Coaching teachers to integrate technology: The effects of technology integration on student performance and critical thinking

Abstract

This article presents the results of a mixed-methods study that investigated effects of coaching
fifth grade teachers to integrate technology while teaching a science unit. The purpose of the research
was to capture how technology integration with or without coaching in a science unit effect teachers’
technology integration practices and their instruction, and its results of the instruction on student
outcomes and student critical thinking. The participants were 132 fifth-grade students and four teachers
in elementary public school. The study used an experimental research design by having a control and
research group (68 students were in the teachers’ classrooms that were using technology without
coaching intervention, and 64 were in the other teachers’ classrooms, with coaching intervention to
integrate available technologies). Data were collected through classroom observations, tests and semistructured interviews. The results showed that coached teachers integrated technology more frequently,
more purposefully and more diversely. Additionally, the results indicated that the teachers who were
coached for technology integration had a positive effect on student performance, and the observance of
students critical thinking behaviors were more frequent in the classroom compared to the no-coaching
group of teachers’ classroom.