Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Gary J. Anglin
Committee Member
Charles A. Schlosser
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
attitudes and values, anxiety, applied dissertation, beliefs and perceptions, classroom teachers, collaboration, comfort and confidence, computer ownership, data collection, elementary classrooms, elementary education, elementary school teachers, empirical research, factors influencing integration, instructional technology, interpretation, learning technologies, mixed methods research, open-ended questionnaire, pedagogical beliefs, personal perception, preservice technology education, qualitative research, quantitative research, rank ordering, research design, school administrators, sequential exploratory case study, survey instrument, teacher education, technology integration, technology integration plans, time as an impediment, understanding, volunteers, workplace technology use
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify factors reported in the literature as influencing the integration of learning technologies in elementary school classrooms. Further, this study attempted to create an empirical rank ordering of factors influencing teachers' integration of these technologies into elementary classrooms using data collected from a sample of classroom teachers.
This applied dissertation used the mixed methods research design: Sequential exploratory case study approach. It consisted of 3 phases of data collection: qualitative-quantitative-qualitative data collection. A survey instrument was created using items from 5 pre-existent surveys. This was followed by a qualitative open-ended questionnaire that was distributed to the study participants. This questionnaire consisted of3 questions directly related to the research inquiry. The purpose of the open-ended questionnaire was to corroborate the Phase 2 quantitative findings. A total of 13 factors were identified from the literature. Analysis and interpretation of the compiled data concluded with the following outcomes. The rank ordering of these factors identified need to collaborate as the most influential. It was followed in descending rank order by (a) pedagogical beliefs, (b) attitudes and values, (c) beliefs and perceptions, (d) interpretation, ( e) time as an impediment, ( f) comfort and confidence, (g) understanding, (h) personal perception, (i) anxiety, (j) behaviors and knowledge, (k) preservice technology education, and (I) computer ownership.
This study's primary contribution to the literature was its empirical approach to rank ordering the factors influencing technology integration in elementary classrooms. Six elementary school teachers volunteered to take part in this study. Elementary school and perhaps other level school administrators seeking to promote the successful integration of learning technologies in the classroom may benefit from incorporating the findings of this study into their technology integration plans.