Running head: COLLABORATION FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Collaboration for Professional Development and Integration of Technology Doug Smith ETEC533

Running head: COLLABORATION FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Framing The Issue When analyzing topics related to bringing educational technology into secondary school classrooms, one recurring theme is the need for professional development. There is a strong desire to foster new investigations and experiences with the adoption of new technology. This desire is broadly seen in public forums on education (Thomson, 2012), and through several field interviews shared through the ETEC 533 framing issues module. While professional development is commonly recognized as being a strong influence on technology integration, it is corollary training via teacher collaboration that may offer the best opportunities for working teachers. Regardless of the specific knowledge content outcomes from professional development, it is clear that teachers feel the need for collaboration, and this mindset is consistently shown when discussing technology in education. Starting from an initial reflection on my earliest interactions with technology, I realized how learning to use technology is predicated on many factors. Following this, a review of video cases on implementing technology in science and mathematics classrooms showed a distinct pattern of teachers wanting or using training with the technology. The idea of training and collaboration came together in my interview that I conducted with a secondary school physics teacher. The first general question about I asked about technology in his classroom elicited a firm response about wishing for collaboration with his fellow teachers. Once this notion was brought forward to my attention, it seemed that quite often when people talk about professional development for training with technology, what they really are describing are collaborative development opportunities. Reflecting on this, it stands to reason that collaboration can be at the heart of professional development, given that educational research continuously shows the importance of social learning theories. Furthermore, as a member of my schools Technology Committee, my own experience is that teachers are looking for collaborative professional help more often than the typical workshop scenario. Therefore, this annotated bibliography explores what research has revealed on teachers desire for collaborative professional development, and whether there are indications on the effectiveness of such training. This knowledge can help inform and guide school and staff committee policies, along with help facilitate discussions on what the changing educational landscape will look like in terms of professional development. Methodology Resources were found through the CiteULike citation library along with searches through the ERIC database. The framing issue is quite specific and therefore many searches were required before strongly relevant articles were found. Keywords and phrases for searching include technology adoption, collaboration, adopt new, and professional development. The results were originally narrowed by searching on science and physics, and dates newer than 1996. These narrowing terms were originally necessary because of the broad and well researched area of professional development and focus on language arts. Lastly, I searched cited by articles based on the papers I found on my first round of searches. The articles for this annotated bibliography were chosen because of their focus on collaboration or collaborative

Running head: COLLABORATION FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

processes with data collected by direct interactions with teachers. Meta-studies were avoided for this paper, but could be a focus for a subsequent analysis. Bibliography MacDonald, R. (2009). Supporting Learner-Centered ICT Integration: The influence of collaborative and needs-based professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 17(3), 315-348. McDonald notes that significant resources are being placed towards Information Communication Technologies, but at the same time there has been a low success rate of student achievement goals. One proposed reason for this is that teachers have poor training in how to implement ICT in an enriching way. Therefore, McDonald wanted to analyze teachers attitudes towards professional development from the perspective of Communities of Practice. To do this, McDonald implemented a multi-modal study which contained quantitative data collection and analysis from a questionnaire, as well as qualitative analysis through interviews. This research is directly related to the issue of collaboration in professional development, as it is suggested that a community of practice via personal learning networks can function for all learners collaboratively supporting each other. McDonald found that teacher collaboration around technology was one of the biggest predictors of high ICT integration. Many teachers, and mathematics teachers in particular, felt that they did not have enough time to collaborate through professional development activities. As well, elementary teachers were found to be more collaborative with technology than high school teachers. Two other interesting findings were revealed in the research, relating to how collaboration around technology can be guided in public schools. First, collaboration in small groups, between two to six people, was found to be most effective. Secondly, collaboration did not have to be restricted to a single school in order to be effective. It would be interesting to see a similar study performed but with a closer comparison between seminar-based professional development and collaborative professional development scenarios. McDonalds research had only a 63% response rate from teachers, and this could result in a biased sample, where teachers that tend towards collaboration are also the ones that responded to the study. This makes the need for a comparison study even more important. Sugar, W., Crawley, F., & Fine, B. (2004). Examining teachers decisions to adopt new technology. Educational Technology & Society, 7(4), 201-213. Sugar, Crawley & Fine hold the belief that the effective design of educational technologies partly resides in the ability to address teachers needs. Therefore, they were interested in studying the beliefs and reasons behind why teachers adopt technology in the classroom, based around a framework of teacher learning. The study was conducted through a pre-assessment survey followed by an open-ended questionnaire and a closed-ended questionnaire. While the study was not intended for examining teacher beliefs on collaboration, one of the results does give important information relevant to collaboration. Sugar et al. found

Running head: COLLABORATION FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION that the adoption of educational technology is very personal in nature and not influenced by outside people or resources.

