Brief report of findings from research study on technology integration in mathematics instruction in urban public schools

1. Personal Information TECHNOLOGY IN URBAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
by
Address pharvey@ureach.com
pharvey@ciafe.org Dr. Phyllis Harvey-Buschel
Education Ed. D. July 29, 2009
Educational Leadership
Bowie State University
Bowie, MD
M. Sc. Curr. & Instruction, 2005
George Mason University,
Fairfax, Virginia
M. A. Education, 2000,
Trinity College, Washington DC
M. Sc. Plant Biology, 1994
University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine
B. Sc. Agronomy, 1989,
University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine

2. Significant Studies Title
Technology Integration: A Quantitative Examination of Factors that Impact
Technology Integration in Urban
Teacher Experience Public Secondary Mathematic Classrooms
Grove, K., Strudler, N., & Odell, S. (2004). Mentoring toward technology Introduction
use: Cooperating teachers practice in supporting student teachers. Advocates for the application of technology in U. S. schools would
Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 27(1), 85-110. like teachers to move beyond the use of computers for simple tasks such as
drill and practice to new applications like the use of multimedia, and as a
Hazzan, O. (2003). Prospective high school mathematics teachers’ attitudes research and problem solving tool. This emphasis on integration has not
toward integrating computers in their future teaching. Journal of yielded adequate achievement results because many teachers do not
Research on Technology in Education, 35(2), 213-225. frequently utilize technology for instruction. This is because teachers’
ability to integrate computer technology effectively depends on their own
Wright, V. H., & Wilson, E. K. (2007). A partnership of educators to knowledge about technology and the access they have to technology. The
promote technology integration: Designing a master technology lack of knowledge has resulted in computer use most often in computer
teacher program. Education, 128(1), 80-87. classes and not in core academic subjects such as math and science. This
study analyzed teacher access to technology and its impact on technology
Professional Development integration in mathematics instruction in urban public secondary
classrooms. The findings from this research highlighted the need for
Becker, H. J. (1999). Internet use by teachers: Conditions of professional continued dialogue on this topic by refocusing attention on technology
use and teacher-directed student use. Teaching, Learning, and integration in urban public mathematics classrooms.
Computing: 1998 National Survey. Report #1. Irvine, CA: Center
for Research on Information Technology and Organizations. Methodology
Christensen, R. (2002). Effects of technology integration education on the The study used a causal-comparative research design. In this design the
attitudes of teachers and students. Journal of Research on researcher determines the cause or the reason for existing differences in
Technology Education, 34(4), 411-434. groups or individuals. In a causal-comparative research the participants are
already in groups prior to the study and therefore they are not subject to
Technology manipulation.
Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance was used to compare
Barron, A. E., Kemker, K., Harmes, C., & Kalaydjian, K. (2003). Large- the two sample means for differences and the Mann-Whitney U-test was
Scale research study on technology in K-12 school: Technology used to determine statistical significance using an alpha level of 0.05.
integration as it relates to the national technology standards. Spearman rho correlation was used to determine the magnitude and
Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 35(4), 489-508. direction of any relationship.
Data for urban public secondary mathematic teachers was retrieved
Norris, C., Sullivan, T., Poirot, J., & Soloway, E. (2003). No access, no use, from National Center for Educational Statistics, Schools and Staffing
no impact: Snapshot survey of educational technology in K-12. Survey (SASS) questionnaires for 1999-2000 school years. Variables that
Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 36(1), 15-27. represented teacher experience, professional development and availability
of computer technology were extracted from the SASS dataset.

3. Findings:
Teacher experience had no effect on technology integration in urban public
secondary classrooms. There was no difference between novice,
experienced and veteran teachers and technology integration in mathematics
instruction. The results for professional development indicated that teachers
who participated in professional development showed significantly different
(p≥ 4.77) use of computer technology for instruction and instructional
activity (p≥ 5.91) in mathematics. The number of computers in a classroom
significantly influenced (p≥ 37.28) technology integration in mathematics
instruction in urban public secondary classrooms. The number of computers
available in a classroom influenced technology integration in the
mathematics instruction in urban public secondary classrooms. Teachers
who have more computers in their classroom integrated technology more
frequently in mathematics instruction.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Providing access to technology is important for integration in mathematics
instruction. Effectiveness of technology cannot be determined if access is
limited. Recommendations from this research are that urban public schools
need to develop an appropriate plan for technology use, schools should
focus on providing mathematics teachers with computers and that
professional development is needed to use the technology in mathematics
instruction. Additional research should be conducted using most recent data
and a qualitative component to see whether utilization of technology in
mathematics instruction has changed in public urban secondary schools.
Research should also focus on how technology integration is linked to
improved students outcomes in mathematics.