Technology Avoidance by Mathematic and Science Teachers

Nicole Moxey
ETEC 533 Section 65A
Technology in the Mathematics and Science Classroom
February 12, 2018
Resubmitted February 15, 2018
 Technology Avoidance by Mathematics and Science Teachers

Purpose/Issue:
The issue that I chose to investigate more thoroughly is the reasons why some
teachers do not integrate technology into their math and science classrooms. This issue
continues to come up in our readings, discussions, videos and interviews. I am highly
interested in this particular topic as I recently relocated to a new school district and many of
my colleagues seem very hesitant to use technology. Some even state that they “ban” students
from bringing phones into their classroom. This might not be a problem if we had enough
technology for all students to be using a device, however, this is not the case. We have over
750 students that share three computer labs and one cart of laptops. I originally thought that
teachers were choosing to not use technology because there was not enough devices at our
school. I was proven wrong when a string of emails was recently sent around asking for
teachers to request students to “turn in” their cell phones as they enter classrooms (this was
not from our administration, but from teachers who wanted other teachers to support their
decision to ban devices). I do not understand this thinking as I see the value in students using
their smartphones to give them more access to technology. I am now beginning to think that
we have very little technology in our school because teachers are making the decision to not
use it. This has caused the district to place resources in schools that have keen teachers. In my
Unpacking Assumptions reflection (during week 2), I stated that some of the challenges that
prevent teachers from implementing technology into the classroom are a lack of funding,
professional development, as well as a lack of teacher interest and passion. So far, some of
the reasons that have been expressed in the discussions and interviews include lack of
training or professional development, not being provided with enough time to explore
technology, and a lack of consistent technology or reliable technology. This is also supported
by Rosen and Weil (1995) as they claim that a lack of teaching experience, support when
using technology, computer availability, financial support and time required to integrate
technology hinder teachers from using technology with their students (as cited in Mutaz,
2000, p. 320).

During my interview, my interviewee stated that, “when we were first told to

implement technology, we were given no support or training on how to do it effectively.” The
teacher that was interviewed in Video Case 5 explained how she feels about technology. “I
find it extremely frustrating. I don’t have the time to use the computer… I feel that I don’t
have enough time, I don’t have enough information, and I don’t feel very comfortable using
the computers or the laptops.” Another teacher in the same video is quoted as saying, “I
would like to incorporate more technology into my program, but I’m finding it hard to do and
part of the reason is because I don’t feel like I have enough time with everything else I have
to do and the other part of that is that I don’t know everything I should know before I teach it
to my kids…. I don’t find the time to apply what I’ve learned [from workshops] in my class
and then I forget about it.” Although, I believe that these are valid reasons for teachers to
give, I wonder why some teachers are able to overcome these obstacles and find ways to
integrate technology and others are not. One student in this course posed this question, “[a]​re
we mislabelling a lack of training as a lack of interest? I believe that technology can enhance
the classroom and I think everyone in this program has the same mindset (otherwise why
would we be here!) but not everyone shares these values…”​ I firmly believe that lessons that
authentically integrate technology can increase student motivation, engagement and attitude.
Technology also provides students with 21st century skills that are necessary once they move
into the workforce. “Research findings over the past 20 years provide some evidence as to the
positive effects of the use of information and communications technology (ICT) on pupils’
learning” (Mutaz, 2000, p. 319). For example, STEM education helps to decrease gender and
ethnic gaps sometimes found in math and science fields. Initiatives have been put into place
to help increase the roles of women and minorities in STEM-related fields. STEM education
also breaks the traditional gender roles by increasing the number of women entering
technology related jobs (​Engineering for Kids)​. With these benefits, it becomes even more
important for teachers to find ways to overcome the technology barriers. Not only does
avoiding technology directly affect the use of technology in math and science class, it affects
all areas of teaching and learning. Integrating technology into the math and science class
allows students to critically explore and engage with the world. I would like to explore some
of the research and case studies that have been done to see if it supports the reasons teachers
give or if there are other underlying reasons that we need to be aware of. I am hoping that
once we figure out the real reasons teachers are not using technology, we will be able to
overcome these challenges and increase technology use in everyone’s classrooms.

