Assessing Technology Enhanced Instruction: A Case Study in Secondary Science

Abstract

The paper describes an evaluation program designed to assess the effectiveness of Technology Enhanced Instruction (TEI). The study is situated within the context of the Technology Enhanced Secondary Science Instruction (TESSI) project, a seven-year, field-based research program of technology integration into secondary science (grades 9–12). Evaluation procedures include analyses of student enrollment and achievement, teacher-researcher reports, an independent ethnographic assessment, the project's scalability, and interviews with graduates from the program. Taken together, these evaluations of TESSI support claims that TESSI is a scaleable and reproducible model of successful TEI implementation, which encourages greater student enrollment and retention in senior science electives (i.e. greater success for more students), and prepares students for post-secondary education and the realities of an information-based workplace. The effectiveness of the project's implementation of technology is supported by both quantitative and qualitative data.

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