| The purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate how teachers implement an innovation cluster that includes an emerging technology and a unit design framework. Using a multiple case study method, the researcher collected and analyzed data to understand and describe, from their perspectives, how the teachers designed the unit and issues that arose as they implemented the unit over a period of four weeks. Data were collected both (1) on-site, including initial and follow-up interviews, and (2) online, including phone and chatroom transcripts, journals, and work documents. The study focused on four eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) teachers who work with students in 4th and 5th grades in four different schools in Missouri.; With activity theory (AT) as a framework for analysis, the researcher coded data using a structure based on the nodes of the AT model. The researcher identified teachers' responses to contradictions as turning points, which were further defined as resulting in a change in the implementation of the innovation. The study emphasized three issues: participation in collaborative forums, factors in school environment, and beliefs about learning and technology.; In terms of participation in collaborative forums, the researcher identified five contradictions. Teachers who resolved contradictions characterized their school as having little or no prior experiences or opportunities for collaboration. In terms of factors in the school environment, the researcher identified five contradictions. A key factor in resolving these contradictions was the teachers' ability to identify and use local resources to meet their goals for the innovation cluster. In terms of beliefs about learning and technology, the researcher identified four contradictions. The teachers who did not overcome these contradictions lowered their expectations for what students could do in the unit despite the teachers' initial motive for developing problem-solving skills.; Activity theory provided a useful framework for analyzing complex human activity as it unfolded over time. A model of object transformation, as presented in this study, helps a researcher represent the historical development of an innovation. This model also provides a researcher with means to identify not only what contradictions arise as a teacher assimilates an innovation into an existing practice but also when those contradictions arise, when and how the teacher responds to those contradictions, and how that response leads to transformation. |
