and changing their attitudes toward the subject being taught. However, compared to other content areas, such as mathematics and science, relatively few engineering TPD programs have been developed, and there has been a lack of research on the effective practice of TPD for K-12 engineering education. As a part of a five-year longitudinal project, this study reports the first-year effect of TPD offered by the Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE) at Purdue University on elementary teachers integrating engineering. Thirty-two teachers of second through fourth grade from seven schools attended a one-week intensive Summer Academy and integrated engineering lessons throughout the year. Based on a pre- and post-test research design, multiple measures were utilized to examine changes in teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of engineering and their variations in knowledge and perceptions by school and teacher characteristics. Overall, teachers were satisfied with the engineering TPD program, significantly increased their engineering design process knowledge, and became more familiar with engineering. While teachers’ knowledge about engineering did not vary by school and teacher characteristics, some aspects of teachers’ perceptions regarding engineering integration and their practice differed by school and teacher characteristics.

Applying the Design Framework to Technology Professional Development

Building on contemporary research on teacher professional development, this study examined the practices of a technology-focused learning community at a high school in the United States. Over the course of a school year, classroom teachers and a university-based researcher participated in the learning community to investigate how technology can promote student achievement and engagement within the secondary English curriculum. This analysis used the design frame-work to identify key practices within the learning community, which included writing a mission statement, innovating with digital tools, engaging in critical discussion, and examining student work. Findings suggest that the design framework can offer a common discourse and visual representation to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of professional development.

Examining and Understanding Transformative Learning to Foster Technology Professional Development in Higher Education

Educators are increasingly encouraged to practice life-long learning. Learning to cope with emerging technologies for educational purposes is, for most educators, a complex process. Consequently, educators engage in critical reflective processes, and consider new views as they learn new knowledge and skills so as how to best apply information and communication technologies to teaching and learning. For educators this process can be intimidating and frustrating. The use of new technologies in education requires educators to reconceptualise traditional educational concepts which means that educators need compelling reasons to dramatically change their teaching and learning practice. This paper highlights the significance of Mezirowâ??s transformative learning theory for teachersâ?? technology professional development and provides insight in teachersâ?? learning processes as they learn emerging technologies for educational purposes. The data discussed in this paper have been drawn from a study at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. The data were collected and analyzed according to a qualitative approach.

Cultivate High Quality Creative Mining Engineering Talents Based on the Construction of Professional Characteristics

First of all, mining engineering construction must rationally determine the characteristics of professional development goals of mining engineering. Innovative talents training is the key of existence and development of safety engineering discipline, which is of great significance for mining engineering discipline. In order to train high-quality creative mining engineering talents with the mining characteristics and "based on fact, knowledge breadth, practical ability, and comprehensive high quality". The paper based on the construction of mining engineering professional characteristics development points from perfecting training plan strengthening the teaching staff, teaching contents and curriculum reform, improvement of education quality, relying on further improving the methods and measures of cultivating the high-quality creative talents. So that the students overall quality and level of creative has been greatly improved.

A corporate/university partnership for IT professional development

In this paper, a new partnership model for post-graduate Information Technology (IT) professional development is described. The model is based on the premise that achieving strategic advantage requ...

Getting the Most From Your Interactive Whiteboard Investment: Three Guiding Principles for Designing Effective Professional Development

The adoption of interactive whiteboards (IWB) in many schools outpaced the delivery of adequate professional development on their use. Many teachers receive IWBs without adequate training on methods to use the technology to improve their instruction. Consequently, IWBs remain an underutilized resource in many classrooms. Teachers who are given IWBs require purposeful, scaffolded, and sustained professional development to maximize the IWB's potential. This article identifies three promising professional development practices for teaching educators how to use IWBs effectively. The literature describing effective technology professional development suggests it should (1) build efficacy by scaffolding the instruction of new tasks, (2) establish long-term collaborative partnerships among teachers, and (3) include positive supervision that encourages teacher self-reflection and measures student engagement with digital media using the IWB. Professional-development designers can increase the effectiveness of their instruction by incorporating these principles into their training.