Methodology:
The articles were selected by searching the library database, CiteULike and Google
Scholar. Under the “Indexes and Databases” on the library database, I looked under
Education, Educational Technology, and Educational Studies. I limited my search to articles
that were published in the last five year (2013-18). Some of the keywords that I searched
were “resistance,” “barriers,” and “attitudes,” “technology integration,” “math,” “science,”
and “elementary.” I wanted to focus on the articles that looked at elementary aged classrooms
as those are the age of the students that I have the most experience with. I wanted to see if
there was a difference in articles when I interchanged “resistance,” “barriers,” and “attitude”
as search words. I also wanted to ensure that the articles focused on math and science so I
included these keywords in all the searches. Some articles were excluded because I was only
able to locate the abstract and not the entire article. Other articles were excluded as they were
secondary source articles. I ended up choosing the above articles since I felt they were most
closely related to my topic of interest.

Related Articles:

Howard, S. K. (2013). Risk-aversion: understanding teachers’ resistance to technology

integration. ​Technology, Pedagogy and Education,​ ​22​(3), 357-372.
 According to Howard (2013), even though many teachers are thought to be “resistant”
to using technology, some of them are choosing not to use it because they do not believe the
value of using technology outweighs the disadvantages of using it. This qualitative research
investigates the perceived risks of using technology and how these influence whether a
teacher does or does not integrate technology into their daily practice. Howard looks at
previous research done and finds that two areas have been covered extensively. These two
areas are the teacher’s personal knowledge of technology and their use of technology.
According to Darby (2008), teachers with “higher levels of confidence and competence
using technology are more likely to integrate it in their teaching” (as cited in Howard, 2013,
p. 360). Technology integration is highly dependent on whether or not the teacher sees the
value in it. This is especially true of high school teachers who specialize in a subject area
such as mathematics or science. When these teachers are planning, they need to see the value
in the tools that they are going to be using and if they have very little knowledge of
technology as a tool or they are unaware of the benefits, they will not want to risk using it.
There was a total of eight teachers interviewed in Australia for this study. One of the
interviewees stated that not only did she feel uncomfortable using technology, but she did not
see the value in using technology in her mathematics class. “She perceived significant risk,
dread and anxiety with the use of technology” (Howard, 2013, p. 368). The results from these
interviews show that teachers believe that the value of technology does not outweigh the
disadvantages of using it. For example, one teacher stated that her biggest problem with using
computers was the lack of time she was provided. She stated that she was not comfortable
with it and because of this it causes her stress and anxiety.
Although the study in the Howard article does provide us with an insight into why
some teachers are not using technology, it does have a few problems. This study is based out
of Australia, so it would be beneficial to see a similar study done with Canadian teachers to
see if they feel the same way. There were only eight teachers interviewed, which is a small
sample size. Further research should focus on asking teachers what they would need to make
them feel comfortable using technology. Since these teachers do not see the value in
technology, it might be necessary to provide some educational courses and professional
development workshops about the benefits while disputing some of the negatives that are
associated with technology use.

Herro, D., & Quigley, C. (2017). Exploring teachers’ perceptions of STEAM teaching
through professional development: implications for teacher educators. ​Professional
Development In Education​, ​43​(3), 416-438.

In the Herro and Quigly (2017) article, it starts off talking about how STEM helps
teach students 21st century skills. The goal of STEM is not to create more scientists, but
rather to develop the skills needed for students to function in a technological world. Some of
the barriers of STEM is that stakeholders all have a different idea of what STEM is and what
it should look like in the classroom. Another new approach is to add the Arts and Humanities
to STEM learning (STEAM). This allows students to better understand how all things are
connected and related, instead of compartmentalizing the learning process. This 2013 case
study found that perceptions, knowledge and overall confidence in STEAM improved when
teachers were able to work together. The researchers had three questions in this study and
their goal was to use the results to improve teacher education. There were 21 math and
science middle school teachers (5 males and 16 females) from 7 different schools that
participated. The results came from observations, reflections, interviews and artifacts. The
authors were not able to find existing literature in STEAM research because it is so new, but
they did try to overcome this obstacle by looking at existing literature in STEM.
There are a few limitations to the Herro and Quigly study. For example, the
participants were not randomly chosen, all of the participants are from the same school
district and the sample size was very small. However, this is a good first step as research in
STEAM is just beginning, and the authors do acknowledge some of these limitations in the
article. One of the important findings from this study is that “[r]esearch-based professional
learning is necessary to prepare teachers for this trend, and thus understanding ways to design
successful STEAM PD by teacher educators is important” (p. 432). Teachers need time to
collaborate and they need continuous professional development to successfully integrate
technology into their classrooms. Further research in STEM and STEAM is needed. It would
be helpful to randomly select participants for studies in this area. For this study, the
participants volunteered and thus, they are already the ones interested in learning more about
STEM and STEAM. However, there are many teachers that have not even begun using
technology in their math and science classrooms.

