My Big Research Question...So What?

My big research question is "How does technology influence teachers' teaching practice?"

Since I was a undergraduate student in a teacher education program in Taiwan, I had been educated and prepared to be an elementary teacher who knows about content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge and skills in order to be a good teacher in practice. Right now, I teach an undergraduate level course for preparing preservice teachers with basic technological knowledge and skills to provide effective teaching practice in their future classrooms. During the time, the ways people think and learn have been changing because the advent of technology. Therefore, since how people learn has changed, I believe that how teachers teach should be changing as well in order to benefit learners in education based on their needs. Also, I believe that teachers are the group of people who play an important role in education and affecting students' learning outcome.

Using technology in education has been a popular research topic in educational field in recent decade. Moreover, technology integration in classrooms has been proved to be an effective way to support students' learning. At the early stage of technology integration research, U.S. Congress (1995) found that the lack of technology resources has been one of the main factors that a lot of teachers were reluctant to use technology in their teaching.  Years later, Hixon and Buckenmeyer (2009) and Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010) still found that effective technology integration is not completely happening in practice even though the availability of resources and support is increasing due to some concerns and barriers teachers encounter (Ertmer et al., 2012; Hew & Brush, 2007). Therefore, lots of research studies have investigated in how to support and improve teachers' technology integration by improving the quality of teacher preparation program for preservice teachers and providing teachers professional development for inservice teachers.

With this background and context of technology integration in education, I believe it is important for me to keep investigating the topics such as how teachers use technology in practice currently, what teachers' needs are regarding technology integration, and how technology can support teachers' teaching as well as professional learning. By studying on these topics, I will have a better understanding about how technology influences teachers' teaching practice in different ways and then explore the supportive and effective professional development for technology integration and professional growth. Eventually, and hopefully, the ultimate goal and purpose of education - enhancing students' learning and improving students' performance, would be fulfilled by the change of teachers' teaching practice with the support of technology.




Resources:

Ertmer, P.A., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A.T. (2010). Teacher technology change. How knowledge, beliefs, and culture intersect. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(3), 221-251.

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

Hew, K. F., & Brush, T. (2007). Integrating technology into K–12 teaching and learning: Current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 55, 223–252.

Hixon, E., & Buckenmeyer, J. (2009). Revisiting Technology Integration in Schools: Implications for Professional Development. Computers in the Schools, 26(2), 130.

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1995).Teachers and technology: Making the connection (OTA-EHR-616). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.