Towards a pre-service technology teacher education resource for New Zealand

The Pre-service Technology Teacher Education Resource (PTTER) was developed as a cross-institutional resource to support the development of initial technology teacher education programmes in New Zealand. The PTTER was developed through collaboration involving representatives from each of the six New Zealand university teacher education providers, Massey University, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, University of Otago, Victoria University and University of Waikato, working with the National Technology Professional Development Manager. The framework for PTTER is built on four key elements considered to be essential to the education of technology teachers. The four elements are: philosophy of technology, rationale for technology education, technology in the New Zealand curriculum, and teaching technology. The PTTER is a web-based resource aimed at assisting technology teacher educators in the development of their teacher education programmes. The framework is a statement of shared philosophy, purpose and intent and is located on the Techlink website (www.techlink.org.nz). PTTER contains a range of teaching resources and strategies located within an overall framework for initial technology teacher education programmes. This paper describes the rationale for the PTTER framework, the process through which it was developed, explanation of each of the framework’s elements, and concludes with discussion of the framework’s implementation and future development.

Video-stimulated reflection as a professional development tool in interactive whiteboard research

AbstractSeveral authors (e.g., Mcniff & Whitehead, 2006; Wallace, 1998) defend the idea that teachers’ own involvement in research has the potential to encourage professional growth. Journal writing, teacher logs, written narratives and stimulated recall are some examples of methods that have been used by researchers to encourage and support teachers’ reflective practice in teacher-researcher collaborative research. This paper discusses the use of video-stimulated reflection as both a research method and as a means for teacher professional growth. The research findings are drawn from a longitudinal study that investigates a model of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) technology professional development programme. The research was carried out in the form of seven in-depth case studies with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in German secondary/vocational schools, as they learn how to integrate the IWB into their teaching. Research data were collected via a variety of research instruments, namely classroom observations and field notes, video recordings of school lessons and teacher training workshops, interviews and video-stimulated reflection. Findings based on the analysis of the copious amount of data gathered indicate that the video-stimulated dialogues were used by the teachers as effective opportunities for reflection, self-evaluation and pedagogical development.

Evaluating the impact of educational technology professional development upon adoption of Web 2.0 tools in teaching

<blockquote>Our paper reports upon and critically analyses findings from a two-year research project into the provision of continuing professional development for making purposeful use of Web 2.0 tools in teaching. Based on our research, we make recommendations for delivering effective continuing professional development workshops whilst also acknowledging the limitations of this form of continuing professional development. The advantages of alternative forms of professional development are discussed and implications for practice are outlined.</blockquote>

The impact of a geographic technologies professional development institute on Middle Eastern and North African teachers

Basic education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) seems to be characterized by lecture methods of instruction, a lack of interdisciplinary approaches and a disconnection with local community problems. During 2008, a “My Community, Our Earth” (MyCOE) workshop was organized in the MENA region and involved teachers of geography, math and science. It aimed to promote and support the use of geographic methods and technologies, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), regarding sustainable development topics as a way to improve primary and secondary teaching and learning through an interdisciplinary approach and connection to local issues. These subjects were integrated to a perspective based on spatial thinking, spatial analysis, active learning and problem solving on a variety of regional and local issues. This article explores the impact that the MyCOE workshop may have on participants’ learning. Preworkshop and postworkshop questionnaires were administered, and the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data shows that the respondents’ expertise was reinforced and that they learned to use geographic technologies. In addition, the MyCOE workshop resulted in the development of a more concrete vision among participants of what basic math and science education could be in Arab nations, by using geographic learning as a framework for integrated education.

Okanagan College Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation

Abstract The Centre of Excellence at Okanagan College in Penticton, British Columbia is being designed as one of the most innovative and sustainable post-secondary facilities in the world. On schedule for design and construction to be complete by April 2011, the two-storey multi-purpose facility has a mandate to provide trades and technology training and professional development to students from the province of British Columbia and beyond. It is aimed at attaining the highest standard of sustainable building design, the Living Building Challenge. The building will support a syllabus with a focus on the design, installation, and support of sustainable building technologies and processes, and the development and application of alternative and renewable energy. The building itself will become an essential element of the educational programs that will reside there, a teaching tool for education on building trades and engineering technologies. In addition, the Okanagan Research Innovation Centre will be incorp...

