lee-2009tic

This study of Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) reports on how secondary school science and math teachers learn to implement TEFA pedagogy using classroom response system technology, and identifies factors that impede implementation. We found that teachers struggled with both extrinsic factors, which are characteristics of the teacher's context that hinder them from implementing the technology and pedagogy, and intrinsic factors, which are characteristics of the teacher that impede implementation. The major extrinsic factors that we found are technology malfunctions, limitations, and availability of support; time and curriculum pressure; student attitudes and abilities; and characteristics of the TEFA professional development program. We found intrinsic factors of two separate types. The first type consists of gaps in teachers' knowledge and skills needed to operate the technology, develop TEFA questions, integrate TEFA into curriculum, orchestrate classroom discussion, and practice formative assessment. The second type consists of teachers' perspectives, beliefs, philosophy, attitudes, fears, doubts, uncertainties, background and experiences, which we collectively refer to as "ways of being a teacher."