Impacts of technology coaching on teacher practices

This dissertation examines the impact of technology coaching on teachers' use of technology as a professional and instructional resource in a higher education and public school technology coaching partnership called e-TEAMS. In this project, teachers who had identified themselves as generally &...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen
Language:ENG
Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3212757
Description
Summary:This dissertation examines the impact of technology coaching on teachers' use of technology as a professional and instructional resource in a higher education and public school technology coaching partnership called e-TEAMS. In this project, teachers who had identified themselves as generally "not confident" or "somewhat confident" in their abilities to integrate technology into classroom practice were paired for a semester with e-coaches who were college students possessing up-to-date knowledge of computers and other information technologies, to design and teach lessons that infused computers, the Internet, videos and other technologies into English, mathematics, science, and history teaching. Teachers found that the presence of an e-coach helped them to envision new ways to use technology in teaching. Generally, teachers who used inquiry-based teaching methods tended to incorporate technology into instruction more easily than did teachers who tended to use traditional teaching methods. Teachers noted that e-coaching was a new experience, making the process of working with an e-coach one of new learning through gradual progress with some setbacks.