Understanding Adoption of Software Tools: Comparative Case Studies of Teacher Beliefs About and Use of InquirySupport Software

the Fourth International Conference of the Learning Sciences

Gabrielle Matese ; Sue Marshall ; Danny Edelson

PID  :  83764

来源: CEUR

【 摘 要 】

This set of comparative case studies takes some first steps at understanding how tosupport teachers’ efforts to adopt and use an inquirysupport software environment called the Progress Portfolio.We explore two key issues: teachers’ beliefs about the functionality of the tool, and ways in which teachers customize it to support inquirybased learning.Using interview data and software artifacts, the study explored some of the striking similarities and differences in beliefs and tool customization across three teachers engaged in the same instructional unit. Findings provide evidence for an initial category scheme of tool functions perceived by teachers to meet both teacher needs and student needs in scientific investigations.Additionally, teachers’ customized Portfolio templates revealed a continuum of generalpurpose to taskspecific designs to scaffold student inquiry within or across science units.Implications for future research are discussed in light of these results, including a need to expand on the existing belief category scheme and customization examples, and a need to do longitudinal research that will shed more light on changing beliefs and use as a result of experience.