Teacher support for digital text production in middle school: A collaborative design
Submitted by:
Kristian B Kjellström
Abstract:
Abstract:
Teachers in Swedish middle schools often juggle diverse classrooms, ever-changing digital infrastructure and improving students’ literacy at the same time. This requires the teacher to possess competencies that integrate pedagogical, subject-specific, and digital knowledge and skills. The present study explores a middle school teacher’s competencies related to supporting students in digital text production during assessment situations.
This study is the final part of a larger design project, using Educational Design Research (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). The empirical material was collected during three separate assessment-occasions. Following the first occasion, the teacher reported experiencing difficulties supporting students in using the digital tools available, related to a change in the digital platform for testing. In response to this, the teacher and researcher collaboratively created a re-design of the test-situation which was applied and evaluated during the two subsequent assessment-occasions. The re-design included, among other elements, a multimodal scaffolding structure that students could use independently of the teacher to be supported in their technical skills. The data consists of transcribed interviews, observational field notes, photographs, classroom material and student texts produced during the assessment-occasions. The material is analysed using a modified version of the framework Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge, TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006, 2009), adding teachers contextualised knowledge and knowledge of context (Brianza et al., 2022, 2024).
The material is still being analysed, but interviews and observations indicate that the collaborative re-design improved the test-situation, making it possible for the teacher to offer additional support to students. While the students where not observed to actively use the scaffolding structure the teacher-student dialogue concerning the technical aspects seems to have improved the digital test-situation, leaving the teacher more time to offer support students on a pedagogical and content level. As the empirical data and analysis are still being processed, for this symposium, excerpts of data and analysis will be presented and discussed in relation to the theoretical framework and the theme of the symposium.
References
Brianza, E., Schmid, M., Tondeur, J., & Petko, D. (2022). Situating TPACK: A Systematic Literature Review of Context as a Domain of Knowledge. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 22(4), 707–753.
Brianza, E., Schmid, M., Tondeur, J., & Petko, D. (2024). Is contextual knowledge a key component of expertise for teaching with technology? A systematic literature review. Computers and Education Open, 7, 100201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2024.100201
Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (Vol. 9, Issue 1). http://www.tpck.org/.
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2019). Conducting Educational Design Research (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x
Bio:
Kristian B. Kjellström is a PhD-student in Pedagogical work at Kristianstad University in Sweden. Kristian is an also certified teacher of Swedish L1 and English L2. His research revolves around teachers’ work and competencies in using digital tools in inclusive literacy environments. The research is practise oriented and involves how teachers realise support and scaffolding for reading- and writing activities in a full-class teaching context.