Integration of Educational Technology for the Purposes of Differentiated Instruction in Secondary STEM Education

Current education reform agendas have stressed the need to improve equity in education, but action is needed beyond policy calls to ensure that all students have opportunities to reach their maximum potentials. Differentiated instruction and educational technology have the potential to help provide each student with the necessary tools, resources, and support to reach this goal. Few researchers have explored the role of technology in differentiating instruction in high school STEM-related classrooms. The purpose of this study is to explore high school STEM teachers' perspectives, decisions, and challenges related to the integration of educational technology for differentiation purposes in meeting students' diverse learning needs.Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) served as the framework to explore how seven high school teachers engaged in the activity of teaching STEM-related courses, with particular focus on these teachers' beliefs about the use of educational technology to differentiate instruction in the classroom and the specific strategies and technologies that were employed for differentiation. The affordances and challenges associated with the use of education technology for differentiated instruction were also examined. The findings of this study have implications for administrators and teachers who are looking to integrate educational technology to serve the needs of diverse learners in the classroom. The participants in this study did use educational technology for the purposes of differentiated instruction, although this appeared in different forms in each classroom. Several commonalities were also identified in this study, such as teachers' concerns about student misuse of technology and feeling overwhelmed with the time and effort required to research and integrate new technologies in the classroom. Additionally, the findings showed common benefits of using educational technology to differentiate instruction, including more flexible pacing and assignments that could be tailored to students' ability levels and interests. This research also provides a common language for researchers and practitioners to discuss the intersection between differentiated instruction and educational technology, along with the affordances and challenges involved in integrating both into teachers' pedagogical practices.