Abstract:
The purpose of this expository case study was twofold: 1) to ascertain what components of strategic teaching and types of technology six teachers were using at a middle school digital academy labeled failing and 2) to explore teachers' perceptions about their use of strategic teaching and technology integration in their classrooms. The case study design utilized semi-structured interviews, observations, and field notes. The researcher created a unique instrument to record the field notes that incorporated three frameworks: the ARI Strategic Teaching Model, Bloom's Revised Digital Taxonomy, and Marzano's Four Levels of Implementation. By using this instrument, the researcher was able to document evidence, or lack thereof, for strategic teaching with or without technology integration. The semi-structured interviews revealed the participants' perceptions of their implementation of strategic teaching and of their own technology integration. The findings of the study revealed that teacher's implementation of strategic teaching or their integration of technology correlated to the amount of pre-service training or relevant professional development they had received. The six participants rated their own implementation of strategic teaching and their own integration of technology by using Marzano's Four Levels of Implementation of strategic teaching that was adapted to also embrace technology integration.
