Dwyer et al (1990a) put forward a five-phase model of teacher development in high-tech classrooms, based on the ACOT (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow) research. This model looks at the development of teachers' beliefs and practices. The five stages are:

• Entry - Traditional schooling, based on didactic models of teaching and 'knowledge transimission' firmly in place.
• Adoption - use of new technology to support traditional model of didactic teaching.
• Adaptation - Increasing student productivity (learning faster and producing more) allowing more time for teachers to engage students in 'higher-order learning objectives' (Dwyer et al 1990a p6)
• Appropriation - roles shift noticeably and new instructional patterns emerge - from teacher to facilitator - from didactic to constructivist.
• Invention - purposeful radical change in 'classroom' practices.

The framework as a whole
This model is based on observation of the 'stages of development' that ACOT teachers went through during the first four years of that project. It ties in closely with the Teachers' concerns model reported by Sandholtz et al (1990). A range of data were analysed, including: personal reports from teachers; weekly site reports; classroom observations; interviews with students, parents, and teachers; and cross-site assessment data supplemented by additional measures. This data was organised into around 13,000 learning/teaching episodes, which were analysed to look for changing patterns of teachers' practices and beliefs. It is from this that the five-phase model of teacher development emerged.

Entry
Traditional forms of teaching were firmly in place - including the use of a range of 'text-based' technologies (eg textbooks, blackboards) to support 'lecture, recitation, and seat-work' (Dwyer et al 1990a p4).

Adoption
During this phase teachers' moved away from worrying about how to connect up and operate the technology and towards thinking about how to use it in their teaching. The technology was used "to support text-based drill-and-practice instruction. Students continued to recieve steady diets of whole-group lectures and recitation and individualized seatwork." (Dwyer et al 1990a p5).

During this phase students attendance levels increased, and thier self-esteem and motivation were 'strong'. The levels of discipline problems reported were low. Students' performance on traditional measures of achievement did not alter on average, although teachers reported that individual pupils performed better.

Adaptation
During this phase students worked faster - productivity went up. For example, it was reported that children completed the entire maths sylabus in 60% of the time, while their scores remained similar with previous years. The quantity and quality of their writing also increased significantly. There were two impacts of this increased productivity on the teachers:

"The extra time led to increased opportunities for teachers to engage students in higher-order learning objectives and problem solving in math."

"outpouring of text overwhelmed ACOT's teachers and led to the need for new strategies for instruction, feedback, and evaluation."  
                                                 (Dwyer et al 1990a p6)

During this phase student engagement with schoolwork increased.

Appropriation
The transition to this phase was dependent upon the level of teachers' personal 'mastery' of the technology.

"Appropriation is the point at which an individual comes to understand technology and use it effortlessly as a tool to acomplish real work."
                                                 (Dwyer et al 1990a p6)

Key changes in this phase included major shifts in roles within the classrooms, accompanied by moves towards team teaching, interdisciplinary project-based work and individually paced instruction. The teachers began to recognise and value the students' expertise and noticed that the students themselves started to move towards more collaborative ways of working. The teachers started to make greater use of students to teach each other, and at the same time the teachers' role changed moved towards "becoming facilitators rather than dispensers of knowledge." (Dwyer et al 1990a p7).

Another key charactieristic of this phase "was an increasing tendancy of ACOT's teachers to reflect on teaching, to question old patterns, to speculate about the causes behing changes they were seeing in their students." (Dwyer et al 1990a p8).

Invention
This phase was not reached within the ACOT work that is reported by Dwyer et al (1990), but they identify that their teachers were beginning to be ready to think about purposeful educational change. The invention phase is thus "a placeholder for further development" (Dwyer et al 1990a p8).

This model is based on the ACOT research, who's primary "goal is to fundamentally change teaching and learning." (Dwyer et al 1990a p1) and which had "a decided bias towards a constructivist view of learning and began actively educating and encouraging teachers to implement knowledge construction in their classrooms." (Dwyer et al 1990a p2). Thus the model has underpinning it clear views of 'good practice' - and moving from Entry to Invention is seen as progress (ie improvement). Thus the framework is value laden in the sense that certain forms of classroom practice are seen as being of higher quality than others. This might be encapsulated in a notion of moving away from didactic/behaviourist models to student centred/constructivist ones.

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Last updated 7th January 2002