Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 31 Number 4

Edited by Diane McGrath, Kansas State University

formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education

Correlates with Use of
Telecomputing Tools:
K–12 Teachers’
Beliefs and Demographics  

Judith B. Harris
University of Texas at Austin

Neal Grandgenett
University of Nebraska at Omaha

Abstract

What can be determined about the demographic characteristics, beliefs about teaching, degrees of innovativeness, and world views of classroom teachers and specialists who use Internet-based telecomputing tools? This study correlated data representing a year of online use with responses to questionnaire items about teacher beliefs and demographics for 558 respondents from a sample of 1,000 randomly selected Internet account holders on TENET, the statewide K–12 educational telecomputing network in Texas. Results showed significant correlations among beliefs about teaching, personal perceptions of innovativeness, and world views; respondents who were more student-centered in their beliefs about teaching perceived themselves to be more innovative and tended to see the world in a more social constructivist way than respondents with more traditional beliefs about teaching. Yet no strong significant correlations between telecomputing activity and beliefs or demographic information were found. In the case of this study, the absence of significant relationships was even more informative than the correlations detected, and it leads us to recommend further study to see if these patterns can be confirmed, so that they can be acted upon.

Contributors

Judith Harris is an associate professor in curriculum and instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching graduate-level courses in both instructional technology and nonpositivistic research methods. She directs the Electronic Emissary (http://www.tapr.org/emissary/), a telementoring project for K–12 students and teachers. Dr. Harris’ service and research focus upon K–12 curriculum-based telecollaboration and teleresearch and professional development for educators in telecomputing. Neal Grandgenett is a full professor of mathematics education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Department of Teacher Education. His research and publication interests include teacher characteristics related to telecomputing and the support of mathematical reasoning through technology-based activities. He is currently directing several grant-funded projects that are examining use of the Internet in K–12 schools in Nebraska. (Address: Dr. Judith B. Harris, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, 406 Sanchez Building, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1294; jbharris@tenet.edu.)

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