Considering the widespread belief in the potential of mobile technology to enhance core activities of teachers, like lesson planning and preparation, limited research has been conducted on the use of mobile technology to support these activities. To address this research gap, this study delved into the acceptance of an intent-based chatbot specifically designed to aid preservice teachers (n = 92) during planning tasks. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), findings indicate that Perceived Usefulness was a significant predictor of Chatbot Use, while the role of Ease of Use was more nuanced. Qualitative data analysis provided valuable insights into the factors that influence chatbot adoption or nonadoption, allowing for a contextualized understanding within the TAM framework.
This report describes recent efforts by the NTLS associations addressing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to facilitate effective use of makerspaces in schools. The 25th Anniversary of NTLS provides an opportunity to not only report on this specific effort, but also describe the way in which cross-disciplinary dialog at NTLS is translated into collective efforts. This typically begins with a conversation at the summit followed by subsequent collaborative efforts. The sections that follow describe collective efforts to facilitate the use of open hardware in K-12 schools.
Teaching through collaborative making has found its way into K12 schools and colleges of education, but minimal research exists on making for learning in special education settings. Even less research is available focusing on preservice special education teachers using making as a pedagogical tool for academic interventions. This multiple case study explored five preservice special education teachers’ perceptions, conceptions, acting knowledge, and efficacy when teaching students with disabilities through making. Results indicated that participants’ beliefs about teaching through making evolved, and they reported a deepened understanding of effective teaching methods for students with disabilities.
The prevalence of data in every aspect of life in modern society makes it critical that students are given experiences investigating real issues with real data. Our research question was as follows: In what ways can mathematical action technology used with a real-world context involving the wage gap contribute to students’ sense of identity and agency, that is, student actions and utterances indicative of building identity and agency? This paper describes the use of mathematical action and conveyance technologies with an open-ended task in classroom environments that promoted reasoning and problem-solving. High school students explored median incomes in the United States broken down by race, education level, and occupation using TI Nspire(TM) technology. By engaging students in noticing and wondering where their voices were honored and respected, this “figured world” resulted in a lesson that motivated and involved students in doing mathematics and contributed to developing their mathematical identities and agency in the process.
This qualitative study investigated how mixed-reality simulations supported the development of justice-oriented core teaching practices within a large elementary education program. Told from the point-of-view of two methods instructors, using candidates’ written and oral reflections, the authors examined the use of Mursion® mixed reality simulation software as a tool for rehearsing to teach content through a justice-oriented lens. Three themes emerged from the words of the teacher candidates in the focus group, as well as in their written reflections after completing each of the simulation cycles during their coursework: (a) simulations provided a safety net for students (and their teachers) in PK-12 schools; (b) simulations made the learning of these core practices focused on skill development (versus classroom management) and thus less messy; and (c) simulations provided a safe space to apply justice-oriented lenses while engaging students in content. Simulations augmented the candidates’ field experience, while providing a window on their development as teachers committed to becoming change agents enacting just and equitable learning. Implications and the limitations of using simulations to support teacher candidate learning are discussed, particularly when the goal is teaching for equity.
University faculty members who implement field-based teacher education programs experience challenges providing instruction for clinical, site-embedded university-based students. These issues can include a lack of common times to meet with students, limited access to meeting space to provide direct instruction, and changes in the school schedule. A number of these barriers may be addressed by adding elements of online instruction to traditional in-person classes, making the course, in effect, a hybrid one. In this study, the researchers analyzed the perspectives of university-based, special education focused instructors and clinical partners on the barriers, needs, benefits, and content related to implementing hybrid instruction in field-based settings. The hybrid content would supplement special education teacher education candidates’ learning as they developed their skills for supporting students with special needs. Five university faculty members and two field-based PK-12 partners involved in special education teacher preparation participated in in-depth, open-ended phone interviews. Data analysis included identifying themes using a constant comparative qualitative approach. The participants recommended several supports they considered necessary for using technology to teach their students successfully. Rather than a temporary pandemic measure, the authors suggest that hybrid instruction offers a promising approach to support preservice teachers in the field going forward.
