Investigating Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Technology Integration In Classroom Teaching And Their Beliefs About Teaching With Technology

With the emergence of new technologies and the arrival of AI era,more and more policymakers,educational researchers and school teachers have paid attention to educational reform based on technologies,and they also made effort in education informatization.Technology use also received much attention in mathematics education,thus,this study focused on Chinese secondary mathematics teachers’ teaching behavior of technology integration,their beliefs about teaching with technology and the relationships between them.Based on the theory of planned behavior(TPB),the researcher of this study established a model of mathematics teachers’ planned behavior of technology integration.On the one hand,the researcher designed the research instruments based on this model;on the other hand,she refined the model drawing on the process of instruments design.Data of this study mainly were collected from a questionnaire on secondary mathematics teachers’ teaching behavior of technology integration and a scale of secondary mathematics teachers’ beliefs about teaching with technology,which were developed by the researcher.The framework of the questionnaire on secondary mathematics teachers’ teaching behavior of technology integration was grounded in teachers’ classroom observation and follow-up interviews.The process of questionnaire also included item evaluation,pilot study,and minor revision.Meanwhile,a scale of secondary mathematics teachers’ beliefs about teaching with technology was developed based on TPB.After item evaluation,pilot study and discriminate analysis as well as exploratory factor analysis,a model of mathematics teachers’ beliefs about teaching with technology and corresponding scale were established.Finally,a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted according to the data of final study and then the final version of this scale was generated.Employing a randomly selected sample,127 Shanghai secondary mathematics teachers participated in this study,in which they completed a questionnaire on secondary mathematics teachers’ teaching behavior of technology integration and a scale of secondary mathematics teachers’ beliefs about teaching with technology.Results show that generally secondary teachers lack the experience of learning technology.The majority of teachers believed that they can integrate technology into their teaching reasonably,while most of them believed that they can integrate technology into their teaching flexibly and more than half of them believe that they can highly integrated technology into their teaching.They used Interactive White Board and courseware presentation software most frequently.Generally,they did not use mathematical software and hardware frequently.More specifically,among mathematics-related technologies,they used the Geometer’s Sketchpad most frequently and calculators less frequently.Regarding integrating technologies into different mathematical teaching activities,participants used technologies to present mathematical content most frequently and to conduct assessment least frequently.In most cases,teachers used dynamic geometry software,calculators,and statistics-based software for basic content presentations,and teachers and students used these technologies for mathematical inquiry-based activities much less frequently;students operated technology to conduct inquiry less frequently than teachers operated technology to guide students in their inquiry.At the same time,the results also indicated that teachers’ technology learning experiences played a more important role in their differences of integration of technology in mathematics classrooms,followed by school characteristics,and finally by teachers’ personal characteristics.Secondary mathematics teachers’ behavioral and normative beliefs about integrating technology received a higher score.In other words,teachers’ overall attitudes toward technology use and their attitudes toward technology use in different mathematical domains were positive.They believed that important persons and social norms had an impact on technology use.In comparison,they had a weaker self-efficacy for technology use and perceived inadequate conditions for technology support.In addition,the results revealed that teachers’ technology learning experiences played a more important role in their differences of beliefs about teaching with technology,followed by teachers’ personal characteristics,and finally,school characteristics.Results of regression analysis showed that participants’ beliefs about teaching with technology had a positive effect on their teaching behavior of technology integration.Except for teachers’ behavioral beliefs,which did not significantly affect their hardware and software use,teachers’ behavioral beliefs,normative beliefs,and control beliefs have significant positive effects on teachers’ general evaluation of integration technology,use of hardware and software,use of technology in different mathematics teaching activities,and use of technology at different levels.A mediation effect of teachers’ technology use intentions on the prediction of control beliefs on the general evaluation of integration technology and the use of technology in different mathematics teaching activities was statistically significant,and there was no significant mediation effect of other components of beliefs about teaching with technology on their behavior of technology integration through the mediator(i.e.,technology use intentions).