Just-in-time support for teachers’ technology-infused lesson planning

Teachers need support when integrating innovative technologies in their lessons. In this research, two types of just-in-time support for lesson planning were compared on perceived usefulness and effectiveness. Both types contained the same technological information but differed regarding pedagogical and content information. The first type of support presented this information elaborately and separately (i.e., separate support); the second type presented this information in a compact and integrated fashion (i.e., integrated support). Study 1 asked high school biology teachers (23 preservice, 23 in-service) which type of support they would prefer. As expected, most inservice teachers chose the integrated support. However, most pre-service teachers also preferred this support, and argued that it could assist them in integrating pedagogy and content. Study 2 examined whether this conjecture holds true by comparing the lesson plans created by pre-service teachers who received either the separate (n = 27) or integrated support materials (n = 26). Results showed that pre-service teachers who used the integrated support had more integrated pedagogical and content-related justifications in their lesson plans than the group who received separate support. Both groups had few technology-related justifications. These findings confirm the alleged superiority of integrated support over separate support, and demonstrate that additional guidance is needed to help pre-service teachers to fully integrate pedagogical, technological and content information during lesson planning