4.1 Results of Teachers’ TPACK Enactment in the Remote Schools
4.1.3 Lilian’s TPACK Enactment
Lilian was a state financed teacher distributed to the rural county Taitung for several years. She transferred from another school, farer from Taitung downtown, to her present one two years ago. Although she has been a teacher for more than ten years, she only came back to the teaching site in the recent two years since she was engaged in mostly administrative works before. She held an optimistic attitude toward mobile
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technology integration and liked to try anything new. Like Eve, Lilian stayed at an experimental school which offered mixed-age English classes, and each mixed-grade was divided into three levels. The researcher observed a class of 6 fourth graders and 4 third graders. They had five English classes per week, and they used iPads once to twice a week.
Student Survey
The results of student survey revealed learners’ perceptions toward teacher’
TPACK enactment. Nine elementary fourth graders provided valid responses. The mean scores and standard deviations for each question were shown in Table 4-5. The degrees of Lilian’ TPACK enactment perceived by the students ranged from 6.78 (Item 2) to 7.00 (Item 4,5,6,9,10). Overall, students enjoyed the way Lilian taught English with the iPad very much (Item 1: M = 6.89, SD = 0.33). They seemed to be satisfied with the ways in which iPads were used to engage them in learning. In fact, up to five items received the highest mean scores of 7.00 without disagreement (Item 4,5,6,9,10: M = 7.00, SD = 0), indicating tablet-based instruction attracted students’ attention, interest, and curiosity.
There were also qualitative data exhibiting students’ reasons and thoughts about why they chose certain answer to each question. All of the statements were positive.
Many students addressed they liked English and iPads. Using iPads was different from conventional and regular English classes, so they were allowed to watch interesting animations [TCK] and play games [TCK, TPK]. Many students were impressed with using iPads to record and make their own dynamic flashcards. A student even commented “Learning is worth it (F-1; Survey).” It seemed that when he concentrated on learning with the iPad, his hard work paid off.
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(1) Curious
“It is different from the regular English classes.” (F-2; Survey)
“I have not been exposed to learning English with iPads before.” (F3, F-5,
F-6, F-9; Survey)“We used to learn English with projectors before.” (F-8; Survey)
(2) Interesting“It’s interesting to use iPads for learning.” (F-1, F-2, F-3, F-4, F-5, F-6;
Survey)
“We can play games in the iPad to learn English.” (F-2, F-3, F-4; Survey)
“I think the way Lilian teaches English is fun.” (F-7; Survey)
(3) Attentive“I won’t be distracted because I like English classes.” (F-5, F-7; Survey)
“There’s no unrelated learning.” (F-1, F-3; Survey)
“When we grow up, we will need English more, so I have to study hard.”
(F-4; Survey)Table 4-5
Results of Student Survey on Lilian’s TPACK Enactment
(N = 9)
M SD
1. Like in general 6.89 0.33
2. Curious 6.78 0.67
3. Interesting 6.89 0.33
4. Distracted (reverse) 7.00 0
5. Innovative 7.00 0
6. Boring (reverse) 7.00 0
7. Imaginative 6.89 0.33
8. Attentive 6.89 0.33
9. Interested 7.00 0
10. Absent-minded (reverse) 7.00 0
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Student Interview
Among the nine students, three were invited to a focus group semi-structured interview. Most students like English classes whether the tablet PCs were used or not, since Lilian would design different activities for either way of teaching. In regular English classes, students played games such as throwing balls or dice to learn vocabulary. In tablet-based English classes, students used iPads to search for pictures, write down vocabulary, record words or dialogues, and upload recordings to Seesaw [TPACK]. Students made recordings again and again mostly at their own will until they were satisfied with the results, and sometimes at Lilian’s request. If they uncounted Wi-Fi breakdown [Micro], Lilian solved the problem by sharing her smartphone Internet [TK]. In fact, unlike the all positive perceptions in student survey, one student preferred regular classes to iPad-integrated ones because he though Lilian explained the content more clearly without iPads. Another student also exhibited similar preference when asked to choose between the ways Lilian and another teacher incorporated iPads. He liked the other class because he can make his own physical book and design its cover after searching information on the Internet.
“Draw a picture or look for a picture online, write down the vocabulary, then record ... upload it to Seesaw.” (F-3, Interview)
“With iPads … we can draw. Without iPads, we can play little games.” (F-4;
Interview)
“If there is something wrong with Wi-Fi connection [Micro] ... teacher Lilian
said click and connect to her phone network.” (F-7; Interview)
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Lesson Planning
Lesson plan revealed teachers’ TPACK enactment process of designing, implementing, and evaluating. In Lilian’s lesson plans (see Table 4-6), she incorporated some technologies into every class. She tried a variety of apps to catch students’
attention and pursue different instructional purposes. For example, she used Starfall
ABCs to preview the target phonics in the textbook [TCK], or customized games in Spelling Bee to strengthen the spellings of vocabulary [TCK]. She used Sock Puppets
for students to make their own voice-mutated production of the sentence pattern. During the process, students autonomously repeated to record for a better version, which indirectly help them achieve a great deal of practice [TPACK]. Due to the limited number of iPads [Micro], students were divided into pairs to share iPads and improve cooperation. Lilian also used Seesaw and AirPlay projection to promote mutual learning, hoping students can self-correct while watching others’ performance. It is hoped that through the assistance of technology, students can connect the notions of singular and plural with real life situation. She revised the teaching procedure in order to meet students’ needs [PK]. For instance, the dynamic flashcards activity was originally designed for taking pictures with physical classroom stationary, but students asked for more. In the next dynamic flashcards activity, sources of the pictures were not limited.They can find pictures on the Internet or draw their own. Lilian believed practice makes perfect, so she decided to allow students to spend more time on producing outcomes.
