Teacher‐led inquiry in technology‐supported school communities

Abstract

Learning design is a research field which studies how to best support teachers as designers of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) situations. Although substantial work has been done in the articulation of the learning design process, little is known about how learning designs are experienced by students and teachers, especially in the context of schools. This paper empirically examines if a teacher inquiry model, as a tool for systematic research by teachers into their own practice, facilitates the connection between the design and data‐informed reflection on TEL interventions in two school communities. High school teachers participated in a learning design professional development program supported by a web‐based community platform integrating a teacher inquiry tool (TILE). A multiple case study was conducted aimed at understanding: (a) current teacher practice and (b) teacher involvement in inquiry cycles of design and classroom implementations with technologies. Multiple data sources were used over a one year period including focus groups transcripts, teacher interview protocols, digital artifacts, and questionnaires. Sharing teacher‐led inquiries together with learning analytics was perceived as being useful for connecting pedagogical intentions with the evaluation of their enactment with learners, and this differed from their current practice. Teachers’ reflections about their designs focused on the time management of learning activities and their familiarity with the enactment and analytics tools. Results inform how technology can support teacher‐led inquiry and collective reflective practice in schools.

Revisiting five decades of educational technology research: A content and authorship analysis of the British Journal of Educational Technology

“…Whilst there are obviously many more articles where research teams have investigated educational technology within schools, this perhaps highlights opportunities missed to forge links with teachers and involve them in the research and writing for publication process (Cordingley, ; Mor, Ferguson, & Wasson, ). Whilst unfortunately not included in the current data set, the BJET Special Issue in Volume 49, Issue 6, “Teachers as Designers of TEL interventions” (Persico, Pozzi, & Goodyear, ) predominantly features research undertaken within school or school preservice teacher contexts, and the study by Michos, Hernández‐Leo and Albó () is an excellent example of how technology can support teacher‐led inquiry, and of how researchers can aid in the professional development of teachers. This shows that the BJET editors are aware of research areas that would benefit from further exploration, and that they are taking steps to address it.…”

Ethics in educational technology research: Informing participants on data sharing risks

“…This paper is positioned within educational technology research relating to a project focusing on community and learning analytics as reported in the publications, Teacher‐led inquiry in technology‐supported school communities (Michos et al , ); and Supporting awareness in communities of learning design practice (Michos & Hernández‐Leo, ). The project and our survey study involved a small number of students and teachers in high school and vocational school settings which limits the generalizability of the findings.…”

“…For example, one of the tools being used is the PyramidApp, a web tool that orchestrates collaboration scripts with pyramidally incremental groups of learners across activities designed by teachers (Manathunga & Hernández‐Leo, ). The objective of the project is to study how these data can be used to support learning design community awareness (Michos & Hernández‐Leo, ) and teacher‐led inquiry into their student’s learning (Michos, Hernández‐Leo, & Albó, ) so teachers can iteratively improve their teaching practices. As teachers and students were to be exchanging data, a need arose to ensure that teachers and students were able to responsibly share and manage data.…”

Teachers as designers of TEL interventions

“…A new dawning in learning design research may, as before, encourage and utilise specific design approaches and tools (Boloudakis, Retalis, & Psaromiligkos, ; Garreta‐Domingo, Sloep & Hernández‐Leo, ; Laurillard et al, ; Lewin, Cranmer, & McNicol, ; Michos, Hernández‐Leo, & Laia Albó, ; Molina et al, ). But the consequence should also be the promotion of the learning design mindset, and the areas of competence identified by Mishra and Koehler () in their TPACK model: technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, as well as knowledge of their interrelations.…”