A Remote View into the Classroom: Analyzing Teacher Use of Digitally Enhanced Educative Curriculum Materials in Support of Student Learning

ABSTRACT

When integrated into online curriculum modules for students, educative curriculum materials (ECMs) can enhance teachers’ enactment of these modules. This study investigated (1) the use of digitally enhanced ECMs built into an online plate tectonics curriculum module by teachers with different backgrounds and teaching experience, (2) the relationship between teachers’ use of ECMs and student learning gains, and (3) teacher reflections on the value of the ECMs they used. We studied 26 teachers who taught middle and high school students (n = 1,098) by analyzing teacher log files automatically generated by the ECMs, teacher reflections collected with post-implementation surveys and interviews, student log files, and student learning gains from pretest to posttest. Results indicate that (1) there were large variations in the amounts and types of ECM features teachers accessed, (2) middle school teachers accessed significantly more ECM features than high school teachers p < .01, (3) students of teachers who used ECMs during class time made significantly higher learning gains than students of teachers who used them only before and/or between class time, p < .05, and (4) teachers most valued ECM features on student assessment. An overall non-significant, but positive, correlation between the total teacher interactions with ECMs and student learning gains was observed, r = 0.20, p = .32.

KEYWORDS:

• Educative curriculum materials
• log analysis
• plate tectonics
• remote data collection
• teacher training

Acknowledgments

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We would like to thank our partners at Pennsylvania State University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Human subjects approval

The research done in this study was approved by Ethical & Independent Review Services (approval number 18202-02). Signed consent was obtained as directed by the IRB.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1621176].