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Embracing Children’s Voice to Support Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning and Decision-Making for Technology Enhanced Practices in Early Childhood Classrooms

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Abstract

While several studies have been conducted exploring teachers’ pedagogical reasoning practices, few studies have explored the influence of learning audiences’ impact on teacher’s decisions related to technology integration in early childhood classrooms. The purpose of this study was to provide a systematic review of empirical studies that have examined how teachers embrace children’s opinions (and voice) in their pedagogical reasoning process for technology-enhanced teaching. The review used Preferred-Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) and successfully identified 33 empirical studies that have discussed teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and/or instructional decisions for technology integration through the negotiations of affordances from both teachers’ and learners’ perspectives in early childhood education context. This review additionally seeks to provide discussion for how teachers/practitioners could align children’s needs and their pedagogical reasoning processes for early childhood technology instructional practices. This review discusses the challenges related to the adaptations of children’s needs in instructional design and the implications it has on teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and decision-making practices.

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  1. University of Georgia, 850 College Station Road, 221 Rivers Crossing, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Meimei Xu & Jill Stefaniak

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  1. Meimei Xu
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Correspondence to Meimei Xu.

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Xu, M., Stefaniak, J. Embracing Children’s Voice to Support Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning and Decision-Making for Technology Enhanced Practices in Early Childhood Classrooms. TechTrends 65, 256–268 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-021-00588-7

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