A Sociocultural Approach to Learning to Teach with Technology: Reflections on Pre-service Teachers' Field Experiences

ABSTRACT: One cannot fully understand the nature of learning to teach through a cognitive approach. Teacher educators should support the development of attitudes, beliefs, and identities of pre-service teachers as well as their knowledge and skills related to teaching with technology. Therefore, this study embraces communities of practice framework which has been widely used in teacher education research to explain social aspects of learning to teach. The participants are fifteen senior pre-service mathematics teachers enrolled in a four-year teacher preparation program in a state university in Turkey. Pre-service teachers participated in "legitimate peripheral participation" activities in order to encourage them, as novice teachers, to take responsibility and interact with experienced teachers for successful technology integration. Participants conducted workshops on technology-enhanced mathematics teaching in two different upper-secondary schools. A total of ten mathematics teachers participated in the workshops. Data sources are videos of workshops conducted by pre-service teachers and focused group interviews with pre-service teachers. Content analysis of verbatim transcripts indicated important issues regarding the social and cultural aspects of technology integration. This presentation will propose implications for pre-service teacher education in general and mathematics teacher education in particular. KEYWORDS: sociocultural approach, pre-service teacher education, field experience, communities of practice, technology integratio