Overview of Peggy A. Ertmer, "Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in Our Quest for Technology Integration?" Educational Technology, Research & Development 53.4 (2005): 1042-1629

1. Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs:
The Final Frontier in Our
Quest for Technology
Integration?
Overview of an article by Peggy A. Ertmer, Educational
Technology, Research & Development 53.4 (2005): 1042-1629.

2. 3 conditions for successful tech
integration (Becker, 2000)
1. Teachers must have access
2. Be adequately prepared
3. Have some freedom in the curriculum
4. Hold personal beliefs in line with constructivist
pedagogy

3. Access has increased
 Student-computer ration in US 4:1 w/ 98% of these
connected to the internet.
 81% of teachers have moderate to high access to
instructional computers.
 No significant difference in computer availability
according to school type of poverty level.

4. Technology Skills More
Valued
 Teachers more interested in technology integration
than basic skills, indicating that they already have the
latter.
 Block scheduling facilitates technology use in
classrooms.
 Parents view technology as a key part of the curriculum
and learning process.

5. 3 conditions met; 1 remains
Criteria satisfied:
1. Access
2. Preparation
3. Freedom (block scheduling)
Remaining:
1. Teacher beliefs

6. How to affect teacher beliefs?
 Difficult because they are second order belief changes:
 First order: changes that adjust practice in incremental
fashion without changing existing structures or beliefs.
 Second order: change that confronts a teacher’s
fundamental beliefs and thus requires new way of both
seeing an doing things.

7. Teachers’ use of technology
 Tends toward “low-level” tasks such as word
processing or internet research, as shown in numerous
research studies.
 Thus teacher-centered rather than student-centered
(constructivist) uses prevail.

8. Time to acquire
understanding
 Some argue that low-level use precede high-level
use, but in longitudinal studies, this has not been
proven by research.
 Factors undermining change to constructivist teaching
through tech integration:
 School schedule (short periods)
 Self-contained classrooms
 Departments
 Teachers’ training in the disciplines

9. Historiographer, Larry Cuban:
“It’s not a problem of resources, but a struggle over core
values.” (1977)

10. Goal
 Facilitate the uses of technology that lead to increased
student learning (i.e., constructivism)
 Ertmer makes a case that teachers’ pedagogical beliefs
change can be facilitated by technology integration

11. Constructivist tech classroom
=
 Students engaged in authentic, project-based work
Teacher-centered tech
classroom =
 Online tutorials, skill practice, learning isolated facts

12. Nature of beliefs
 Beliefs come from episodic memory, with information
being drawn from personal experiences or cultural
sources of knowledge (Nespor, 1987)
 Early negative experiences with technology could be a
lifelong deterrent
 New experiences filtered through belief system
 Difficult to change
 Frequently part of a person’s identity
 Can’t be disputed with facts

13. Traditional Teachers Adopt
Tech When…
 Tech supports the kinds of traditional activities with
which they are comfortable.
 The further a new practice is from existing practice, the
less likely it will be implemented successfully.
 Once tool is learned/valued, it can be expanded upon
to higher level uses.

14. How beliefs are changed
 Teachers’ own schooling supports beliefs about
pedagogy
 Teachers must become dissatisfied with their existing
beliefs
 Must make existing beliefs explicit so as to challenge
their adequacy
 Teachers must be given an opportunity to
examine, elaborate, an integrate new info into their
belief systems.

15. Integral to beliefs about pedagogy must be
linked to institutional vision
 Beliefs about learners
 About what characterizes meaningful learning
 Beliefs about teachers’ role within that vision

16. 3 strategies of promise
 Personal experiences
 Vicarious experiences
 Social-cultural influences

17. Experience and Belief
Change
 Ertmer’shyposthesis: Belief change follows, rather
than precedes personal experience

18. Personal experience
 Build a teacher’s confidence and competence through
personal experience
 Make small changes before making big ones
 Use tech to achieve old goals (then gradually work in
new ones)

19. Include reflection with “learn
by doing”
 Question ones own practice and practice of others
 Make assumptions explicit
 Use classrooms as sites for inquiry

20. Vicarious Experiences
 Student teaching
 Learning through the experiences of others
(films, readings, tutorials, co-workers)

21. Socio-Cultural Influences
 Professional Learning Communities (online and FTF)
 Administration (district, building) that allow teachers to
experience tech integration as promoting
 Self-efficacy
 See this as related to their being effective teachers
 The likelihood of integrating this into their teaching