Digital technology is widely available in schools; however, results from international studies indicate that they are not effective toward students' educational achievement. Teachers need to realise the potential of digital technology in their daily practises and use them well. However, teachers need training and guidelines to develop their expertise when using technology for teaching and learning. Failure to do so might result in students lacking the necessary coping skills for their future life in the information age. This literature review aimed to find out what factors affect primary teachers' use of digital technology in their teaching practices, so as to suggest better training, which will eventually lead to a more guided and relevant use of technology in education. After applying the concept map to the data from the selected studies, four influencing factors were identified: teachers' knowledge, attitudes and skills, which are also influenced by and influence the school culture. From these findings, recommendations on teacher training with technology and suggestions for further research are given.
Models play an important and central role in science as well as in science education. Chemical bonding is one of the most important topics in upper secondary school chemistry, and this topic is dominated by the use of models. In the past decade, research has shown that chemical bonding is a topic that students find difficult, and therefore, a wide range of alternative conceptions are developed by students. This study focuses on analyzing the models of chemical bonding in chemistry textbooks at upper secondary level and aims to investigate the content of chemical bonding presented in chemistry textbooks related to students' alternative conceptions and difficulties in understanding. Chapters concerning chemical bonding in five chemistry textbooks at upper secondary level in Sweden were analyzed. The results showed that the models of chemical bonding represented in the school textbooks might cause students to have alternative conceptions and difficulties in understanding chemical bonding, which matched the findings found by other recent studies. Thereby, the results indicate a need for filling in the gap between research and textbook writers. Implications for textbook authors and teachers are addressed.
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