Abstract:

The Turkish government has made a special investment in education, "the Movement to Enhance and Improve Opportunities", with the goal of creating a 'Smart Class' environment by equipping all the classrooms with the latest technologies (MoNE, 2012). However, Pamuk et.al (2013) indicated that 72% of the teachers, during the pilot stage, use tablet PCs mostly for simply accessing e-school applications and e-books while 82% of the students used only for accessing e-books.

Therefore, this study (still in progress) aimed to prepare a new expanded way to the project by proposing an eighth grade lesson structure, based on the classroom use of TEFA (Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment). And, I aim to discuss the methodological perspective of this study in the conference. I have organized a TEFA process based on the components Stull et.al (2011) defined: (i) Constructing the lesson and assessments based on students’ pre-knowledge, (ii) presenting the lesson, (iii) administering the assessment, (iv) considering the assessment results with students, (v) dialoguing with the students and enabling them to adjust their learning styles, and (vi) adjusting the teaching. When following this process, I also included the three questioning types that Beatty and Gerace (2009) stated within that process: Assess prior knowledge, provoke thinking, and exit poll that were inserted respectively before step (i), between the (ii) and (iii), and (iv) and (v).

I schemed the methodological evaluation process for redesigning the lesson structure, by the help of Shirley and Irving's (2015) study that is related to the technology affiliation of formative assessment, as in the following: I will conduct two interview sessions with four to six eighth grade teachers, participating in the FATIH project, based on a structured interview protocol. First interviews (for the determination of effectiveness of the TEFA in use, especially comparing with the traditional formative assessment ways) and follow-up interviews (to reveal the changes in the students’ success in teachers’ perspectives), both followed by the classroom observations. The data from the interviews will be analyzed through the initial coding to guide teachers to adjust their instruction concurrently, and continuous coding will be performed to monitor the progress of the study. According to the results derived from the analysis, the lesson structure will be finalized to use in the classroom environments in Turkey.

References:
[1] Beatty, I. D., & Gerace, W. J. (2009). Technology-enhanced formative assessment: A research-based pedagogy for teaching science with classroom response technology. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(2), 146-162.
[2] MoNE. (2012). Fatih Project [Online]. Retrieved on April 30th, 2015 from: http://fatihprojesi.meb.gov.tr/tr/english.php
[3] Pamuk, S., Cakir, R., Ergun, M., Yilmaz, H. B., & Ayas, C. (2013). The Use of Tablet PC and Interactive Board from the Perspectives of Teachers and Students: Evaluation of the FATIH Project. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 13(3), 1815-1822.
[4] Shirley, M. L., & Irving, K. E. (2015). Connected Classroom Technology Facilitates Multiple Components of Formative Assessment Practice. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 24(1), 56-68.
[5] Stull, J., Varnum, S. J., Ducette, J., & Schiller, J. (2011). The Many Faces of Formative Assessment. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(1), 30-39.

Keywords:

Technology enhanced formative assessment, FATIH project, eighth graders, Turkey.