title: Developing digital smarts in initial teacher education: What motivates new teachers to continue using digital technologies for learning?

authors: Wright, Noeline

subjects: continuance theory

abstract: The New Zealand Curriculum, the overarching curriculum document for both primary and secondary education, enshrines an expectation that teachers engage in Teaching as Inquiry. This is seen as linking to both evidence-informed practice and evolving pedagogical content knowledge. In a rapidly developing, complex mobile digital education, the need for teachers to constantly evolve their technological pedagogical content knowledge is pressing. In initial teacher education (ITE), one challenge is how teacher educators support ITE students’ development of evidence-informed reflective practices with digital technologies to match their content knowledge. For ITE students, this is heightened because they are growing their pedagogical knowledge concurrently with learning to incorporate digital technologies in lessons, mostly for the first time. ITE students are in the position of working out how to appropriate unfamiliar digital affordances and devices for learning in unfamiliar classrooms of students, in unfamiliar schools, and sometimes teaching unfamiliar content.
The focus of this chapter is, through a qualitative, thematically analysed study of 74 ITE students, an examination of their efforts in this regard via online postings about their practicum experiences as they experimented with digital technologies in secondary school classrooms. The key question for the study was What do secondary graduate ITE students come to value regarding using digital technologies in learning contexts? Findings showed these students creatively applied digital technologies to learning contexts, while adapting to differences among schools and their technological constraints or affordances. Findings also suggest that continuance theory can help understand ITE students’ decisions about what prompts them to continue using digital technologies for learning, and how continuance theory links to agency, structures and cultural practices.

text: Developing digital smarts in initial teacher education: What motivates new teachers to continue using digital technologies for learning? The New Zealand Curriculum, the overarching curriculum document for both primary and secondary education, enshrines an expectation that teachers engage in Teaching as Inquiry. This is seen as linking to both evidence-informed practice and evolving pedagogical content knowledge. In a rapidly developing, complex mobile digital education, the need for teachers to constantly evolve their technological pedagogical content knowledge is pressing. In initial teacher education (ITE), one challenge is how teacher educators support ITE students’ development of evidence-informed reflective practices with digital technologies to match their content knowledge. For ITE students, this is heightened because they are growing their pedagogical knowledge concurrently with learning to incorporate digital technologies in lessons, mostly for the first time. ITE students are in the position of working out how to appropriate unfamiliar digital affordances and devices for learning in unfamiliar classrooms of students, in unfamiliar schools, and sometimes teaching unfamiliar content.
The focus of this chapter is, through a qualitative, thematically analysed study of 74 ITE students, an examination of their efforts in this regard via online postings about their practicum experiences as they experimented with digital technologies in secondary school classrooms. The key question for the study was What do secondary graduate ITE students come to value regarding using digital technologies in learning contexts? Findings showed these students creatively applied digital technologies to learning contexts, while adapting to differences among schools and their technological constraints or affordances. Findings also suggest that continuance theory can help understand ITE students’ decisions about what prompts them to continue using digital technologies for learning, and how continuance theory links to agency, structures and cultural practices.

year: 2015

title: Translation and validation of the Arabic version of the Digital Stress Scale (DSS-A) with three Arabic-speaking samples

authors: Krägeloh, Christian U.

abstract: Objective: Given the ubiquitous nature of digital technologies such as smartphones, research has increasingly focused on the health outcomes of prolonged use of such technologies. The Digital Stress Scale (DSS) has been developed recently, but it is currently only available in English and Chinese, and validations in other languages are warranted. 
Methods: The 24-item DSS was translated into Arabic using the method of translation and back-translation. Using a general population sample (n = 1069) from Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Jordan, the psychometric properties of the Arabic DSS (DSS-A) were investigated using higher-order confirmatory factor analysis.
Results: The original five-factor structure was replicated for the DSS-A without the need for any modifications such as item deletion or reassignment of items to another factor. Reliability was excellent for the total scale score (α = 0.92) as well as for the five subscales (α ranged between 0.81 and 0.91). Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the DSS-A and psychological distress. 
Conclusion: The strong psychometric properties of the DSS-A imply that this scale can now be used with high validity and reliability to explore the role of digital stress and its sub-characteristics in Arabic-speaking populations.

text: Translation and validation of the Arabic version of the Digital Stress Scale (DSS-A) with three Arabic-speaking samples Objective: Given the ubiquitous nature of digital technologies such as smartphones, research has increasingly focused on the health outcomes of prolonged use of such technologies. The Digital Stress Scale (DSS) has been developed recently, but it is currently only available in English and Chinese, and validations in other languages are warranted. 
Methods: The 24-item DSS was translated into Arabic using the method of translation and back-translation. Using a general population sample (n = 1069) from Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Jordan, the psychometric properties of the Arabic DSS (DSS-A) were investigated using higher-order confirmatory factor analysis.
Results: The original five-factor structure was replicated for the DSS-A without the need for any modifications such as item deletion or reassignment of items to another factor. Reliability was excellent for the total scale score (α = 0.92) as well as for the five subscales (α ranged between 0.81 and 0.91). Convergent validity was supported by significant correlations between the DSS-A and psychological distress. 
Conclusion: The strong psychometric properties of the DSS-A imply that this scale can now be used with high validity and reliability to explore the role of digital stress and its sub-characteristics in Arabic-speaking populations.

year: 2023-12-01

title: Creating a curriculum for indigenous and community languages: Te reo Māori as an example

authors: Bruce, Ian

subjects: linguistics

abstract: Part 1 of this paper introduces the draft Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages and describes how it was used in the construction of draft New Zealand curriculum guidelines for French and German. Part 2 discusses how the CEFR has been employed in curriculum development in Te Reo Māori at the University of Waikato and suggests that it could also prove useful in relation to curriculum development projects involving indigenous and community languages more generally.

text: Creating a curriculum for indigenous and community languages: Te reo Māori as an example Part 1 of this paper introduces the draft Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages and describes how it was used in the construction of draft New Zealand curriculum guidelines for French and German. Part 2 discusses how the CEFR has been employed in curriculum development in Te Reo Māori at the University of Waikato and suggests that it could also prove useful in relation to curriculum development projects involving indigenous and community languages more generally.

year: 2002