How are teacher dashboards used?
Adaptive learning technology (ALT) in education is growing enormously. Adaptive learning technology is used to collect data and analyse this data using artificial intelligence and learning analytics. The collected data is used to inform the teacher or student about the student's learning process. For example, the collected data from the adaptive learning technology can determine which assignment a student will complete next, based on how the student performed previous assignments. The collected data can also be returned to the teacher at the same time, who in turn can adapt their teaching. The well-organised presentation of this data can be delivered in the form of a teacher dashboard. This research aims to explore and explain teachers' diverse usage of dashboards and relate this usage to teacher characteristics.
Little research has been done on how teacher dashboards are used by teachers, and the research that has been done shows that there is a lot of variation between teachers when they use a dashboard before, during or after class.
Teacher characteristics
Previous research investigated whether teachers' specific characteristics influence teacher dashboards' use. Factors such as age, gender, years of teaching experience, self-efficacy and the experience with Adaptive Learning Technology (ALT) (the years of experience with a specific technology) were examined. However, no direct significant connections were found using teacher dashboards (in both the interpretation and enactment phase). An explanation for this could be that these teacher characteristics may be indirectly related to dashboard use and that there is no research yet into more complex factors related to dashboard use. Besides the basic features, there is a need to broaden and explore more complex teacher characteristics, such as knowledge and skills. Insight into complex teacher characteristics can demonstrate that general teacher characteristics indirectly relate to dashboard use.
The focus of this project
To gain further insight, this PhD project will dive deeper into this process and these complex teacher characteristics and aim to understand how teachers' essential elements and complex attributes of teachers impact the use of teacher dashboards in primary education. This research will provide a comprehensive understanding of how teacher dashboards are used in education.
