Uses of Technology to Support Reflective Teaching Practices

Abstract

This dissertation researched and reported on how technology was used to facilitate and inform reflective teaching practices. It also identified the characteristics of benefits and barriers in using technology for teaching and reflection.The study, descriptive in nature, was designed to determine the reflective practices of instructors and how emerging technologies could be used to enhance that reflection. To obtain this information, a Grounded Theory approach was used.Data were gathered and evaluated from a national survey of instructors on their teaching practices, technology used in teaching, how they reflected on their teaching, how they used technology to reflect on their teaching, and barriers to using technology for teaching and reflection.Seventy-three completed survey responses were received and coded into code families. These individual codes and code families were then analyzed to determine themes on how instructors used technology for more effective reflection on their teaching.The findings identified a number of themes related to (a) reflective teaching practices, (b) how instructors used technology to reflect on teaching, (c) the characteristics of learning technologies that supported reflective teaching practices, and (d) the barriers to using these technologies. The themes showed examples of how reflecting with technology supports effective teaching and learning.