Paper prepared for the International Society of Technology in Education conference June 2011

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1 Teacher Digital Media Use Following an Online Professional Development Course Main Presenters: Alice Anderson, and Scott Strother, Additional Authors: Lauren Goldenberg, Camille Ferguson, Marian Pasquale Paper prepared for the International Society of Technology in Education conference June 2011 Keywords online professional development, digital media, high school biology Purpose and Objectives As the number of digital resource libraries has grown (e.g., The National STEM Digital Library, WGBH Teachers Domain), science teachers have gained easy and free access to a huge variety of digital media resources. Digital media tools such as streaming video or simulations offer the potential for multiple entry points for deepening student understanding. On the 2008 national Speak Up survey, teachers rated animations, simulations, computer projection systems, and interactive whiteboards in addition to standard scientific tools as having the greatest potential to increase student achievement in science (Project Tomorrow, 2008). However, like any other instructional resource, digital resources are rarely robust enough to be stand-alone teaching tools. Teachers must consider how to integrate them into their teaching, using effective instructional techniques that compliment the affordances of the media. This paper shares results from a research project that examined whether an online professional development course for high school biology teachers could affect the quantity of digital media they use in their classroom as well as their pedagogy when using digital media. The main research questions of this project focused on teacher and student learning in the area of genetics and evolution knowledge, and teacher knowledge of inquiry teaching techniques. Results from these areas of the study have been presented elsewhere (see Goldenberg & Strother, 2010; Strother & Goldenberg, 2011). The course, distributed through PBS TeacherLine, introduced participants to resources on WGBH s library of digital media, called Teachers Domain ( and on other websites; it also illustrated strategies to integrate digital media resources into their practice. Participants in the course explored the big ideas of the hard-to-teach topics of genetics and evolution through exploration of online digital resources and reflection on a range of teaching strategies, such as the 5 E s learning cycle (Bybee et al., 2006). The course included sessions focusing on teaching genetics and evolution using inquiry-based approaches and digital resources. Sessions contained readings, video clips, a series of reflection questions, discussion boards, and session assignments. Participants took one of two versions of the course, equivalent to 30 or 45 credit hours, in the summer of The research questions addressed in this paper are as follows. Does participating in the professional development course: 1. increase the amount of digital media used by teachers? 1

2 2. increase teachers knowledge of digital media use in the classroom? 3. increase teachers comfort level when using digital media or their beliefs that digital media can help students learn? 4. affect the pedagogical activities that teachers report doing around digital media change? If so, do they reflect the suggestions of the professional development course? Perspective/Theoretical Framework The digital media resources featured on Teachers Domain and discussed in the online course are primarily video clips, animations, and simulations. These resources offer potentially rich supports for science learners. Digital media learning objects can help students visualize concepts that are difficult to understand. Those that are interactive enable students to learn through action, get feedback, and constantly refine their understanding of phenomena (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999). Most important for secondary school learners, when learning objects are encountered in the social environment of the classroom, they can help teachers and students slow down and focus on the cognitive processes of observing, predicting, and explaining that are central to science inquiry and understanding (Polman & Pea, 2007; Reiser, 2004). Although research on digital media s effectiveness as an instructional tool is slim, what is known supports the idea that tools that allow a learner to interact with, get feedback from, or manipulate a phenomena can lead to a more dynamic understanding than that gained through using static resources (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Linn, 1995; Polman & Pea, 2007; Reiser, 2004; Sivin-Kachala & Bialo, 2000). Particularly in the science classroom, where teacher and students discuss and investigate hard-to-see and difficult-to-manipulate phenomena, interactive digital tools provide a forum in which to explore and experiment. In the topics of genetics and evolution, the most valuable learning objects make accessible a simplified model of the target system or phenomenon, one that learners can manipulate in order to observe, predict, and explain key causal variables or relationships. A focus on the modeling of specific phenomena is in keeping with the move to ground the teaching of inquiry science in models and explanatory processes, rather than in wide-ranging, student-driven questions and strictly hands-on activities (Minstrell & Kraus, 2005; Stewart, Cartier, & Passmore, 2005; Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2008). However well-designed digital media resources may be, teachers play a crucial role as the facilitators of the learning experience. The few evaluations conducted on digital media use in the classroom concur that teachers must support student understanding through questioning and scaffolding embedded in an overarching learning sequence (McCormick, Scrimshaw, Li, & Clifford, 2004; Muspratt & Freebody, 2007). Other literature tends to agree that explicit instruction helps overcome issues of cognitive load when students are dealing with learning objects; in other words, learners need assistance in how to process and what to attend to, particularly in animations (Mayer, Hegarty, Mayer, & Campbell, 2005; Bentrancourt & Chassot, 2008). This dual focus of using well-designed digital media tools in conjunction with solid pedagogy was the main focus of the professional development course chosen for this study. The 2010 Speak Up survey results suggest that teachers, for the most part, are ready and willing to incorporate digital media resources into their instructional practices, and believe that digital media help them to be more effective and creative educators (Project Tomorrow, 2011). While teachers report using more technology tools to support student learning, the main instructional 2

