This case study investigated the job responsibilities of district-level instructional technology specialists that related to curriculum work and the perceptions the specialists had concerning their job responsibilities and their relationship to curriculum work. Data were collected through document analysis, shadowing, interviews, and a focus…

A variety of barriers relating to resources, institutional and administrative policies, skills development and attitudes can hinder the effectiveness of technology professional development resulting in underutilized technology resources and lack of integration of those resources within instruction. Multiple methods were used to evaluate the…

The purpose of this research study was to develop a theory-based methodology for exploring instructional computer use by faculty members in one College of Education (COE) and implementing this methodology at an Anatolian university in Turkey. Rogers' (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theory was used as the theoretical framework in the process of…

This study examined the structure of two preservice teachers' understandings of educational software in mathematics using repertory grid techniques. Specifically, the study focused on how teacher educators can enable preservice teachers to discern the features of mathematics software, and develop pedagogical goals that reflect the affordances and…

This study investigated the effect of group discussions and question prompts on students' vicarious learning experiences. Vicarious experiences were delivered to 65 preservice teachers via VisionQuest, a Web site that provided examples of successful technology integration. A 2x2 factorial research design employed group discussions and question…

Growing perceptions that students exploit information technology to evade academic assignments prompted surveys of student attitudes about unethical uses of information technology (e.g., cutting and pasting excerpts from Web sites without attribution) at two institutions. Students at a private church-affiliated college rated cheating behaviors as…

A subcategory of computer-assisted instruction (CAI), games have additional attributes such as motivation, reward, interactivity, score, and challenge. This study used a quasi-experimental design to determine if previous findings generalize to non simulation-based game designs. Researchers observed significant improvement in the overall population…

This study investigates whether gender has an effect on students' attitudes toward, and their uses of, technology. Data were collected from 59 sixth grade students to examine their attitudes toward and uses of technology by means of The Computer Survey (TCS), computer logs, interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and student work. One of…

This paper reports on an exploratory, longitudinal study that analyzes and interprets the evolution of teachers' beliefs regarding learning, teaching, and technology, and their instructional practices, in the context of integrating technology-based information-rich tasks in six 4th-6th grade classrooms. The study used multiple research tools,…

This study investigated differential effects of learning styles and learning orientation on sense of community and cognitive achievement in Web-based and lab-based university course formats. Students in the Web-based sections achieved higher scores at the "remember" and "understand" levels, but not at the "apply" or "analyze" levels. In terms of…

This study investigates how inservice teachers constructed new knowledge, the extent of knowledge construction achieved, and how instructors participated in and facilitated the online discussion to affect knowledge construction. One finding is that most inservice teachers seemed to favor discussion activities at the stage of knowledge confirmation…

This case study involved 3 middle school students in an assessment of the influence of self-reflection on general academic performance. It was hypothesized that increased self-reflection would have a positive influence on academic performance as measured by grades on tests, writing assignments, and homework. The participants were ages 13.4, 13.5,…

The current study investigated how ethnicity and gender affect changes in the self-esteem of early adolescents during the middle school years. Self-report data were collected from more than 4,000 early adolescents from three ethnic groups: European American, African American, and Hispanic and analyzed using a consecutive three-year cross-sectional…

As a result of the pressures of educational reform and high-stakes assessment, some schools run the risk of foregoing active, student-centered learning activities for building test-taking skills and the memorization of discrete facts (Gredler, 1999; Jackson & Davis, 2000). Coupled with the additional pressure to fulfill the expectations of "No…

In an effort to learn more about pedagogy in the action present moments of teaching and in response to Schon's (1987) call for a "phenomenology of practice," this phenomenological study explored the pedagogy of 18 middle school teachers. The researcher selected participants with a purposive sampling procedure. Participants taught for at least…