Table 4-6
Summary of Lilian’s Lesson Plan
Goals: Students are able to learn the singular and the plural nouns about writing supplies & electronics.
Students are able to identify them (e.g., a marker, computers, & CDs) in real life situation.
Class Teaching Procedure Reflection
(continued)
65 1 Presentation: dialogues in E-book iTool
Practice: role-play, walk & talk (This is my friend) Production: record (introduce each other inpairs)
& upload to Seesaw
I find that most students automatically repeated practice in order to smoothly speak the sentence pattern during recording, which helps them improve oral skills. To control instruction time, maybe I should demonstrate how to upload recordings to Seesaw after all the students complete filming. Provide individual guidance and help them give feedbacks on the platform.
2&3 Presentation: 8 stationary vocabulary (singular & plural)
Practice: take picture & write (individual) Production: make flashcards (picture & voice) &
share (group)
Wrap-up: upload flashcards to Seesaw
Originally the dynamic flashcards are designed for group competition to curtail producing time, but students wanted to present better works by searching for ideal stationary photos online, drawing their own pictures, or repeating recordings. Interested, some even ask for making more cards. I’ll give them more time to practice in order to meet their learning needs next time.
4 Presentation: sentence pattern Practice: physical flashcards exercise A: How many crayons?
B: One crayon. / Three crayons.
Production: treasure hunt (find & ask)
Lilian use the iPad to record process
The goal of this class is to enable students to use the correct singular/plural with sentence pattern in real classroom situation. I record the process of their dialogue exercises and uploaded it to their learning journal on Seesaw. I can understand students’
learning performance and problem after watching the clips with them.
Then I can give individual correction on their pronunciation.
(continued)
66 5&6 Presentation: 8 electronics vocabulary
(singular & plural)
Practice: take picture & write (individual) Production: make flashcards (picture & voice) &
share (group)
Wrap-up: upload flashcards to Seesaw
do sight words on Seesaw (optional)
This activity is modified according to the last demonstration. Students can make at most 8 flashcards without the constrains of picture sources. They are obviously familiar with the procedure this time. Although some students still forget or get confused with the plural
“s”, generally speaking, most of them can correctly read and write vocabulary with the suitable corresponding pictures.
7 Practice: language: What’s this? It’s a cell phone.
What are these? They’re CDs.
Production: Listen & Do (teacher says) (1) Point to the computer.
(2) Find the video games.
(3) Count the books.
Wrap-up: review game with Spelling Bee
The previous classes focus on listening, reading, and recognizing, so this time I put the emphasis on spelling. I use Spelling Bee to customize various games for students to practice. They take turns to exercise one spelling game. As the familiarity with words increase, the rotation and spelling speed increase. It is recommended that each student practice on their own iPad next time.
8 Warm-up: review alphabet song in E-book iTool Presentation 1: introduce Starfall ABCs
Practice 1: /d/ & /t/ phonics with Starfall ABCs Presentation 2: /d/ & /t/ phonics in E-book iTool Practice: listen & distinguish (differentiation) Production: make up a story together
I find it easier for me to teach phonics in the textbook after students already use Starfall ABCs to learn for 10-15 minutes. The app seems to make them highly motivated and help establish the prior knowledge of D and T phonics.
9 Warm-up: listen to the story in E-book iTool Presentation: introduce Sock Puppets Production: make a story with Sock Puppets (sentence pattern) & upload to Seesaw Wrap-up: share & watch their works
Interested and attentive, students correct their pronunciation and ask question constantly during the recording process in order to present better works. It seems that they also indirectly learn app-related English such as characters, background, props, scenery, press, click, record, and play.
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Classroom Observation
The onsite observation revealed how teachers put their lesson plans into real practice. The researcher entered the last two classes. Lilian introduced a brand-new app in each class, which showed her willingness to try new things [Teacher]. She used the interactive whiteboard to mirror her smartphone or iPad [TK] to briefly demonstrate how to operate Starfall ABCs and Sock Puppets before her students got started with them. However, the situations were a little messy since it was students’ first time to get exposed to these apps, more time and instructions may be required. Besides integrating apps into teaching, Lilian also gave students different tasks with flashcards based on their abilities. In listen and distinguish activity (Class 8), for example, some students needed to listen to longer sentences containing more vocabulary than others [PCK]. She ended the class by making a story solitaire with flashcards when she found there were still five minutes left. She chose story solitaire rather than other tablet-based game concerning students’ familiarity with this activity [Student] and time constraint [Micro].
In the last class, students uploaded their works to Seesaw by scanning the QR Code [Micro] so that they can quickly enter the target folder. Seesaw saved students’ learning process and portfolio so that they can review what they had learned from time to time.
It is like a live dictionary. Every time when they clicked into the sound or video recordings, they can see the word, the sentence, the picture, and read along with it.