Teachers learning to use the iPad in Scotland and Wales: a new model of professional development

Beauchamp, Gary; Burden, Kevin; Abbinett, Emily

Abstract

In learning to use a new technology like the iPad, primary teachers adopt a diverse range of experiential, informal and playful strategies contrasting sharply with traditional models underpinning professional development which emphasise formal courses and events led by ‘experts’ conducted in formal settings such as the school. Since post-PC devices like the iPad have been linked with transformational educational learning, there is an imperative to better understand how teachers can be encouraged to use them more effectively. Despite their growing popularity in schools, there is little research to indicate how and under what circumstances teachers learn to integrate these technologies into their daily practices. This paper uses data collected from two national studies of iPad use in Scotland and Wales to propose a new model of professional development. This model reflects findings that the teachers reject traditional models of sequential, or staged, professional development (often led by external providers or ‘experts’), in favour of a more nuanced and fluid model where they learn at their own pace, in a largely experiential fashion, alongside their pupils in a relationship which reverses the traditional power nexus. The model has the potential to inform professional development for both trainee and serving teachers in learning to use the iPad in the primary classroom.

Citation

Beauchamp, G., Burden, K., & Abbinett, E. (2015). Teachers learning to use the iPad in Scotland and Wales: a new model of professional development. Journal of education for teaching : JET, 41(2), 161-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2015.1013370

• Acceptance Date: Jan 23, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Feb 25, 2015
• Publication Date: Mar 15, 2015
• Deposit Date: Sep 21, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 21, 2016
• Journal: Journal of education for teaching
• Print ISSN: 0260-7476
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-0540
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 161-179
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2015.1013370
• Keywords: iPads; Professional development model; Mobile learning
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/443243
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00366-016-0460-3
• Additional Information: This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published in: Journal of education for teaching, 2015, v.41 issue 2.