Computer assisted instruction

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was threefold.
First, this study compared the effects of two different simulation-based instructional
strategies on athletic trainers’ clinical competence in performing cardiovascular screening
with cardiac auscultations. Second, this study identified the athletic trainers’ perceptions
of learning through simulation-based instructional strategies. Third, this study attempted
to identify and offer instructional recommendations based on the outcomes.
The quantitative phase analyzed cognitive and diagnostic reasoning knowledge
and history-taking and clinical skills specific to cardiovascular screenings with cardiac
auscultations as it was taught to athletic trainers (ATs) at a continuing professional
education (CPE) course. The quantitative results found that high-fidelity and low-fidelity
simulation-based instructional strategies significantly increased cognitive and diagnostic
reasoning knowledge and history-taking and clinical skill from pre-test to post-test assessment on all dependent variables. When comparing the two fidelity types to each
other, the analysis found that the participants in the high-fidelity simulation group gained
significantly more skill when compared to the low-fidelity group.
In the qualitative analysis of this study, three themes emerged specific to the
perceptions of the athletic trainers’ experiences as they learn through simulation-based
instructional strategies. The first theme that emerged was a clear indication that
participants’ exhibited positive perceptions of learning through simulation-based
instructional strategies. The second theme that emerged was that the high-fidelity
simulation experience during the pre-assessment and post-assessment raised an
awareness of the deficit of knowledge and skills in performing a comprehensive
cardiovascular screening with cardiac auscultations. Lastly, the third theme that emerged
was specific to the perceived limitations in the effectiveness of low-fidelity simulation
and the perceived strengths in the effectiveness of high-fidelity simulation.
A few instructional recommendations emerged from this dissertation study.
Simulation-based instructional strategies are an ideal teaching method to utilize during
continuing professional education courses with athletic trainers. Specifically, this study
identified that both, high-fidelity and low-fidelity simulation, are effective in teaching
cardiovascular screening with cardiac auscultations. Additionally, the participants
perceived influences of a pre-test on the identification of their knowledge and skills
deficit suggests that there are benefits of utilizing an authentic simulation pre-test as part
of CPE courses.

This mixed methods study examined secondary teachers’ technology selfefficacy,
their professional development activities regarding mobile handheld devices,
and how those activities affect their use of mobile devices as instructional tools.
Additionally, this study also explored teachers’ perceptions of other factors that act as
barriers or enablers to their use of such devices. The study included 104 middle and high
school teachers who taught in a large, urban public school district in the Southeastern
United States. Data were collected through the administration of an electronic survey and
semi-structured interviews. The researcher utilized multiple regression and moderator
analyses, as well as qualitative analysis of the interview data.
The results of the multiple regression analysis revealed teachers’ technologyrelated
self-efficacy to be a significant predictor of their instructional use of mobile
handheld devices. However, secondary teachers’ level of professional development was found not to contribute significantly to the model. The moderator analysis too revealed
professional development to be a nonsignificant factor. The findings of the qualitative
phase of the study revealed secondary teachers’ awareness of their varied and fluid
technology-related self-efficacy, as well as those factors that modify it. Qualitative data
also revealed four categories of essential elements that teachers must have in order to
most effectively implement mobile handheld devices within their pedagogy: intellectual
capital, emotional capital, social-cultural capital, and technological capital. When
lacking, these elements can represent barriers to teachers’ implementation of mobile
handheld devices. Targeted professional development and increased funding to minimize
the digital divide are recommended to reduce these barriers. The findings of the study
inform designers of professional development programs, school and district and
secondary teachers, as they are all stakeholders in the process of increasing the effective
implementation of mobile handheld devices as instructional tools.

The purpose of this mixed methods study was twofold. First, the study
assessed whether Davis’ (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was
useful in predicting instructional usage of the interactive whiteboard (IWB), as
reported by K-8 teachers. Second, the study set out to understand what
motivated those teachers to use the IWB for classroom instruction, and to further
describe the ways in which they used them. Through surveying 155 teachers
and 40 administrators of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) schools,
the researcher used multiple regression and moderator analyses to examine
whether the TAM model helped explain teachers’ reported teacher-centered and
student-centered instructional IWB usage. The researcher followed this by oneon-
one interviews with 5 of the teachers surveyed. With the data gathered from
the interviews and open-ended items from the original surveys, an analysis using qualitative methods was performed. The results from the qualitative analysis
were then used to help refine and explain the quantitative findings.
The results of the study’s quantitative phase indicated two variables
adapted from the TAM, teachers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of
use of the IWB, contributed to the prediction of teacher-centered instructional
usage of the device. Further it was found that the perceived usefulness variable
contributed to the prediction of student-centered instructional usage. Moderator
analysis indicated the variable for teachers’ IWB technological pedagogical
content knowledge, adapted from Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) technological
pedagogical content knowledge framework, moderated the relationships between
the variable perceived ease of use of the IWB and teacher and student-centered
instructional usage respectively, as well as between the variable perceived
usefulness of the IWB and teacher-centered instructional usage.
The qualitative phase results revealed those teachers surveyed used their IWBs
in a variety of ways for both teacher-centered and student-centered instruction.
Teachers frequently reported they were motivated to use the device by its overall
user-friendliness and its utility as an instructional tool. Central to the teachers’
discussion of its utility were ways in which the tool positively impacted the
students during instruction. Specifically how it engaged students by attracting
their attention, keeping them focused, and offering them a better way to learn.