Abstract:

Theoreticians as well as practitioners are constantly engaged in the improvement of learning and instruction (Stigler & Hiebert, 2009), especially with reference to enhancement of students' learning within technological environments (Nachmias, Mioduser & Forkosh-Baruch, 2008). The qualitative study presented hereafter is a result of a partnership between a college of education and a fully technological paperless high-school where pre-service teachers who study at the college experience teaching. The aim of the study was to explore the meaning of new pedagogy from the perspectives of fourteen participants in the partnership: college lecturers and researchers, position holders and teachers within the high-school, pre-service teachers and high-school students of the ninth grade. The outline of the study involved an integration of qualitative research paradigms (e.g. phenomenology) and data collection instruments (Creswell, 2013).

Research procedure included five meetings that were recorded and transcribed, in which all 14 participants were involved in a simulation of innovative practices and consequently a discussion. In each of the five meetings one of the participants (altogether, one researcher, three teachers, and one high-school student) presented a lesson or activity that he or she had experienced previously in the day-to-day school practice and had considered as a representation of new pedagogy in a 21st century technology-savvy context. Participants experienced the simulation of the lesson and then discussed the meaning of new pedagogy in the simulation. Data analysis involved direct content analysis of the transcripts (Shannon & Hsieh, 2005), and was performed by four of the participants. Among the results are facets of new pedagogy such as collaboration, access to online information and being immersed in active construction of knowledge through discussions and projects. These facets are strongly related to constructivist elements in learning and instruction such as the Vygotskian socio-cultural perspective and Dewey's experiential learning perspective, which attain additional meaning in a technology-savvy educational environment.

References:
[1] Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (pp. 22-41, 179-212). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
[2] Hsieh, H.F. & Shannon, S.E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288.
[3] Nachmias, R., Mioduser, D., & Forkosh-Baruch, A. (2008). Innovative pedagogical practices using technology: The curriculum perspective. In J. Knezek, & J. Voogt, (eds.). International handbook of information technology in education (pp. 163-180). NY:Springer.
[4] Stigler, J. W., & Hiebert, J. (2009). The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world's teachers for improving education in the classroom (pp. 129-180). New York, NY: Free Press.

Keywords:

New Pedagogy, Paperless school.