ICT curriculum designs, teacher practices and student understanding Micaela Manso Magdalena Garzón Cecilia Rodriguez Paula Perez Directed by:Funded by:

We learnt in our previous study that a thoughtful integration of ICTs into education can: help transform classrooms into student-centered learning environments add value to schools as centers for preparing citizens for the 21st century provide opportunities for students and teachers to go beyond the immediate classroom space and have access to the most recent information enable teachers and students exercise their talents and revalue their local culture through communication with others provide teacher access to informal professional development in a broad range of issues regarding teaching practice (i.e. online curriculum designs that promote project-based learning, collaborative or cooperative work or communities of practice)

We know from the literature that:  a large number of studies have attempted to measure the impact of ICTs on student attainment and learning, with inconclusive results  other studies show evidence that there is a close relationship between how ICTs are used and student attainment

Our research questions:  What is the quality of students understanding?  What is the relationship between the quality of teacher educational practices that integrate ICTs and the quality of student understanding?  What is the relationship between the quality of curriculum designs that integrate ICTs and the quality of teachers’ actual implementation of these designs?

Our analytic framework :

Questions? Comments?

The sample:

Methods:  qualitative and exploratory research study based on a multiple case study approach  data was collected from semi-structured, individual interviews. The following sources were analyzed: curriculum designs, materials developed by students  prior to field work, disciplinary experts developed rubrics to assess the quality of students´ disciplinary understanding by evaluating four constituent aspects of understanding - concepts, methods, purposes and forms of communication to place students in four achievement levels: naive, novice, apprentice, master

Methods:  Data was collected and analyzed by researchers and disciplinary experts  Analysis of student global level of understanding: (4-6) Naïve, (7-10) Novice, (11/13) Apprentice, (14, 16) Master

Our Findings:  Relation between the quality of curriculum designs that integrate ICTs and the quality of teachers’ actual implementation of these designs 1.Teachers can introduce positive or negative changes in any quality. 2.To have one quality rated strong, does not guarantee that the remaining categories will also be strong. Therefore, no category is more important than any other. 3.The designs that exemplified many of the qualities had stronger implementations. 4.A good design cannot guarantee a good implementation because there are many variables that affect implementation.

Our Findings:  Relation between the quality of teacher educational practices that integrate ICTs and student understanding 1.When teacher educational practices exemplified many of the qualities (rated medium to strong) there was evidence of deeper understanding by students (students global level of disciplinary understanding= master). 1.Student understanding was not related to the presence or the absence of any category in particular. No category seems to be more important than other. Rather, interaction between them is the key.

Implications:  results are relevant as input to support and strengthen initiatives that promote the integration of ICTs into Latin American education  the study identifies a set of qualities that have the potential to guide ICT curriculum designs and teacher practices in order to support an effective integration of ICTs and student understanding  high quality curriculum designs and teacher training / support are relevant to support high quality teacher practices and student understanding

Micaela Manso Thank you! Questions? Comments?