A Process Model for Faculty Development: Individualizing Technology Learning

Abstract

Participants (N = 156) were involved in the teacher preparation program at a large Research 1 university located in the mid-west. The faculty (n = 21) participated in a two-year individualized professional development process to: (a) develop technology knowledge and skill efficacy and (b) integrate technology in teaching. The preservice teachers (n = 135) were enrolled in the courses taught by the faculty participants. Evaluation of the professional development process included a pre/post questionnaire that yielded data for faculty's development of technology knowledge and skill efficacy, integration of technology into courses, and change in teacher practices. The preservice teachers completed a survey that examined the frequency of technology use during the course in which they were enrolled. Analysis included computing frequencies, means, standard deviations, and significance levels. Results indicated change in faculty skill efficacy in the areas of communication (p ********** Since 2000, most K-12 public schools in the United States have had technology access, and 98% of them are Internet connected (Cattagni & Farris, 2001). However, a majority of K-12 teachers report being unprepared to use instructional technologies or to teach their students to use technology (Hasselbring et al., 2000). In addition, beginning teachers report that their teacher preparation programs did not adequately prepare them to incorporate technology into instructional practice (Office of Technology Assessment, 1995; Sprague, Kopfman, & Dorsey, 1998). Technology and its applications can change the very ethos of schools as we have known them for more than a century, but, for that change to occur, teachers must have the technology knowledge and skills necessary for a, perhaps, different style of teaching and demonstration of learning. To overcome the problem of teachers being inadequately prepared to use technology, teacher educators must assume the responsibility of preparing preservice teachers to use technology. Preservice teachers--tomorrow's teachers--must learn to integrate technology into their teaching practices in ways that engage students in learning and increase achievement. The purpose of this article is to describe a three-year funded project that focused on a professional development process aimed at helping teacher education faculty develop technology skill efficacy and integrate technology into teaching methods courses. Teacher education programs are challenged to prepare graduates who are capable and committed to using technology as a learning tool. Yet both preservice teachers and teacher education faculty are new to technology uses and have no personal experience as students themselves in technology-infused classrooms (Jacobsen, Clifford, & Friesen, 2002). To prepare tomorrow's teachers as technology-using teachers, teacher education faculty must first be equipped with the knowledge and dispositions to support preservice teachers' learning. To accomplish this goal, one institution's Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grant first set out to answer this question: What factors affect successful professional development? Next, a research-based faculty development process for technology learning was designed and implemented with teacher education faculty. The goals for faculty development included outcomes that would ultimately result in the preservice teachers learning technology skills and dispositions. …

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