Licwinko, K. N. (2022). Co-teach tech: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study of special education co-teachers integrating technology into their practice (Publication No. 30245700) [Doctoral dissertation, New Jersey City University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Abstract:

“This explanatory sequential mixed methods study aimed to examine the current technology integration attitudes and practices of special education co-teachers. The participants were current special education teachers from United States K-12 public school districts and worked as a co-teacher for part of their daily schedule. These participants completed an initial survey, which asked them to rate their attitudes toward specific technology integration statements and the frequency in which they use specific instructional and assistive technologies and technology-enriched activities during a typical week. There were 300 special educator participants within this part of the study. This phase of the study revealed that special education teachers showed the highest agreement levels with statements related to their comfort with technology and the benefits of using these tools with students with disabilities. Additionally, on average, participants used instructional technologies more frequently than assistive technologies. The extreme cases, or outliers, were selected for an interview based on the average amount of times they integrated technology into their classroom. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants to discuss their current lived experiences of bringing technology into their inclusion classes. The interviews and additional qualitative data from the optional open-ended questions of the survey led to three themes, which connected to the technological knowledge bases of the TPACK framework: (a) technology integration within co-teacher responsibilities, (b) barriers to using technology as a co-teacher, and (c) supporting students with technology. A joint display was created to show how the qualitative results explain the quantitative data. This analysis led to four conclusions about special education co-teachers, including that they (a) are seeking additional learning opportunities about technology, (b) need to have discussions with their partner about technology procedures to avoid issues, (c) plan asynchronously using collaborative documents with their co-teachers, and (d) tend to focus on pedagogy within technology integration, especially focusing on supporting the needs of students.”