Shazia Mumtaz
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o teacher motivation and commitment to their students’ learning and to their own development as teachers;
o the support they experienced in their schools;
o access to sufficient quantities of technology. In addition, these teachers worked in schools where hardware and access to resources were twice the average, were comfortable with technology and used computers for many purposes. They perceived that their teaching practices became more student centred with the integration of technology in their curriculum and they held higher expectations of their students. Sheingold & Hadley’s (1990) study also identified that the source of motivation for teachers to use technology included gains in learning and using computers for their own development as teachers. They foresaw wider success among teachers if ‘ample technology, support, and time for teachers to learn the technology are provided, and if an academic and cultural structure exists to encourage teachers to take an experimental approach to their work’ (p. 30). These are all areas that created barriers to using technology identified in the earlier section. In Hadley & Sheingold’s (1993) report, segmentation analysis was used to assess if there were common responses that identified subgroups in the sample. This analysis indicated that there were five main segments or types of teachers and circumstances in this sample, including ‘enthusiastic beginners’, ‘supported integrated’, ‘high school naturals’, ‘unsupported achievers’ and ‘struggling aspirers’. These subgroups diverged on the following factors: (a) experience and comfort with technology; (b) grade level taught; (c) applications and practices they use, and (d) extent of support/colleagues at school. This analysis indicates that not all ‘accomplished’ technology-using teachers possess similar qualities, but that a diverse and complex combination of factors have had an impact on their path to success. Becker & Riel (2000) is a recent study on constructivist classrooms that examined the relationships between professional engagement and teaching practice, including instruction involving computer use. Professional engagement was measured by the frequency that a teacher had informal substantive communications with other teachers at their school, the frequency and breadth of professional interactions with teachers at other schools and the breadth of involvement in specific peer leadership activities, mentoring, workshop and conference presentations. The study found that teachers who regularly participate in professional interactions and activities beyond their classroom teach in different ways than teachers who have minimal contact with their peers or profession. The more extensively involved teachers were in professional activities, the more likely they were to have teaching philosophies compatible with constructivist learning theory, teach in ways consistent with a constructivist philosophy and use computers more and in exemplary ways. Their use of computers with students was not limited to gaining computer competence, but extended to involvement in