eMINTS National Center program evaluation for the eMINTS National Center and eMINTS National Center participants
Abstract
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] The goal of the eMINTS National Center's Comprehensive program is to help teachers learn how to use instructional practices that promote student engagement in inquiry, peer to peer collaboration, authentic tasks, and integrate technology. A qualitative case study was conducted with nine eMINTS teachers to explore the factors that influence change in instructional practices, the challenges encountered while changing instructional practices, and the ways in which teachers are supported, especially by administrators during an eMINTS Comprehensive program implementation. Data were collected through a self-reflection document, classroom observations, and interviews. Three themes emerged from the data: the journey, covering a lot of ground, and it takes a village. The journey explores teachers' progression, experiences, and reflections through the process of changing instructional practices. Covering a lot of ground provides an in-depth look into the major contextual factors involved in an eMINTS program implementation. And, it takes a village describes the ways in which the eMINTS teachers' learning and program implementation was influenced, especially by others. Overall, the teachers changed from using primarily traditional methods to primarily constructivist methods and increased their level of technology use. The teachers also described their peers, eMINTS Instructional Specialists, and administrators as key sources of support. Technology and content integration and lack of autonomy were noted as the teachers' greatest challenges.
Degree
Ph. D.
Thesis Department
Rights
Access is limited to the campuses of the University of Missouri.