This study validated measures for elementary preservice teachers’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) for elementary mathematics and evaluated the extent to which technology knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, and content knowledge were related to the formation of TPACK. The study was guided by the TPACK framework and adopted a widely used survey instrument. Participants were elementary preservice teachers at the end of a mathematics method class at a midwestern US teacher preparation program. The study used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to analyze measurement and predictive models. The confirmatory factor analysis validated a four-factor correlated measure of technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and TPACK. The structural equation model indicated technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge significantly predicted TPACK in elementary mathematics, but content knowledge did not. Preservice elementary school teachers indicated that their technological expertise was lower than their pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and TPACK. The results underscore the importance of strengthening TPACK in elementary teacher preparation programs with a focus on mathematics, enhancing the proficiency of preservice teachers in utilizing technology for effective mathematics teaching. This is particularly critical due to rapid technological change and shifts in students' needs and competencies.
This study examined how an online instructional module that included an unplugged robot design activity integrated computational thinking (CT), assistive technology (AT), and universal design principles into a preservice teacher education class. The research focused on how this module shaped understanding, attitudes, and comfort levels about integrating these concepts into their future classrooms. The population of this study consisted of 59 students enrolled in an upper-division online undergraduate instructional technology course over three semesters. The module was developed collaboratively by education and computer science faculty members by infusing activities adapted from an unplugged robot design lesson created for introductory computer science students (Imberman et al., 2017). The module culminated with an assignment in which students used paper and pencil to design a robot that solved an educational problem that a teacher may face in a classroom that also contained features to make it accessible to students with special needs. The module increased knowledge of CT and comfort with teaching the topic in their future classroom. Participants gained knowledge about AT but said they were not comfortable using AT in future classrooms.
Literacy clinics have a long history of providing supplemental assessment and instruction to students with literacy needs, but they were tested during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many pivoted from a face-to face format to three-way remote learning. This study provides a window into how literacy clinics at this moment of transformation in education embraced, and in some cases were challenged by, technology. A survey was administered in spring 2021 to a sample of 58 literacy clinic directors from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Bolivia, The Netherlands, and Australia. Data analysis included quantitative descriptive and inferential statistics reporting on the use of technological platforms and resources, clinic settings, and the format of clinics, before, during, and anticipated after pandemic. Results suggest that clinicians retained some traditional instruction methods while moving some components to digital spaces. Qualitative analysis included (a) coding, (b) creating categories, and (c) developing profiles of respondents based on their prepandemic and postpandemic instructional delivery format. Survey responses conveying the challenges and opportunities of online instruction are discussed in accordance with technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. This research captured the precipice of institutional change as literacy clinics responded to the pandemic and then recalibrated their intentions for the future.
This research explored how teacher candidates (TCs) developed and curated learning resources that are both digitally enriched and focused on differentiated instruction (DI). The authors present the analysis of a course assignment in which TCs developed multimedia curriculum resource websites suitable for use by secondary teachers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The research addressed the following research question: What examples of technology-enhanced DI do TCs incorporate in their curriculum resource websites? The analysis of 18 websites shows how TCs incorporated digital learning resources to promote DI principles and practices in their lesson plans. Implications for STEM education research and practice are discussed.
The start of a new academic year is always an exciting time, full of renewed energy and opportunities. As we embark on this new academic year, interest in AI remains robust, with educational institutions across all levels engaged in ongoing discussion about new ways of integrating AI for teaching, learning, and creative endeavors. In higher education, these discussions focus on supporting faculty in updating course syllabi to account for the use AI, which includes setting clear expectations, re-envisioning assignments to take advantage of human capabilities (e.g., making visual representations of content), and updating academic integrity policies among others (Watkins, 2022). Similarly, data indicate that the majority of K-12 teachers are already utilizing ChatGPT to build background knowledge and perform job duties, such as lesson planning and development of creative ideas (Impact Research, 2023).
