Understanding Teachers' Beliefs and Practices in Technology Use in a Korean Language Classroom Through Exploratory Practice
Author | : Jaerin Ahn |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 0 |
Release | : 2020 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : |
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ABSTRACT This dissertation adopts exploratory practice to investigate Korean language teachers in their process of gaining a deeper understanding of their beliefs regarding technology and its use in classrooms. I posit that examining teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning with regard to technology provides an essential foundation for successful classroom technology integration. Moreover, conducting teacher research guided by exploratory practice allows teachers to formulate their own questions and investigate them in their own context, which contributes to their professional development by helping them gain a deeper understanding of their teaching beliefs and practices. The main research questions of this study are a) What are Korean language instructors' beliefs about the role of technology in language teaching and learning, and how are these beliefs reflected in their teaching practices? and b) How do Korean language instructors interpret and work with exploratory practice? In the research process, this study invited three Korean language teachers who teach in a four-week summer immersion program to participate in an individual research project guided by exploratory practice. Before the program commenced, individual in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the participants' existing beliefs about teaching, learning, and technology. They then attended an exploratory practice workshop, gained familiarity with the principles, and formulated their own questions related to technology use. During the program, they engaged in various activities to investigate their questions (called puzzles in EP), including active discussions with their students and other teachers, video reflections, and observations. Their responses to exploratory practice were collated through an end-of-program interview and group interviews. The findings show that the teachers presented a strong preference for a student-centered learning environment, which was heavily influenced by their personal learning experiences. On the other hand, the teachers revealed varying beliefs about the scope, goals, and effectiveness of using technology in language classrooms, which resulted from different teaching experiences, the school settings they work in, and a lack of motivations to change existing teaching methods. These factors resulted in inconsistencies between their beliefs and actual technology use. In addition, the teacher participants evaluated exploratory practice as a transformative opportunity to reflect on themselves from a contextual perspective, eventually resulting in a sophisticated understanding of the quality of life in the classroom and a clearer conception of themselves as teachers. They found that formulating their own puzzles and working together in a collegial environment contributed to their successful teacher research project. The findings of this study suggest that providing teachers with opportunities to think about the role of technology in classrooms and carefully examine their own beliefs and practices may advance the successful integration of technology. Moreover, exploratory practice can be utilized as an alternative model of teacher education as the teachers may benefit from formulating their own questions and investigating them within the context directly relevant to them. Finally, this study suggests that building a strong teacher community with regular reflective dialogue develops teachers' professionalism and sense of belonging, which positively enhances students' learning experiences.