3 goals tend to resemble tasks that students could easily accomplish using traditional paper and pencil tools, such as homework assignments, graphic organizers, and note-taking (Project Tomorrow, 2011). That is, teachers do not report using the affordances of digital media and technology tools for activities such as exploration, creativity, or simulations. Only 25% of teachers reported they had students create their own digital tools or represent knowledge using digital media. Although the survey revealed a jump from 2008 in teachers reporting that they used digital media learning objects for more complex tasks, such as creating models and conducing investigations, the overall results suggest that teachers are not taking advantage of the unique affordances of digital technology or allowing digital media use to be student-directed. From the perspective of school administrators, technology and digital media tools hold great potential, but they are uncertain which tools are most effective. For example, 35% of administrators reported their concern about how to evaluate digital resources, a jump from 9% just one year ago (Project Tomorrow, 2011). The report concludes, The question therefore for education leaders is not about the potential, but rather about how to most effectively harness these technologies within daily classroom use (Project Tomorrow, 2011, p.7). Therefore, school administrators perceive a major indicator of success of these tools to be student achievement, an assumption on which there is little empirical research. Teachers are left to experiment as they are able, within the confines of their access to technology and inclination with digital media tools, as their school s administration looks for student-achievement outcomes. This relationship proved to be somewhat present in the teachers this study engaged in a small case study, discussed below. Research Methods This study used a mixed-methods design, with data from teacher questionnaires and assessments and qualitative case studies. Participants Participants were part of a larger, two-year study on the impact of the online professional development on high school biology teachers. This piece of the study focused on the 37 high school biology teachers who completed the online professional development course in the summer of The teachers were from 34 high schools across a state where high school students take biology in 9th or 10th grade. The participants in this study are highly qualified teachers; all are certified to teach high school biology (100%) and most have a Master s or higher degree (91%). Approximately three-quarters of them are female (66%), and most are Caucasian (89%). Study participants teach in a wide range of settings across the state, including large cities (14%), urban or suburban district (69%), and rural districts (17%). Design Participants completed a survey that included items about their use of digital media and beliefs around digital media use at three time points: before taking the course (May 2009), immediately after taking the course (August 2009), and after one year of teaching following course completion (June 2010). Participants also completed a knowledge assessment that included items on using digital resources in the classroom at the same time points. In addition, researchers conducted case studies with a subset of treatment teachers to collect detailed information regarding classroom implementation and instructional practices. 3

4 Data Sources Teaching Practices Questionnaire: Researchers created a questionnaire based on the USEiT survey (Russell et al, 2004) that asked about how and how often teachers use digital media in their classrooms. The survey focused on digital media use during the teaching of their genetics and evolution units, since these were the focus of the professional development course, and asked about teachers use of streaming videos and Web-based interactive activities. The questionnaire also asked about teachers comfort using digital media, and how strongly they believed digital media can help students learn. Their comfort and beliefs were surveyed using a series of 1-to-5 Likert-scale items. The pre-course survey asked the average number of times per unit teachers had used streaming videos and Web-based interactive activities in the previous school year. The post-course survey asked about how often they planned to do these activities in the next academic year. The end-ofyear survey asked about how many times they used streaming videos and Web-based interactive activities during the academic year following the course. Knowledge of Digital Media Use in the Classroom Assessment: Researchers measured teachers knowledge of digital media use in the classroom each time they completed the teaching practices questionnaires. Teachers had to answer two open-ended items that asked about best practices for using digital media in an implemented science lesson. The research team s Science Education Specialist scored teacher responses for each item on a rubric of 0 to 4, 0 indicating no knowledge of the area and 4 indicating superior understanding of the topic. Researchers added the scores on the two items to create one overall score on the measure. Case Studies: Researchers conducted case studies in the classrooms of eight teachers during the school year. They carried out three interviews with the teachers, as well as conducted a site visit and observation of the teachers and their students. Researchers also collected teaching and learning artifacts, such as lesson plans and samples of student work. The purpose of maintaining contact was to observe more details about how teachers were implementing digital media in the classroom and how students were responding. Data Analysis Data analysis consisted of repeated measures analyses of variances using teachers three questionnaires: pre-course, post-course, and after one year of teaching following the course. Researchers also used repeated measures analyses of variances to look for growth in teachers knowledge of digital media use in the classroom. Researchers then used the same analyses to look for growth in reported digital media use and comfort. Where appropriate, univariate analyses of variance were used for pairwise comparisons. Researchers also performed qualitative analyses looking at case study data to get a deeper understanding of actual classroom practice and expand on the findings from the questionnaires. Results Results for the first research question, Does participating in the professional development course increase the amount of digital media used by teachers? indicate that teachers increased 4