Engineering Professional Development Related to Sustainability of Quality

The relationship between employability, professionalism and routes to chartered engineer for engineering graduates in relation to the sustainability of quality and standards is discussed in this paper. Different political and economic developments, set in the context of globalisation, like knowledge led economic policy and the political drift from neo-liberal to third way policies have impacted and shaped the current notion of employability, professionalism and standards. These concepts are outlined and considered in relation to sustaining quality assured formation of undergraduate engineers through routes to professional chartered engineer. Two routes, academic and work related are discussed using case studies to show how the necessary academic standards can be achieved for recognition as a chartered engineer and consideration given as to whether the same quality assured outcomes can be achieved by both routes. These two routes do not deliver similar profiles. A model and work related framework is proposed, which needs to be government led within a global context to achieve the solution to many of the tensions discussed and provide a common global system of professional formation.

Integration of Technology, Curriculum, and Professional Development for Advancing Middle School Mathematics

The authors present three studies (two randomized controlled experiments and one embedded quasi-experiment) designed to evaluate the impact of replacement units targeting student learning of advanced middle school mathematics. The studies evaluated the SimCalc approach, which integrates an interactive representational technology, paper curriculum, and teacher professional development. Each study addressed both replicability of findings and robustness across Texas settings, with varied teacher characteristics (backgrounds, knowledge, attitudes) and student characteristics (demographics, levels of prior mathematics knowledge). Analyses revealed statistically significant main effects, with student-level effect sizes of .63, .50, and .56. These consistent gains support the conclusion that SimCalc is effective in enabling a wide variety of teachers in a diversity of settings to extend student learning to more advanced mathematics.

Secondary level engineering professional development: content, pedagogy, and challenges

The design of this study was a multiple case study conducted to examine the knowledge, pedagogical principles, and challenges involved in providing engineering-oriented professional development for teachers at the secondary school level. A set of criteria was used to identify five representative projects for analysis in the US. A variety of tools and processes were used to gather data including on-site observations, interviews, focus groups and document reviews. Results of the study indicate that engineering professional development tends to be based on work focused on curriculum development and implementation. Given the distinct design orientation of engineering, it is not surprising that the focus of engineering-oriented professional development tends to concentrate on engaging activities, with a primary focus on process rather than content. A key outcome of this study was an observed lack of a clearly formulated and articulated conceptual foundation for secondary level engineering. Regarding pedagogy, the researchers identified a heavy emphasis on modeling and applied learning. At the same time, the researchers observed a lack of emphasis on reflection and analysis of the pedagogical processes and techniques used to shape teachers’ ability to teach engineering to their students. The findings of the study also include concerns raised by teachers as they engage in engineering professional development. These include concerns about technical knowledge, particularly with the use of specialized software applications and other tools, as well as with practical issues such as time, resources, and availability of appropriate curriculum.

A Study on the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation

The Centre for Excellence is being designed as a highly innovative, two–storey multi-purpose facility that will provide essential trades and technology training and professional development to students in British Columbia, Canada and beyond. The building will support a syllabus with a focus on sustainable building technologies and processes, and the development and application of alternative and renewable energy. Design work and construction will be completed in time for the building to open in April 2011. The Centre for Excellence will also host an incubator organization to provide tenancy space for start–up innovation and research companies specializing in sustainable technologies. This building project is unique from a number of perspectives. It is aimed at attaining the highest standard of sustainable building design, namely the Living Building Challenge. Further, the building itself will become an essential element of the educational programs that will reside there, mainly focused on building trades and engineering technologies. In addition, the Okanagan Research Innovation Centre will be incorporated into the building, providing opportunities for start–up companies to develop and prototype new green technologies in a supportive and synergistic environment. Finally, this building is being constructed in the somewhat challenging climatic regime of the Okanagan region of Canada. The most important element of this project is that is will demonstrate that the Living Building Challenge is achievable at a cost comparable to conventional building design. The paper will focus on how this ambitious goal will be attained along with the numerous unique aspects that have been incorporated into the building design.

Connecting Instructional Technology Professional Development to Teacher and Student Outcomes

This article presents findings from an evaluation of an instructional-technology professional development (PD) program that uses many practices advocated by PD experts. In this multiphase evaluation, evaluators examined the program, determined whether variations in program implementation had an impact on teacher outcomes, and then looked at whether variations in program implementation and teacher outcomes had an impact on student achievement. We found that greater PD fidelity was associated with higher-quality lesson plans and higher student achievement. This evaluation suggests that instructional-technology PD that is closely aligned to a program’s core conceptual foundations can lead to positive teacher and student outcomes.