Abstract:

The issue of what is “new”, “emergent”, and “different” in current didactic practices has increasingly become a major theme for teachers’ and educators’ agenda (Brooks, 2010). In fact, within a few years the Information and Communication Technologies have become a structural part of our daily lives as well as school routines. Teachers are now more than ever responsible of addressing at which point students are and where they need to go. This can be achieved by gaining insights into students' needs and progress, choosing curricular activities and materials, governing rules that promote children's participation along with involvement of parents and communities (Duncan-Howell, 2010). The inclusion of new technologies in such network of relationships further complicates the paramount and introduces new challenges for all those who are interested on educational issues.

Among different subjects of interest, how to favor the inclusion of innovative technologies within the daily practices of a primary teacher is perhaps the most up-to-date. Then, not secondary, which is the impact of technology-adoption on both students achievements and teachers’ work? There is a real advantage in integrating brand new didactic tools in a more traditionally based teaching method?

The present study is aimed at studying the inclusion of a quite new software for teaching math to primary children along with its consequences on the process of teaching and learning. Cabrì Elem is a software devoted to support teachers in classroom lessons and its focus is on facilitate peer to peer interaction and teamwork. From a Grounded Theory perspective, researchers use an in-depth approach to explore teachers and students perspective by means of different source of data. By combining systematic observation and interviews with a sample of teachers and pupils that used the software, we triangulate data from multiple sources(i.e. structured observation, interviews and focus group) in order to increase the validity of the study. The sample (N= 87) is composed of in-service teachers (n= 27) and pupils (n= 60) from 16 schools of the Canton Ticino, Switzerland. Participants were recruited on-site and interviewed during their working time on voluntary base. Since the research started in October 2013 and will be concluded in September 2014, in this paper are only included the preliminary exploratory results of the study.

The preliminary results of using Cabrì Elem in classrooms are quite promising. The main results show that the pupils seem to become more independent as learners and they explored confidently the new software. From the teachers’ point of view, evidences underline that pupils increasingly work together, they were co-operative and more aware about their learning process. Direct observations supported such evidence: during its use Cabrì Elem facilitated a step by step approach to problem-solving strategies and seemed to promote cooperative learning with peers. From the point of view of teacher training, results suggested modeling, mentoring and supervision are crucial to promote software adoption and to reduce teachers’ resistance to technology. Finally, our empirical research aimed at gaining a more detailed “picture” of how teachers approach to and include a new didactic tool into their current routine. Hopefully, this might help the management and school-staff to identify a more specific set of factors that contribute to success when a new technology is adopted.

Keywords:

New technology at primary school, teaching mathematics, learning process, Cabrì Elem.