This article shares a critical content analysis of 36 highly rated curricular units found on the website TeachersPayTeachers.com (TpT) focused on the teaching of American symbols. Lessons and curricular resources focused on American symbols, such as the United States Flag, Statue of Liberty, and Liberty Bell, remain prominent in the elementary curriculum. Often, these lessons ignore and further marginalize groups that have been historically excluded in the United States. Findings indicate that the symbols chosen to represent the United States fail to capture the expansive history of the nation, exclude historically marginalized groups, and promote a whitewashed, monocultural, exclusively positive vision of citizenship in the United States. Moreover, the transmission-based pedagogy embedded in the TpT resources fail to offer students opportunities to inquire about or consider points of contradiction and complexity regarding patriotism and citizenship. The article concludes with implications of findings and recommendations for research and practice.
How did you observe the Great American Eclipse of 2017? Were you looking up, or collecting data from down on the ground? As we gear up for the spring 2024 event, several avenues have emerged for K-12 educators to secure materials for guided eclipse viewing activities with their students, including small grants providing educator funding.
Due to the introduction and rapid ubiquity of AI and AI-integrated programs that can be used by students and teachers, educational scholarship evaluating the capabilities of AI is needed. The present study evaluates the abilities of three prominent AI programs—ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, Google’s Bard—to create high school lesson plans on the subjects of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Indian Removal Act, and climate change. We judge the quality of the lessons’ content based on scholarship in the education field and document the process of prompting the AI to produce lessons more in line with these criteria.
A series of models in the Educational CAD Model Library can be used to reconstruct mechanical animation machines such as the Praxinoscope and related animation mechanisms. Hands-on experiences can be used to enhance understanding of historical invention processes and related science concepts. Foundational concepts of visual perception are discussed. The evolution of animation from simple image sequences to modern-day digital animation is described. Classroom implementations in which students build animation machines, connecting theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience, are reviewed. This educational approach not only brings historical inventions to life but also solidifies students' understanding of scientific principles, contributing to the broader curriculum in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
This mixed methods study explored the impact of a collaborative experience on perceptions of school librarian candidates (SLCs) and preservice teacher candidates (PTCs) as they worked to integrate technology into lesson plans effectively. The group under investigation consisted of 83 PTCs in the teacher preparation program who were enrolled in selected sections of a required technology course and graduate students in a School of Library and Information Science preparation program at the same institution. Forty of the PTCs were part of the control group and 43 were in the treatment group, which received collaborative support from the SLCs. One important finding is that PTCs perceived SLCs as valuable resources for integrating technologies, particularly for designing lesson plans that integrated technology. Additionally, both PTCs and SLCs realized the importance of teacher-librarian collaboration (TLC) in their future campus roles. A key recommendation is for teacher education programs to embed opportunities for TLC experiences for improving PTCs’ technology integration and lesson planning.
The switch to remote teaching and learning consequentially pushing educators in rapid adaptation of technology platforms has made it essential to build knowledge and understanding of how elementary teachers learn to use various technology tools to enhance student learning. For effective science instruction and sustaining student engagement, preservice science teachers need to know the proper utilization of technology tools, and coaching partnerships can assist them in achieving that goal. Utilizing a single case study design, this study focused on understanding a preservice elementary science teacher’s implementation of Flip (formerly Flipgrid) in a third-grade classroom, specifically, exploring how this preservice elementary science teacher, with the help of her instructional coach, learned to implement Flip to reinforce her students’ engagement through 5E learning experiences. Findings shed light on her transition while incorporating Flip into her classroom, where it started as a challenging task but gradually evolved into a more successful implementation. This paper demonstrates the detailed trajectory of how the preservice science teacher learned to implement the tool. With guidance, practice, and resources, Flip manifested as a supportive tool for engaging students with their science content.
As the new editor, I will continue to oversee and manage rigorous review processes and simultaneously meet deadlines. I am also looking forward to having conversations with authors and reviewers about proposed paper topics and special issues.
