The relationship between selected educational technologies and student-centered versus teacher-centered instruction

Not all teachers and students have equal access to technology. This inequality of access creates an uneven instructional practice that may result in varied student learning. By and large, students have limited access to technology within the confines of the classroom. New educational technologies provide schools with an opportunity to broaden and intensify the instructional process by embracing student-centered instruction through use of these technologies. This study examines the relationship between the use of educational technology and the presence of student-centered or teacher-centered instruction during a lesson. The use of technology, amount of time technology is used, timing of use, and location of use within a lesson is compared to the instructional type as defined by characteristics of student-centered and teacher-centered instruction. This exploratory work is a descriptive quantitative study using observational data to examine the relationship between instructional technology and student-centered or teacher-centered instructional behaviors within an observed lesson. During this study, 35 public school teachers from a suburban public school district voluntarily participated in classroom observations. In general, there appears to be a weak and variable relationship between technology enhancing and supporting instruction when student-centered instruction is utilized by teachers. This suggests that instructional technology may contribute to supporting student-centered learning; however, the relationship is not conclusive. The results of the findings of this study suggest recommendations for future research with: larger, diverse school populations; expanded types of technological innovations currently available to schools; schools embracing bring your own device (BYOD) implementations; and extended non-traditional, technology-enhanced instruction for fulfilling educational requirements, including autodidactic educational programs