Teachers in school-based technology innovations: A typology of their beliefs on teaching and technology

Abstract

In many innovations in technology and education in secondary schools, teachers are the crucial agents of these innovations. To select, match and support groups of teachers for particular school projects, school principals could be supported with insights into teachers’ beliefs about teaching, learning and technology. A teacher typology has been developed based on an online questionnaire completed by 1602 teachers from 59 Dutch secondary schools. Teachers are grouped on the basis of their beliefs about learned-centered teaching and attitudes towards technology, which underlie the school innovations that form the context of the current research. Five teacher types are distinguished: 1) Learner-centered teachers with technology, 2) Teachers critical of technology use in school, 3) Teachers uncomfortable with technology, 4) Teachers uneasy with learned-centered teaching and 5) Teachers critical of a clear-cut stance. This classification of teachers into these five types could be used to select or match the right group of teachers to a particular intervention or to organize different professional development activities for different types of school teachers.