Carver, L., & Todd, C. (2016). Teacher Perception Of Barriers And Benefits In K-12
Technology Usage. ​INTED2016 Proceedings.​

In the Carver and Todd (2016) article, Teacher Perception of Barriers and Benefits in
K-12, the authors reviewed existing literature and according to Warschauer (2006), “students
come to the classroom ready to use technology to explore their world. Research has indicated
that technology can increase student motivation, attitude, engagement, and self-confidence,
while improving organization and study skills. All these factors taken together were found to
significantly improve school attendance and academic performance” (p. 369). This study
surveyed 310 students enrolled in online courses in an education graduate program to see
what barriers impacted technology use in the classroom. They found both first order barriers
(those outside of the teacher) and second order barriers (those that are inside the teacher) that
affect whether or not a teacher will use technology. The results show that the availability of
technology still affect student and teacher use of technology. Even though a teacher’s skill or
comfort level was a concern, it was not a major factor in whether or not teachers used
technology. They also found that teachers worried about the risks of using technology. The
author recommends that teachers be provided with opportunities that allow them to get
comfortable with using technology so that it doesn’t cause them anxiety. Further, they
recommended that the goals of the district and school should be related to technology
integration as this will require teachers to integrate technology in order for them to meet the
expectations of their school. “The key to helping teachers fruitfully engage with technology
and change is to understand what is actually being risked, and what they perceive is at risk.
Only with this understanding can teachers be helped to make clear decisions about
technology and teaching, rather than resisting change with the heat of emotion” (Carver &
Todd, 2016, p. 370).
After reading the Carver and Todd article, I realized that further research is still
needed in specific regions (example, British Columbia) to see what teachers perceive as risks
and to see if school district and school goals align with technology integration. The changes
to the BC curriculum have created more opportunities for teachers to integrate technology
into the mathematics and science classrooms. The goal is to teach students 21st century skills
through the use of technology. There will be a transitional period, but eventually in order for
all classrooms to be meeting the expectation of the BC curriculum, they need to be
authentically integrating technology into their daily lessons. It would be impossible for
teachers to meet these new expectations without the use of technology.

Conclusion:
The research in the area of technology in the mathematics and science classroom is
somewhat limited. Although there is lots of research about technology integration in general
classrooms, there is little that focuses solely on the the mathematics and science classroom.
Part of the reason is because STEM and STEAM are relatively new concepts. Despite this,
there are a few things that we do know. First, teachers who are uncomfortable using
technology, tend to avoid integrating it into their daily math and science lessons. Second,
teachers state that they are not provided with enough time, resources, or professional
development, and therefore are not able to create authentic lessons. Finally, some teachers
openly admit that they do not use technology as they do not see the value in using. Instead
they cite some of the negative effects of technology use. As one classmate mentioned in our
discussion posts, “​there are innovators that are first to embrace new technology, then there is
the early majority that follows when benefits are visible, then comes the late majority that
follows to not be left behind – and then come the laggards that will never adopt new
technology.” I truly believe that some people have their minds made up about technology, but
what I do think would be beneficial would be for these resistant teachers to see the students
engagement, motivation and passion for learning in mathematics and science when using
technology. This might just get these teachers thinking about how they can instill the same
behaviours with their own students.
References:

Carver, L., & Todd, C. (2016). Teacher Perception Of Barriers And Benefits In K-12
Technology Usage. ​INTED2016 Proceedings.​

Engineering for Kids. (n.d.). Why Is STEM Education So Important. Retrieved February 15,
2018, from ​http://www.engineeringforkids.com/article/02-02-2016_importanceofstem

Herro, D., & Quigley, C. (2017). Exploring teachers’ perceptions of STEAM teaching
through professional development: implications for teacher educators. ​Professional
Development In Education​, ​43​(3), 416-438.

Howard, S. K. (2013). Risk-aversion: understanding teachers’ resistance to technology

integration. ​Technology, Pedagogy and Education,​ ​22​(3), 357-372.

Mumtaz, S. (2000). Factors affecting teachers use of information and communications

technology: a review of the literature. ​Journal of Information Technology for Teacher
Education,​ ​9​(3), 319-342.