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Deepening the Impact of Technology through an Inquiry Approach to Teaching and Learning: A Cross-Case Analysis of Three Teachers’ Experience
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, Research Center for Educational Technology, United States

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, in Nashville, Tennessee, USA ISBN 978-1-880094-44-0 Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Waynesville, NC USA

Abstract

This case study focuses on three teacher professionals whose teaching practices capitalize on the use of multiple technologies and inquiry method as a means to deepen student learning, engagement, and understanding. It reveals how teachers who ascribe to the inquiry method use technology to support inquiry and learning, and reveals the benefits (and drawbacks) of incorporating inquiry and technology in the classroom. The goal of this study is to determine the differences and similarities in teachers' beliefs and strategies about incorporating technology and the inquiry method. Teachers participated in a one-week orientation, prior to a six-week session in a technology immersed classroom. During the orientation they read about and discussed the issues involved in creating authentic work for students. They created guiding questions as the backbone of their inquiry units, and discussed how to design units that involve students in the development of questions that guide their own learning. This professional collaboration was continued throughout the year. In order to assure validity of the data, multiple data sources have been used in this study. Teachers were interviewed after their one-week orientation during the summer, just prior to their turn in the Ameritech Electronic Classroom. They were interviewed once a week with a semi-structured format that allowed us to tailor some questions to issues that emerged from the prior week's interview and observations. All teachers were observed in the classroom three times a week. A teacher reflection journal was recorded weekly, and unit and lesson plans provided a final data source. The rubric for authentic and intellectually engaged learning (Newmann, et. al., 1995) will be used to code the data with the software, Ethnograph. Instances of technology use will be noted, as well as teachers' rationale for using technology, and how they believe it supports student learning. These responses will then be coded for patterns. Categories that emerged will be analyzed to develop a framework of each teacher's understanding and mental model of the concept of inquiry, how the teacher believes it enriches student learning, and how technology supports teacher and student inquiry in the classroom. These individual cases will then be compared and contrasted to create a range of understanding of teachers' use of inquiry and technology in the classroom. [This study is in its final weeks of data gathering. Data analysis will be completed by January 2002.]

Citation

Juliana, M. (2002). Deepening the Impact of Technology through an Inquiry Approach to Teaching and Learning: A Cross-Case Analysis of Three Teachers’ Experience. In D. Willis, J. Price & N. Davis (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2002--Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 2031-2032). Nashville, Tennessee, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

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