Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Education
Advisor
Gladys Arome
Abstract
Teachers use digital activities for student collaboration; however, it is not known what digital collaboration strategies teachers implement, nor how they perceive students’ ability to apply collaboration skills in a digital environment. It is necessary to understand strategies needed by students to be able to collaborate in a digital environment. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore secondary teachers’ experiences involving implementing digital collaboration strategies and their perceptions of students’ development of digital collaboration skills. Vygotsky’s social learning theory and Siemens’ connectivism theory were used to guide research questions for this study. Taken together, these theories hold that learning is social in nature and can be technologically enhanced. The criteria for participant selection, via purposeful and snowball sampling, included teaching in a rural mid-Atlantic Title I secondary school that had digital learning initiatives where each student had their own device. Data from 13 semistructured interviews were analyzed using open coding to generate themes. Findings indicated that teachers could use communication, leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in their secondary classrooms to help students develop digital collaborative skills. This study contributes to social change by providing deeper understanding into the phenomenon. This, in turn, promotes needed skills, including digital collaboration and critical thinking, that can help students become more successful in the classroom.
Recommended Citation
Lenhart Sr., Christopher Adam, "Collaboration Experiences and Perceptions in Digital Activities Among Secondary Education Teachers" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 12753.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/12753