Sugar et al.s result on the personal component in technology adoption in many ways contradicts the framing issue around needing collaborative professional development. However, even though it appears to contradict the desire for collaboration around technology, the authors note that they may lack an understanding how technology can assist their careers as teachers. (Sugar, Crawley, & Fine, 2004, p. 211). This suggests that the absence of peer consultation and collaboration may be the driving force behind the resistance of technology adoption. Sugar et al. present a theme that there is a misunderstanding on what technology can provide a classroom and how this technology can be best harnessed. Sugar et al. also note that high school teachers are more wary of technology adoption in part because they are unsure of how to apply the technology to course tests. This finding makes sense when considered with McDonalds finding that high school teachers collaborate less.

Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-45. Having looked at how teachers perceive the need for collaboration in technology adoption, it is also important to look at the effectiveness of collaboration in professional development. Garet et al. recognized that there is an ongoing educational reform accompanied by a desired increase in educational outcomes, and that this increase requires growing professional knowledge in teachers. Garet et al. conducted a study of 1027 mathematics and science teachers, to look at what features of professional development activities could be considered effective. Written in 2001, the steepening introduction of technology in the classroom was a part of education reform Garet et al. were concerned with. Therefore I believe that Garet et al.s study informs on how professional development affects technology adoption. Garet et al. found that professional development is best done when focused on active learning and being integrated into the daily routine or life of school. A direct result from result is that collaborative learning would be crucial to implementing new technology in schools. Garet et al. also found that collective support and communication among teachers to be very important. However, given the date of the study, it is not clear if Garet et al.s data will directly correlate to professional development around educational technology. I would recommend that a similar study could be conducted, with the inclusion of a technology content controlled variable.

Running head: COLLABORATION FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

Mouza, C. (2009). Does research-based professional development make a difference? A longitudinal investigation of teacher learning in technology integration. Teachers College Record, 111(5), 1195-1241. Mouza identified a lack of long-term research on technology and professional development, and how teacher practices change over time. Her resulting research was a multiple case study following seven teachers over three years. Each of the subjects attended two Eieffel professional development models at the beginning of the case study, in 2000-2001. Six of the seven teachers continuously used and increased their technology use over the period of the study. In terms of growth, a cyclical process of teacher change was noted as the teachers integrated and rigorously used technology in their classrooms. Finally, Mouza shows that technology integration does not have to be realized through a teacher-teacher interaction, and that teacherstudent interactions are useful. This research is important to the issue of collaborative professional development because Mouza looked specifically at a process which did not contain a significant amount of collaboration. Mouza determined that the integration of technology grew and expanded in all of her subjects classrooms save one, and the overall growth was a result of initial two intensive professional development functions. Absent from Mouzas study is any mention of on-going professional development. From this, it is appears possible to have successful technology integration in the classroom without collaborative professional development. Mouza believes this is a result of knowledge acquisition, practice and student feedback. Collaboration was not the focus of the study, so it is difficult to say how much merit there is in this hypothesis. However, it logically leads to a potential further study on confidence in technology and the role that this confidence plays in the desire for collaboration and professional development. Conclusion From this selection of research into professional development on technology integration, it is clear that collaboration can be an important function for teachers. While aspects of collaboration have been shown to lead to effective professional development, it is difficult to say exactly what role collaboration takes in this process. However, the research shows that collaboration attends to personal needs and desires of teachers and that there are positive effects downstream in the classrooms. None of the articles address exactly how this collaboration can take place. Even if we know that collaboration is important, the question remains as to how and who will initiate or guide it. More importantly, without leadership and resources from employers, it may be extremely difficult to implement. Finally, Mouza (2009) offers a different perspective and framework for analyzing professional development, and raises the question of whether comfort is the overriding factor that governs the integration. Whether it is through intense workshops, on-going collaboration, or through persistent classroom use, it is possible that each method has affordances by which teachers gain comfort in their technological adaptations, and thereby drive their integration.

Running head: COLLABORATION FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION References Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-45. MacDonald, R. (2009). Supporting learner-centered ICT integration: the influence of collaborative and needs-based professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 17(3), 315-348. Mouza, C. (2009). Does research-based professional development make a difference? A

longitudinal investigation of teacher learning in technology integration. Teachers College Record, 111(5), 1195-1241. Sugar, W., Crawley, F., & Fine, B. (2004). Examining teachers decisions to adopt new technology. Educational Technology & Society, 7(4), 201-213. Thomson. (2012, February 10). Engage: BCs education plan. BCs Education Plan. Retrieved February 11, 2012, from http://engage.bcedplan.ca/2012/02/question-11/comment-page1/#comment-2674