Instructional Practices of Teachers Enrolled in Educational Technology and General Education Programs

• Published in: Educational technology research and development Vol. 46; no. 3; pp. 81 - 97
• Main Authors: Bober, Marcie J., Sullivan, Howard J., Lowther, Deborah L., Harrison, Patrick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Association for Educational Communications and Technology 01.01.1998; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Objectives; Classrooms; Designers; Development; Education; Educational activities; Educational Change; Educational Environment; Educational Needs; Educational Practices; Educational research; Educational sciences; Educational Technology; Evaluation Methods; Higher Education; Instructional Design; Instructional Effectiveness; Instructional Materials; Learner Controlled Instruction; Learning; Learning experiences; Masters Programs; Methodology; Objectives; Observation, experimentation; Pedagogy; Planning; School environment; Student surveys; Students; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Education; Teacher surveys; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Educational Research; Teaching Practice; Educational Technology; Formative Evaluation; Teaching method; Learning Psychology; Teaching Objective
• ISSN: 1042-1629; 1556-6501
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02299763

This study investigated classroom practices of 38 teachers enrolled in university masters' degree programs in educational technology and in other areas of education. The classroom practices related to five key concepts associated with educational technology: (a) learner-centered instruction, (b) instructional design, (c) media and technology, (d) assessment, and (e) instructional alignment. Teachers rated their frequency of use of desirable practices in these five areas on a 30-item Likert type survey. In addition, one class of students per teacher rated its own teacher's frequency of use of the practices on 20 items parallel to items on the teacher survey. The mean overall rating across all teachers for the classroom practice items was very close to Often, or 4.0, on the 5point scale. There were few reported differences between the teachers enrolled in educational technology programs and those enrolled in other education programs. Student ratings indicated less frequent teacher use of the desirable practices on 16 of the 20 common items, with significantly lower student ratings on 8 of these items. However, there was strong teacher-student agreement on several other comparisons.