Initial Findings

     As I near the end of analyzing the data for my pilot study, I've got some initial findings. My research questions were: 

What are the science teachers’ current attitudes and practices in regard to technology-enhanced, learner-centered teaching methods? 

What, if any, barriers do the science teachers perceive as preventing them from integrating technology in learner-centered ways?

    In answering the first question, I have results from the survey and the interviews. Two sections of the survey dealt with attitudes in regard to technology and learner-centered instruction. Below are the bar charts summarizing the data from these two sections. This is data from a Likert-style survey where 5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree, and 3 is neutral. Overall average score for technology beliefs for the group of teachers is 4.01 which indicates that they generally agree with using technology in the classroom. Their most negative belief was that technology was good for catching students' attention but not for helping them learn science. (Note: a few of these statements are negatively worded, so the inverse score is used.)
    Interview data corroborates these findings. On the negative side, teachers mentioned concern about students' "extraneous use" of technology and fear that technology will replace going outside and hands-on activities and will harm students abilities to communicate with their parents and with each other. Five of the 11 teachers specifically mentioned research showing that students learn better when they write things out by hand instead of using a keyboard. There was also a sentiment of - "I didn't learn with technology and I did fine." On the positive side, teachers valued the on-line textbook, websites for extra practice and differentiated instruction, on-line simulations, greater accuracy afforded by digital measuring instruments, and the ability to monitor student progress easily. They also valued having easy access to digital video and interactives to explain concepts and the ability to have students look up the latest information on scientific and technological discoveries.

      The overall mean score for learner-centered beliefs was 3.35 - which is just a little more positive than the neutral score of 3. So, the teachers do not believe as strongly in using learner-centered methods as they do technology. And, it was clear that the teachers didn't feel they knew enough about learner-centered methods and wanted to learn more. 
    Again, the interview data helped backup and further explain these findings. A few of the teachers did not have a clear definition of learner-centered methods and some equated it with differentiated learning. Several mentioned the importance of the role of teacher as facilitator though others described their main role as the provider of information. In fact, some seemed to equate the word teach with lecture: “I’ve obviously got to teach the basics” and “you’ve still got to teach, especially at the AP level … you’ve got to get up there and you’ve got to show them how to do some of the harder stuff.” and “Most important aspect - well, of course teaching the material, communicating it to them in a way they comprehend.” Group work and lab work was valued as an important part of teaching science and several teachers spoke of the value of having students teach and learn from each other.
 

    One section of the survey dealt with learner-centered practices while the interview data spoke to both learner-centered practices and technology practices. Below is the bar chart summarizing that section of the survey data. The overall average rating for learner-centered practices was 3.46 - a slight agreement with statements indicating they were using leaner-centered methods already. Teachers agreed least with the idea of letting students make decision about what and how to learn and how to assess that learning. Three statements about treating students differently from each other (different assessments, work at own pace, and personalized learning) also got ratings close to neutral. The interview questions specifically asked teachers about the technologies they used and which of these they were using in learner-centered ways. Current technology practices that could be considered learner-centered included:

• virtual on-line labs
• on-line flashcards, quizzes, and other review activities
• researching topics using subscription data bases and websites for projects, papers, and lab write-ups - using computers or mobile devices
• simulations
• labs using technology to collect and analyze data
• student presentations
• model making
• research to design own experiment
• creating pamphlet using Microsoft Publisher
• digital photography included in labs
• bioinformatics database used in a lab
• flipped classroom using teacher-created or on-line video
• teacher monitoring student work through on-line textbook and activities reporting
• WebAssign website to create different practice problems for each student.
• Students analyzing movie clips for real-life physics problems - project

  

    The interviews and one section of the survey dealt with perception of barriers toward integrating technology in learner-centered ways and therefore addressed the second research question. Below is the bar chart summarizing the teachers' perceptions of barriers. The overall average rating for the barriers was 1.70 (where 1 = not a barrier and 3 = major barrier), indicating that the teachers perceived some barriers but not many were major. By far, the biggest barrier was lack of time. Every one of the teachers rated this barrier as a 2 or 3. Four items related to training and support had mean scores close to 2 indicating that they were somewhat of a barrier. This is actually promising because these four barriers can all be addressed in the mentoring program which the teachers began after this data was collected. Lack of time is more difficult to solve, but perhaps the training and support improvements will be able to help with the time issue.
     Again, the interview data explained in more detail. Time was the biggest barrier and seven teachers mentioned the problem of having enough time during class while nine talked about the excessive amount of time needed to learn about, plan and prepare learner-centered, technology enhanced activities. Lack of training was another topic that came up often in the interviews. Example quotes include: "I've found it's taking time also to get the students to switch their brains to that kind of activity. They are so used to the teacher giving them the information rather than for them searching for it themselves." and "It looks good on paper, but the reality of the implementation is going to be so much more involved and longer than you ever expect." and "It's just that the real trick as a teacher is keeping up with all the latest gadgets and gizmos and apps ... the time commitment there is very significant"
 

     The results give a pretty clear picture of where the teachers are today in terms of their attitudes about technology and learner-centered methods and their practices. It will be interesting to see if any of these attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or practices change over time and after professional development.