There are two main themes establishing each research question of the current study.
One is teachers’ “TPACK enactment”, and the other is the “context of remote schools.”
In order to examine teachers’ TPACK enactment of their mobile technology integration, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to make triangulations. With quantitative method, data were collected from a survey of students’ perceptions. With qualitative method, data were collected from various sources, such as initial and revised lesson plans, classroom observation field notes, teaching demonstration videos, and semi-structured interviews. In order to examine the influence of context (i.e., remote schools) on teachers’ TPACK practices, data were primarily collected through qualitative method of interviews with teachers (see Table 3-2).
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Table 3-2
Details of Data Collection
Instruments Objective Research Qs
Quantitative Approach Student Survey TPACK Enactment RQ1 Qualitative Approach Lesson Plan TPACK Enactment RQ1 Classroom Observation TPACK Enactment RQ1 Teacher Interview TPACK Enactment & Context RQ2
Student Interview TPACK Enactment RQ1
3.3.1 Instruments Student Survey
The questionnaire for students adopted Tseng’s (2015) student survey questions.
The student survey aimed to explore students’ attitudes toward the teachers’ English instruction with iPads as well as functioned as a mirror reflecting teachers’ TPACK enactment (see Appendix 5). The responses also followed the 7-point Likert Scale and ranged from strongly agree (7 points) to strongly disagree (1 point). In order to normalize the results, scores of agreement for the three reverse questions (Item 4,6,10) were modulated as strongly agree (1 points) to strongly disagree (7 point). Besides, to complement the drawbacks of few quantitative data, every question had a follow-up statement asking why the student chose such answer to garner concrete examples of their opinions and experiences.
Lesson Planning
The participants were asked to design one lesson plan of a unit comprising six lessons for the semester. In the lesson plan, the teachers needed to clarify how technologies were utilized in which section of the lesson in detail. In this way, it revealed what kinds of technologies or apps were used, why such technology was used
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for certain teaching objective, and what the teachers’ beliefs about technology were.
According to the design-based research rationale of designing, implementing, and evaluating (McKenney, Nieveen, & van den Akker, 2006), it is not enough to merely look at a teacher’s TPACK from only what he/she plans to do; how he/she actually carries out the plans and reflects upon them also matter. Therefore, after putting the lesson plan into real practice, the teachers were required to reflect on their own instruction. The revision/reflection could contribute to our understanding of the refining process of their professional knowledge related to the use of mobile technology.
Classroom Observation
In addition to gathering information from teachers’ lesson plans to know how they perceive and view TPACK, their performances on teaching activities are perfect indications of their automatic and unmasked reactions toward mobile technology integration, especially their instinctive decision-making on unexpected events. It is an inextricable facet of teacher action, which must be continuously mastered. In putting plans into real practices, teachers’ TPACK enactment may be challenged and manifested via timing, classroom management, and coping with unforeseen technical problems. The researcher observed and videotaped two to three classes of the unit (at least 40 minutes for each session) to find out how each teacher integrated iPads into her teaching. This instrument emphasized teacher and student responses to the iPad-enhanced practices and strategies, teachers’ behaviors, approaches, and interactions with students. The instrument also showed in what way the teachers demonstration converged or diverged from what she had planned to do with the iPads.
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Interview
At the beginning, middle, and end of the semester, a 30-minute, semi-structured individual face-to-face interview was administered with the teachers Eve, Jean, and Lilian (see Appendix 6). The purposes of these interviews were to garner teachers’
perceptions, experiences, beliefs, and objectives about TPACK as well as mobile technology infusion. There were also semi-structured focus group interviews with the students after the whole unit was lectured (see Appendix 7). While taking the observation field notes, the researcher also selected some students to be the interviewees for their opinions about the iPad-inclusive instruction and for examining the teacher’s TPACK enactment from the students’ viewpoint.
The interviews were conducted in the participants’ native language, Chinese, to elicit data without the interference of language performance. Most interview questions were open-ended to encourage full and contextual responses. The interviews were audio-recorded and later transcribed verbatim by the researcher.
3.3.2 Procedure
This study included three phases, as shown in Figure 3.1.. In the first phase, the researcher had a first interview with the three teachers at the beginning of the semester.
The teachers’ initial TPACK enactment were identified, including pedagogical beliefs about the reasons and objectives for the use of mobile technologies into EFL remote area classrooms. Next, the teachers came up with a lesson plan of one complete unit for the semester, which may unveil how the teachers view mobile technology and the purpose of using it.
The second phase was to observe the teachers’ TPACK enactment from their actual performances. Qualitative methods were utilized. The researcher visited the teachers for on-site classroom observations twice to explore how they actually integrated tablet
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PCs into teaching, how they reacted to technological or pedagogical problems, and their reasons behind the choices. After implementing their lesson plans, the teachers reflected on their tablet-based instruction and were interviewed for further explanations
In the last phase, a quantitative engagement survey was conducted on students at the end of the semester to express how they perceive the teachers’ technology infusion classes. Some students were selected to have a focus group interview in order to cross-analyze the teachers’ TPACK enactment. The researcher had a last interview with the teachers about their beliefs, attitudes, and reflections of their mobile technology integration in the remote schools.