Abstract:

This article presents the results of a mixed-methods study that investigated effects of coaching fifth grade teachers to integrate technology while teaching a science unit. The purpose of the research was to capture how technology integration with or without coaching in a science unit effect teachers’ technology integration practices and their instruction, and its results of the instruction on student outcomes and student critical thinking. The participants were 132 fifth-grade students and four teachers in elementary public school. The study used an experimental research design by having a control and research group (68 students were in the teachers’ classrooms that were using technology without coaching intervention, and 64 were in the other teachers’ classrooms, with coaching intervention to integrate available technologies). Data were collected through classroom observations, tests and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that coached teachers integrated technology more frequently, more purposefully and more diversely. Additionally, the results indicated that the teachers who were coached for technology integration had a positive effect on student performance, and the observance of students critical thinking behaviors were more frequent in the classroom compared to the no-coaching group of teachers’ classroom.

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