White, Laura; (2024) 'Flipping iPads!': A pragmatic, reflexive case study exploring the effects of a series of iPad-mediated, screen and audio recordings and reflections on the classroom digital learning practices, processes, and perceptions of teachers. Doctoral thesis (Ed.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

As education technology (EdTech) becomes an established part of classroom practice in the UK, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers face significant challenges in understanding both what good teaching with technology might look like, and how teachers’ practice in these digitally blended classrooms can be developed. In such classrooms, where each student has an EdTech device, a new problem of practice emerges as teachers’, observers’ and researchers’ points of view and understandings of practice may be obscured by the classroom technology. There is, therefore, an urgent need to establish practical mechanisms for understanding and developing classroom practice with EdTech which can overcome this challenge. The naming of this study originates from a frustrated teacher’s outburst about the difficulties for practice which the ‘flipping iPads!’ present. It also reflects the methodology, of ‘flipping’ the iPads, using them to capture a representation of practice which forms the support for a reflexive developmental process for the teachers. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of a series of these ‘record and reflect’ processes on the practice of teachers in digitally blended classrooms, where children are learning both on paper and on digital devices. This study is the capstone of an EdD process, within which two small studies piloted and developed a novel method, D-SRR (Digitally Stimulated Recall and Reflection) ​(White, 2018, 2020)​. In D-SRR the teacher uses their iPad to capture a recording of student device screens and classroom audio during classroom learning. This capture is then used as the basis for teacher reflection in a post-lesson interview. This new study explores ‘Extended D-SRR’, embedding D-SRR into a structured cycle of reflexive inquiry for each participant to explore how, and in what ways, this process might support teachers to understand and develop their practice in these digitally blended classrooms. The participants in the study are six secondary school teachers in one English school. Over a nine-month timeline, each teacher participated in an introductory interview, three ‘record and reflect’ interviews, and answered concluding questions. Transcripts of these interviews form the study’s data. Reflexive thematic analysis of these transcripts explores how, and in what ways, participating in this process might be positively shaping and influencing their classroom practice with EdTech. Developments to practice are seen in all participants. This suggests that Extended D-SRR has positive applications for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers seeking to understand and develop teachers’ practice in digitally blended classrooms.

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