http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num3/meskill/
This article was written by four authors Carla Meskill, Jonathan Mossop, Stephen DiAngelo, and Rosalie K. from PasqualeUniversity at Albany, State University of New York.
The authors talk about the differences on the use of computers between novices and experts teachers, and one transitional expert and what they think on do with this technology.
It was very unusual for me to find out that novice teachers can not really work with computers in classes. It is unusual for me because this category is the closest to me being a student of english pedagogy.
Interviews to eight teachers: two expert who were long-time teaching professionals (8-10 years) who had successfully integrated a technologies component into the everyday stream of their language and literacy instruction. Five novice who were pre-service teachers in a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) masters program leading to a permanent New York State teaching certificate. Through a local district's efforts, a small implementation grant had been acquired to support a newly conceived after school program for elementary school children who are English Language Learners (ELLs). Through collaboration with the University's masters program, the five were hired as instructors on the grant. All five had clinic class experiences with adult learners of English as a second language and one of the five had classroom teaching experience but at the college, not elementary level. Apart from having undertaken two or three observational visits to ESOL classrooms in the community, four of the five had neither worked in nor spent an extended period in an elementary school. One had completed a 10-week student teaching practicum in the same district as the after school program and knew several of the participating children. All five had completed the bulk of their coursework which included a 3-credit, semester-long course in using instructional technologies for language teaching. And one transitional expert who is an ESOL teacher with 27 years of classroom experience. The interviews served to illustrate the differences about technology that these teachers adapted in their classes and what did they think about it. Several of them wrote journals and the interviews were taped so we can see what they really thought about teaching with this type of tool.
The article follows a novice-expert continua that emerged from the talk and writing of these three groups that was used to frame, present, and point to practical training application of the contrasts between each other.
The Continua:
Locus: Machine/Learners
(Locus: A center or focus of great activity or intense concentration)
On this point novice teachers felt that the computer was a little bit unuseful when they did not what to do with it, for example Novice 2 commented that:
One of the computers refused to indent, then two more refused to let the students type!
Instead of doing something about it, they frooze and blame it to the computer for not carrying on with their plans, they also thought to much about themselves instead of the students:
I let them spend the remaining time on the Arthur1 program It was not like they are just playing games, they still learn using this software. (Novice 4)
Once I felt their attention begin to waiver, I placed them on the computer, which they were happy to do. (Novice 3)
They are not thinkig about the students, they think about the commands that they give to the students and what they are telling them to do, they are not thinking about students' autonomy.
The experts' comments and thoughts were different. They though about the learners not the computer, the experts think that the computer is only a tool for learning and think about what the student learns and how can they work all together:
We did a lot with [emphasis added] the computer with making posters and writing thank you notes and that type of thing. (Expert 2)
Where they can select, they can take a risk. . .It was almost as if that arrow moved from left to right, the words would come right out. (Expert 1)
It's a wonderful tool. (Transitional Expert)
Focus: Self/Student Learning
On this point it is importanta to differentiate novice teachers who typically focus on themselves as teachers and experte teachers who focus on student learning.
Novices:
I began the lesson…I had them read their work again…I allowed one student to print out her work…I went to the computer…I printed out the sentences…I let them play with the Arthur software. (Novice 5)
I began using Microsoft Power Point. I used it to create story prompts. I would choose a picture… (Novice 4)
Experts:
He would be using the visual cue and another time perhaps I could take it a step further and cover up the animation and have him just look at the sentence from those phrases he chooses. (Expert 1)
I can click on multiplication or division and it's a fun way for him to actually do that math and let me see what he can do rather than just giving him a test. (Expert 2)
There is a huge difference between the novice and experts that I think it will be coming closer when the time passes, when novice think about their students instead of themselves and know what to do when the computer is not working correctly, only time can help or maybe to participate on an expert class and see the differences between each other.
Practice: Managing/Empowering
Really time is of great help when managing a class. For the new teachers it can be overwhelming and I can really rely on this beacuse I get really nervous when thinking on the work that I will be doing in 2 years more, giving a class it is a big deal.
When using a computer in class can be really distracting for some of the students, novice think that:
I really cannot leave them at the computers alone for a second because they begin erasing programs, banging the keyboard or pounding on the mouse. (Novice 1)
I had to constantly be watching them. Turning away from them for only a moment normally prompted them to start "playing" with the computer, attempting to drag programs off the desktop or even delete them into the Trash. (Novice 5)
This happens beacuse novice teachers have the whole class plan and they do not have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. Experience teachers know what to do when plan A does not work. The transitional expert, who has worked with student teachers in her classroom for many years, put it nicely:
[New teachers] will prepare a lesson, whether it be for using the computers, using whatever, if it doesn't work they kind of fall apart over it. Experienced teachers will go, well OK, and this happens to me all the time, the computers don't work for some reason, well I have lots of other activities I can pull out just like that [snaps fingers], to do with the kids. Why? Because I've done it 27 years. I just know what every book contains in the room. I just know what the material is and I know what works and what doesn't.
A recent study reported in Education Week indicates that where experienced teachers carefully integrate technologies to complement and enhance existing curricula, novice teachers use computers as a means of reward and punishment.
Novice use computers as a punisher and a rewarder device instead experienced teachers see it as an additional opportunity to teach, rather than to punish.
Emphasis: Product/Process
For the novices, what appears to matter most when learners use computers is what gets done -- some product is anticipated. For the expert teachers, what counts most, what gets emphasized in tasks and their management, is the learning that gets engaged in -- the learning process.
For novices the most important thing is that students produce. Students sitting in front of a computer is enough for them. The three groups do think that this technology is very motivating for students but for experts the teacher also plays an important role.
Part and parcel of an emphasis on process is an educator's ability to notice what is important in the learning processes and to act on it in ways that support and enhance the learning (Berliner, 1988). Where novice teachers appeared more occupied by the machine, their own teaching, class management, and products, the experts were highly attuned to what it was learners were doing and were proactive in responding to teachable moments as they continually arose:
That was amazing to see the conversation that took place between the kids you know…once we got the right formula...and they really, really worked. (Transitional Expert)
We can see that experts know what to do with a computer in class, because for them it is only a tool and they see themselves as guides to their students instead of just leaving them to produce things in front of a computer. For novice it is more difficult to process the idea of having a computer in class, they are also dealing with the nervousness of being new teachers and not having the expertise of dictating a class, managing students and incorporating new technology on the curriculum. Experts trust more on the students than novice do and they can manage their students a lot more confident that begginers do.
Computers are motivating but teachers should know how to incorporate them on the learning/teaching process of their classes.
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