(Provided by National Chair Professor Chin-Chung Tsai and his team from the School of Learning Informatics)

Mobile learning has been widely adopted in education in the past decades, and a great deal of previous research has revealed the effects of mobile learning on students' learning. However, few studies have probed teachers' conceptions of mobile technology-integrated instruction. In this study, a total of 25 elementary school teachers in Taiwan were interviewed, and the phenomenographic method was adopted to explore the teachers' conceptions of mobile learning with seven qualitatively and hierarchically different categories (7-T) of mobile learning, namely a “Tool,” “Travel,” “Timeliness/Tutor,” a “Toy,” “Tracking,” “Teamwork,” and a “Tutee.” These categories represent a progression from teacher-centered to teacher-student interaction, and ultimately to student-centered teaching strategies. The findings of this study can provide educational practitioners and teachers with a profound understanding of integrating technology into student learning, serving as a reference for designing student-centered learning activities.

Previous studies have revealed the potential interplay between conceptions of teaching and approaches to teaching, and the significant influences of conceptions of teaching on students' learning achievements. The advancement of technology has reshaped traditional teaching methods, leading to the emergence of new instructional approaches with the proliferation of emerging technological tools. Simultaneously, teacher-centered pedagogical approaches are considered inadequate to meet the rapidly evolving knowledge demands. Consequently, student-centered instructional methods and environments have gained increasing attention. Thus, this study posits that investigating teachers' pedagogical beliefs regarding advanced technology will help clarify and provide appropriate instructional environments.

Mobile learning has been widely adopted in education in the past decades (Figure 1), but the conceptions of integrating mobile technology into teaching has received relatively less exploration. In this study, a total of 25 elementary school teachers in Taiwan were interviewed, and the phenomenographic method was adopted to explore the teachers' conceptions of mobile learning. This study revealed seven qualitatively and hierarchically different categories (7-T) of mobile learning expressed by the teachers, namely a “Tool,” “Travel,” “Timeliness/Tutor,” a “Toy,” “Tracking,” “Teamwork,” and a “Tutee.” These categories represent a progression from teacher-centered to teacher-student interaction, and ultimately to student-centered instructional strategies. Among the seven categories, four (i.e., Toy, Tracking, Teamwork, and Tutee) are considered student-centered instructional strategies, and the “Tracking” category had the maximum frequency of teachers’ main conceptions of mobile learning. Thus, mobile technology, if used properly, offers opportunities to facilitate student-centered learning. The results provide educators and teachers with a deep comprehension of advanced technology-enhanced learning for designing student-centered learning activities. 

Figure 1: Mobile learning has been widely adopted in education (source: Unsplash)
 

Source: Chen, C-H., & Tsai, C-C. (2021). In-service teachers' conceptions of mobile technology-integrated instruction: Tendency towards student-centered learning. Computers and Education, 170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104224