Preservice Teachers' Development of a Vision for Technology Integration

The purpose of this study was to understand how preservice teachers perceive their own vision development of technology integration in the classroom.

The study employed qualitative methodology, both descriptive and interpretive (Merriam, 1998).

The study was designed as a qualitative case study, examining four 4th-8th grade level preservice teachers for a single semester during their participation in student teaching. Each preservice teacher examined in the study was treated as a single case study, with a cross-comparison of the case studies for the purpose of identifying emerging common themes.

Initial sampling was a convenience sample in that the general pool of participants were twenty-three 4-8th grade preservice teachers who were enrolled in student teaching at a major research university, located in a large, southern, metropolitan area. Categories and themes within each case study were analyzed. A cross-comparison of individual case studies was used to identify common themes among the participants in their experiences in student teaching as it involved technology integration. Findings from the study show that two participants had a vision of teaching with integrated technology that provided a sound foundation on which to continue building the vision, whereas the other two participants had a vision of teaching with integrated technology that was based on misconceptions about technology integration and a narrow view of technology integration.

Implications are that care needs to be taken to peel back preservice teachers’ layers of perception and understanding of what it means to integrate technology in the classroom. Otherwise, preservice teachers may mimic what they are taught and repeat what they think their professors want to hear (Davis et al., 2010), hiding deep-seated beliefs and misconceptions that can derail successful technology integration in their future teaching. Other findings from the study are in agreement with current literature in regard to preservice teachers’ development of technological-pedagogical-content knowledge (TPACK).