Factors that influence science teachers’ selection and usage of technologies in high school science classrooms

This study contributed to our understanding of those factors that serve as predictors of science teachers’ selection and use of technologies and more specifically, how selection and usage was realized among teachers of different science disciplines. Notable descriptive statistics were examined, and we tested an explanatory model of how demographics, school context, pedagogical approaches and professional development (PD) influenced the likelihood of a teacher using a tool via a multilevel cross-classification-ordered logit analysis (Goldstein 1995). The findings revealed that science teachers were more likely to use hardware than software; more specifically, this included instructional tools (i.e., SMARTboards, clickers) and laboratory tools (probeware). Differences in teachers’ use of tools were largely due to differences in tools as opposed to differences in teacher characteristics. Use of a tool was more likely by teachers who taught physics, who taught via inquiry, or who had more PD with a tool. These findings have implications for how we conceptualize selection and usage of technologies that enter the science education pipeline; which tools become sustainable in the science classroom and how technological take-up differs across science disciplines. Copyright © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York.