Teaching and learning with digital technologies in the intermediate school classroom: An Activity Theory analysis of classroom interactions

In the three decades since digital technologies were introduced into classrooms with the potential of changing educational practices, an ongoing dialogue continues regarding the impact of these technologies on teaching and learning, for both teachers and their students. While current research has identified a number of elements that influence teachers’ integration of digital technologies, there is a need for a careful examination of the relationships between these factors and how they come together to underpin teachers’ decisions to use digital devices with their students. The purpose of the present study was to understand teachers’ motivations for integrating digital technologies into their teaching practice, how they accomplished this, and what environmental and personal factors underpinned these decisions. This research also investigated students’ experiences of working with digital technologies as they participated in teacher-planned lessons. Both contextual and personal factors contribute to teachers’ use of digital technologies; therefore, these aspects were considered through the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) theoretical framework to make sense of the sociocultural environment that influenced these intermediate school teachers as they made decisions to include digital technologies in their classroom practices. An interpretive multiple case study methodology was used, incorporating data collection methods of interviews, observations, document analysis, ‘think alouds’, and student focus groups, to explore the practices of teachers and their students in four classroom cases within two intermediate schools in New Zealand over the course of a year. The results showed that teachers included digital tools in their classroom practices to support their existing pedagogical practices, comply with school policies, communicate with parents and students, motivate and engage students, and prepare students for a digital world. As teachers’ knowledge of the affordances of digital technologies increased, they were able to integrate these tools in ways that aligned with their classroom objectives. School leadership and professional development played a key role in the methods through which teachers incorporated digital technologies. In addition, the perception of community members that these teachers were skilled technology users led to new roles and responsibilities within their school environments. This study showed that while some learners were experienced technology users, teachers’ assumptions of student abilities and/or engagement with these tools were sometimes inaccurate. Appropriate teacher scaffolding of student learning as well as teachers’ explicit expectations for the use of digital technologies combined to increase the success of learning activities within each classroom. The findings from this study illustrate the reality experienced by teacher participants when attempting to integrate digital tools into their teaching practices. The teachers were motivated to use digital technologies in their classrooms to support their students’ learning, and did so by gaining knowledge of the different tools available in their environments and reconfiguring the most effective ways to incorporate those within their classroom practices.