Teachers’Attitudes and Use of Multimedia Technology in the Classroom: Constructivist-Based Professional Development Training for School Districts

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to design and evaluate the effectiveness of a constructivist-based inservice professional development model for schools as they are becoming more responsible for modifying the curriculum and providing teachers inservice training. The sample included 73 K–3 teachers from a rural school district involved in integrating the use of computers into an already existing reading program, as opposed to introducing a new curriculum. The study focused on three variables: skills from previous workshop experiences, teachers’ attitudes toward the use of computers as instructional tools, and teachers’ perceived and actual computer use in the classroom. The findings indicated that regardless of previous workshop experience, the constructivist-based, ongoing training strategies designed and implemented in the existing curriculum helped teachers develop more positive attitudes toward using computers, increased their planned future use of the computer applications in their classroom, ...