Variability of teachers' technology integration in the classroom: A matter of utility!

Technology integration in the classroom is seen as an important educational innovation to enhance teaching and learning processes in the 21st century. Teacher motivation has been seen as a critical prerequisite for successful technology integration in the classroom, particularly in early phases of educational innovation. However, whether teacher motivation is a stable versus variable construct in such innovation contexts and how teacher motivation is decisive for effective technology integration are open issues. Most previous studies relied on cross-sectional studies and were restricted to quantity measures which only investigated the mere usage of technology but not the quality of technology integration. Against this background, we implemented a web-based teacher diary for in-service teachers (N = 18) in the beginning of a government initiative in which classes were equipped with one-to-one technological infrastructure. By using a mixed method approach, we found considerable variability of teacher motivation, frequency, and quality of technology integration across lessons over a period of six weeks. More importantly, the variability of the quality of technology integration was explained by teachers' technology-related utility beliefs, as a crucial facet of technology integration and specific factors within the different instructional contexts. The findings highlight the role of teacher motivation as well as the particular context in technological educational innovations.

Automated summary

The study found that teacher motivation is crucial for successful technology integration in the early stages of educational innovation. The quality of technology integration is largely determined by teachers' technology-related utility beliefs.