| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英語教學碩士在職專班 === 101 === The purpose of the study was to investigate the process of utilizing the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) and the learner-centered instruction and having four groups of sixteen 9th graders, who belonged to two classes, cooperated to accomplish presentation tasks. Grounded in qualitative inquiry, the study used classroom observation, group interviews, and the teacher’s log as the data for analysis. Focusing on the process of interaction between the students and the IWB, the students’ attitudes, and the teachers’ own reflections after implementing the IWB plan.
It was found that the students accepted the new IWB instructional plan because of its multimedia teaching material, which facilitated some low achievers’ interests making them willing to interact with the IWB. As for the students’ performances, the researcher found that the students were not used to the learner-centered instruction. The group leaders were usually responsible for the majority of works and caused an unfair share of works among group members. Some students stayed passive and only received the work from their group leaders, and some did not involve in the group activities and presentations at all. After further investigation, it was found that
the students were lack of experience and teacher’s guidance. Furthermore, they were long under the competitive educational culture. They thought that doing such cooperative tasks would take up their study time and further affect the effort they make for the high school entrance examination, so they had a lot of complaints during the plan. However, after several times of accomplishing the presentation tasks together, the students started to gain confidence and change their attitudes. Although there were some drawbacks, the students eventually held positive attitudes toward the IWB instructional plan.
From the teacher/researcher’s point of view, with the IWB, the teacher could also provide the students with some authentic materials and design some grammar games for the students to learn. However, there were still some disadvantages of the tool, including size limitation, sun reflection, and the dark light which made the students feel sleepy. Most importantly, it was a great challenge for the teacher/researcher to implement the plan. The teacher had to first change her role from a dominator to a facilitator, adjust the program and develop some games from the IWB, implement the plan under the pressure of the students’ complaints while following the school-required teaching schedule in the meantime. Seeing the progress of the students’ performances and their change of attitudes, together with the encouragement of two observers and the other English teachers’ interests in the plan, the teacher/researcher changed her attitudes toward the plan as well. The results of the study suggest that more resources and supports are needed for teachers to achieve the IWB plan. Finally, other suggestions for the IWB instructional plan are provided for further studies.
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