Thomas Brush

Integrating Technology in a Field-Based Teacher Training Program: The PT3@ASU Project.

The Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) initiative has funded various efforts to improve and enhance the technology preparation of preservice teachers. At Arizona State University, these efforts have focused on providing preservice teachers with opportunities to develop, implement, and evaluate their own instructional activities that utilize technology effectively and appropriately in authentic situations, to give them the myriad of tools necessary to integrate technology into teaching and learning activities. This paper focuses on the integration of these efforts into the field-based elementary education program, and discusses our formative evaluation of the field-based technology integration model, through the following questions: What are the preliminary successes of the model with regard to student perceptions, attitudes, and integration of technology into instructional activities? and What components of the model require additions or modifications?

Supporting learners in technology-enhanced student-centred learning environments

Technology-enhanced student-centred learning environments (TESCLEs) provide learners with computer-based tools and resources to facilitate the completion of problem-based tasks. However, with TESCLEs, technology serves as a support and resource for students in their efforts to solve overarching authentic problems. Student success in these environments may be attributed to the types and amount of support they receive both from the environment and from the teacher. This paper will discuss different methods for providing students with support defined as hard and soft scaffolding and will provide examples of how these support structures are embedded into Decision Point! a TESCLE focusing on the African-American civil rights movement that occurred in the USA in the 1960s.

Scaffolded lesson study: Promoting professional teaching knowledge for problem-based historical inquiry

Purpose n n n n nThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of scaffolded lesson study on the content knowledge, conceptions of curriculum, and classroom practice of 22 elementary and secondary history teachers in four school districts. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nTeachers, teacher educators, and historians collaborated to design and test research lessons grounded in a theory-based framework for problem-based historical inquiry (PBHI) practice. The authors sought to support consonance between the reform ideas of the formal, professional development, curriculum, and the curriculum as enacted in participants’ classrooms. n n n n nFindings n n n n nProject participation was associated with significant gains in content knowledge and the conceptualization and implementation of more challenging instruction consistent with the PBHI model and the standards of authentic intellectual work (AIW). Mean AIW instruction scores for research lessons were more than double the scores for participants’ non-lesson study lessons and indicated noteworthy progress in integrating the formal and enacted curricula. Evidence suggested that many teachers developed more nuanced understandings of historical phenomena, gained greater appreciation for the importance of authentic purpose in motivating student engagement in challenging learning, and began to reconsider what is required to facilitate complex learning and to refine their repertoire of learning strategies. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nEvidence from the first year of this project offers hope for the potential of collaborative communities of practice to facilitate a shared professional knowledge base of wise practice that brings the formal, intended, and enacted curriculum into greater alignment. These results also emphasize the evolutionary process of conceptual change.

Inquiry learning behaviors captured through screencasts in problem-based learning

ABSTRACT This study examined the types of learning behaviors students demonstrated while performing inquiry tasks. It also explored the relationship between the learning behaviors and students’ domain knowledge. We observed fourteen students in five groups during a ninth-grade biology course. Three types of learning behaviors (inquiry, collaborative, and minimally productive behaviors) were identified and time on each type was measured. The results suggest that students demonstrated different patterns according to the types of learning behaviors. Correlation analysis revealed that learning outcomes had a strong positive correlation with the inquiry behaviors but a strong negative correlation with the minimally productive behaviors. The results suggest that attention should be paid to facilitate the more meaningful inquiry behaviors while reducing minimally productive behaviors.

Interactive and Collaborative Professional Development for In-Service History Teachers.

ABSTRACT This article advances a continuing line of inquiry into an innovative teacher-support program intended to help in-service history teachers develop professional teaching knowledge for inquiry-based history instruction. Two prior iterations informed our design and use of professional development materials; they also informed the implementation schedule of experiences our materials intended to support. We asked: Can interactive and collaborative professional development encounters promote in-service history teachers professional teaching knowledge? Following the thirteen-month study, no participant fully adopted the wise-practice pedagogy we advocated: problem-based historical inquiry. Findings do suggest, however, interactive experiences and sustained collaboration may help teachers raise their aspirational goals for planning powerful instruction. Throughout the study, teachers collaboratively planned lessons became increasingly informed by our support program, and several participants practice moved closer to our wise-practice model. Findings also suggest revisions to professional development materials and schedules to promote teachers professional teaching knowledge.