Increasingly, elementary teachers are being asked to teach the missing elements of a STEM education--computing and engineering. Over the course of a year, we worked with an entire elementary school (K-6) to implement computing and engineering lessons. Through persistent observation, field notes, and interviews, teachers revealed both enablers and…

Early career teachers working in high poverty schools face of overwhelming challenges navigating disruptive behaviors with studies highlighting behavior problems as one of the strongest predictors of turnover (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). Simulation-based technology leverages important pedagogical strengths (e.g., realistic training context,…

Many consider one-to-one laptop computing empowering and exciting but this type of educational equipping also raises questions about how teachers can develop and learn professionally to meet challenging and changing classroom conditions, "in situ." In this paper we draw illustrative findings from a study of high school English teachers…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program provides a unique opportunity to assess a broad spectrum of professional development projects that share key characteristics but were designed to meet distinct local school and community contexts. To better understand how innovative…

After more than two decades of concerted effort, less than desirable progress has been made in the integration of effective technology use in the classroom. In many cases computers have entered classrooms, but are used to do little more than support existing teaching practices (i.e. PowerPoint read as lecture). Research suggests that teachers…

A blended in-service arrangement was designed to support Russian science teachers from rural schools in the integration of technology. Blended learning combines multiple delivery modes that are designed to complement each other and promote learning and application-based behavior. The blended in-service arrangement consisted of two main components:…

Rural school districts struggle to attract, retain, and support highly qualified mathematics teachers. A series of four online professional development courses in the form of integrated mathematics content and pedagogy courses was designed to meet the professional development needs of rural middle school mathematics teachers. Changes in teachers'…

Research shows that unless university-based teacher educators effectively integrate technology into teacher education courses, students (pre-service and in-service teachers) are unlikely to use technology effectively in their own teaching. This creates negative repercussions in teacher education and in the schools. However, many teacher educators…

The Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ACMP) offered yearlong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professional development to teachers in rural Alaska. Teacher training focused on introducing youth to workforce technologies used in Arctic research. Due to challenges in making professional development accessible to rural teachers, ACMP…

This qualitative research investigated the perspectives and experiences of 17 social studies teachers following technology integration training. The research indicated that the teachers held a variety of views of technology integration. These views influenced their use of technology in the classroom. Four major categories of technology-related…

Describes how preservice students in an elementary education four-year degree program learn about and learn with information technology (IT). Discusses the evolving faculty inservice program to retool instructors to enable them to provide meaningful IT experiences for students. Outlines a set of IT modules that focus on how to integrate technology…

Realizing the potential of online or virtual communities to facilitate teacher professional development requires educators to change their current perceptions of professional development. This calls for educators to develop new images of ongoing opportunities for professional development, based on their needs within an online community of learners…