5 the number of streaming videos they used following the course (see Table 1). Teachers also had a positive shift in the number of Web-based activities they used with students following the course. The was a large jump following the course on both measures and the gains in streaming videos were still present after the school year. The gains in Web-based interactive activities dropped slightly during the school year, but the drop was not statistically significant. *Only 33 teachers had end-of-year scores because four dropped from the study during the school year. Results for the second research question, Does participating in the professional development course increase teachers knowledge of digital media use in the classroom? indicate that teachers did vary in their knowledge across the school year (see Table 2). Further analysis indicated that teachers had an increase in knowledge following the course, but it was only marginally significant, t(36) = 1.78, p =.08. Teachers also did not show gains in knowledge at the end of the school year, but instead had a marginally significant drop in knowledge compared to their pre-course measure, t(32) = 1.85, p <.07. We suspect that the drop in scores is most likely due to data fatigue from taking the same assessment that required lengthy, open-ended responses several times. Table 1. Teachers use of digital media measured by average number of times per unit they used, or planned to use, streaming videos and Web-based interactive activities. Precourscourse Post- After one Test statistics year Mean Mean Mean Effect N (S.D.) (S.D.) N (S.D.) F p size Streaming videos * 5.58 (2.94) (4.30) (4.47) 9.84 < Web-based interactive * 2.52 activities (1.58) (2.31) (2.22) 8.32 < Table 2. Teachers longitudinal scores for knowledge of digital media use. Pre-course Postcourse After one Test statistics year Mean Mean Mean Effect N (S.D.) (S.D.) N (S.D.) F p size Treatment * 3.30 teachers (1.22) (1.59) (1.51) 6.94 < *Only 33 teachers had end-of-year scores because 4 dropped from the study during the school year. Results for the third research question, Does participating in the professional development course increase teachers comfort level when using digital media or their beliefs that digital media can help students learn? indicate that teachers had a positive shift in their comfort level using technology (see Table 3). There was a large jump in their comfort level following the course and the gains held over the school year. Teachers showed a similar pattern with their belief that digital media help students learn, but the gains were not statistically significant. 5

6 Table 3. Teachers reported level of comfort using digital media in the classroom. Precourscourse Post- After one Test statistics year Mean Mean Mean Effect N (S.D.) (S.D.) N (S.D.) F p size Comfort with digital * 4.48 < 9.07 media (1.08) (0.47) (0.68) Belief that digital media * 4.11 help students learn (0.67) (0.69) (0.94) 2.86 ns ns *Only 33 teachers had end-of-year scores since 4 dropped from the study during the school year. Results for the fourth research question, Does participating in the professional development course affect the pedagogical activities that teachers report doing around digital media change? are best demonstrated by the case study data from eight teachers. However, the data from other sources, including observations and artifact collection, revealed that instructional practices with digital media tools generally did not reflect the inquiry-based pedagogical principles from the course. The teachers gave a variety of reasons they found the resources to be useful, such as reinforcing a concept in a different format, illustrating a concept visually, and engaging students. For example, Jessica Barry 1 found the digital resources especially helpful for providing engaging visuals to illustrate concepts for her students. Because if you really don t have something they could see happening right in front of them, then a lot of times you ve lost them, she told us. Several spoke about their decision to use digital media in their teaching with reference to how and how much students use media and technology in their time out of school. For example, Kathy Simkins believes that, because [kids] play video games and watch TV a lot, by doing things on the computer, they [find] it more interesting. The teachers seemed to identify the unique appeal and affordances of digital media, but were generally unable to demonstrate or articulate effective ways to harness these tools. Instead, case study data indicated that teachers used digital resources more as props that they simply incorporate into their preferred instructional styles mainly lecture and direct instruction. When asked about using inquirybased instructional techniques, case study teachers pointed to perceived barriers such as the additional instructional time it takes to teach with inquiry, issues with their students expectations or abilities, or the difficult process of integrating new techniques into their teaching style. In sum, although teachers reported using more digital media tools after taking the course, they did not demonstrate the use of the instructional techniques the course suggested with the use of digital media tools. Significance and Conclusion This study demonstrated that an online professional development course aiming to integrate digital media with sound pedagogical practices can impact teachers digital media use and beliefs about their educational value. This paper shows that, following the course, teachers showed a significant increase in how they planned for and used digital media in the classroom, including streaming videos and Web-based interactives. Teachers also reported being more comfortable using digital media following the course. Upon a closer investigation using qualitative data from the case studies, researchers found that, although teachers utilized digital media tools more often than they had before the professional 1 All case study teachers were given pseudonyms to protect their confidentiality. 6

7 development course, they may not yet be at the point of incorporating the inquiry-based pedagogical practices that were also a focus of the course. Teachers consistently used streaming videos and online activities to illustrate concepts and define scientific terms, but did not often use inquiry strategies that engaged students in questioning, analyzing, or evaluating concepts. Although teachers reported an increase in digital media use after taking the course, optimal use of digital media may take more coaching beyond a summer course. This research demonstrates that online professional development can affect the amount of digital media teachers use and, potentially, their teaching practices. But it is likely that professional development activities must go beyond a one-course model, and instead aid teachers in integrating digital media by providing coaching, demonstrations, and other practical and ongoing support. The case studies also revealed that school context and beliefs about student learning can play a factor in how teachers incorporate knowledge learned from a professional development course. 7

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