Blending Technology-based Teacher-led and Student-centered Approaches in STEM Education
Valentina T. Terzieva, Katia Todorova, Yuri P. Pavlov, Petia Kademova-Katzarova · 2020
The paper describes an extensive study of the teachers' views on technology use in teaching strategies in a way to build on the students' knowledge acquisition. This research exploits the findings from a targeted survey among STEM teachers of different educational levels, types of schools, and regions in Bulgaria. The usefulness and the usage frequency of various types of ICT resources are investigated. Two main technology-enhanced teaching approaches are considered -- a teacher-led and a student-centered. The goal is to outline an appropriate ratio between them. The solution is given by a precise formal description and evaluation of the teacher's subjective preferences concerning these teaching approaches. For this purpose, the mathematical approach of decision-making that involves utility and probability theory, and a stochastic approximation is applied. As a result, the utility functions of teacher-led and student-centered teaching are constructed thus, enabling determination of their optimal proportion.