Novice teacher technology-enhanced learning design practices: the case of the silent pedagogy

There is increasing social and political pressure to prepare teachers of the future with strong technology-enhanced learning design capabilities, yet little is known about how teachers in training actually go about technology-enhanced learning design processes. This study involved an in-depth analysis of three groups of three pre-service teachers as they completed a five-week collaborative technology-enhanced learning design project. Recordings of all in-class group discussions and out-of-class use of social media were analysed in order to understand the focus of the novice teachers' technology-enhanced learning design processes. Post-project interviews were also conducted to determine the reasons for the novice teachers' design approaches, and to better understand what constrained and supported their design efforts. A key finding of the study was that, despite the intentions of the pre-service teacher education program, participants rarely mentioned or thought about pedagogy during their collaborative design activities. In addition, tutor support, technological capabilities and group collaboration were identified as strongly influencing the technology-enhanced learning design process. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of furthering the capabilities of novice teachers as designers of TEL interventions.