The lived experience of elementary school teachers implementing learning object based instruction: A phenomenological study

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Bilgisayar ve Öğretim Teknolojileri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: KÜRŞAT ARSLAN

Danışman: İBRAHİM SONER YILDIRIM

Özet:

Access to technology and availability of it for today’s classrooms provides teachers the ability to modify their teaching content by updating and making small changes in their lesson plans to facilitate learning, to motivate students, and to increase their achievement. This qualitative phenomenological study explored attitudes, perceptions, and lived experiences of nine elementary school teachers about learning objects and its implementation into their educational environment. The main purpose of this study was to investigate (a) teachers’ perceptions, as instructional leaders of the school, (b) teacher definitions and applications of learning object based instruction, and (c) opportunities and problems of the implementation process. For this study, data was collected using (a) semi structured interviews, (b) field observation reports, and (c) photos and data were analyzed using Giorgi’s (1997) method of descriptive phenomenology under four stages: data coding, developing themes, organizing codes and themes, and describing findings. Findings of the study showed that while almost all of the teachers have a positive attitude and impression towards learning object and learning object-based instruction, they indicate a few difficulties for teachers and students in implementation of learning objects, such as time, workload, and training. The results also indicated that most of the teachers did not have a clear understanding of the term “learning object” as it is stated in the literature. Teachers identified heavy curriculum, quality of learning objects, classroom physical environment, and lack of in-service training and technical support as obstacles and administrative support, peer support, and positive outlook as opportunities while the implementing the approach.