Focus group discussions were designed to elicit from teachers and students their perceptions of the different ways digital technologies such as the internet, search engines, social media, and cell phones are impacting and shaping students\u2019 research and writing habits and skills.\u00a0 Teachers were also asked to speak in depth about their experiences teaching research and writing to middle and high school students today, any challenges they encounter, how they incorporate digital technologies into their classrooms and assignments, as well as how these technologies play a role in their professionalization.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n
In-person focus groups were led by two Pew Internet researchers, and were held on-site at a College Board school in the northeastern United States, immediately following school hours.\u00a0\u00a0 Each discussion was approximately 1.5 hours in duration, and students and teachers were provided with Barnes & Noble gift cards as a token of appreciation for their participation ($25 for students, $50 for teachers).\u00a0 Focus group discussions were recorded and transcribed.<\/p>\n\n
Two online focus groups were also held with teachers.\u00a0 The first utilized an existing online research community of 150 Advanced Placement teachers.\u00a0 A series of discussion questions or \u201cexercises\u201d designed by Pew Internet were administered to this group by panel administrators using an online, asynchronous platform.\u00a0 Panel administrators then provided Pew Internet with transcripts of responses to the exercises.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n
The second online teacher focus group was administered by Pew Internet staff using an online focus group platform.\u00a0 Participants in this group consisted of 30 National Writing Project teachers recruited by NWP site administrators.\u00a0 The asynchronous 3-day focus group was moderated by Pew Internet staff, and all participants were able to see and respond to one another\u2019s comments as well as questions and comments from the moderators.\u00a0 Transcripts of the focus group were downloaded following completion of the discussion.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n
All focus group sessions were analyzed to identify key themes, and discussion guides were revised and adjusted between groups to better probe emergent themes.\u00a0 All focus group discussion guides are available at the end of this section.<\/p>\n\n
Phase Two \u2013 Online Survey<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n Following completion of focus group discussions, Pew Internet designed and fielded a 30-minute online survey with a national sample of middle and high school teachers.\u00a0 The sample is not a probability sample of all teachers because it was not practical to assemble a sampling frame of this population. Instead, two large lists of teachers were assembled: one included 42,879 AP teachers who had agreed to allow the College Board to contact them (about one-third of all AP teachers), while the other was a list of 5,869 teachers who participated in the National Writing Project\u2019s Summer Institute during 2007-2011. A stratified random sample of 16,721 AP teachers was drawn from the AP teacher list, based on subject taught, state, and grade level, while all members of the NWP list were included in the sample. <\/p>\n\n Email invitations containing a link to the survey and unique username and password were sent to members of the sample; teachers could not opt-in to the sample. The response rate was 12% for the AP teachers and 14% for the NWP teachers. Given the nature of the sampling frames used for the study, no margin of error has been computed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n The online survey was conducted from March 7\u2013April 23, 2012, and was completed at least in part by 2,462 teachers (2,067 teachers completed the entire survey; partial completes were kept, and all percentages reported are based on those answering each question).\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n The teachers who participated in the survey <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n The survey results presented here are not<\/i> based on a representative sample of U.S. middle and high school teachers, yet every effort was made to administer the survey to as broad a sample of educators as possible from the samples available.\u00a0 Overall, the 2,462 Advanced Placement and NWP Summer Institute teachers who participated in the survey comprise a fairly wide range of subject areas, experience levels, geographic regions, school type and socioeconomic level, and community type (full sample characteristics below).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n The final sample includes teachers from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.\u00a0 All teachers who participated in the survey teach in physical schools\/classrooms, as opposed to teaching online or virtual classes.\u00a0 English\/Language Arts teachers make up a significant portion of the sample (36%), reflecting the intentional design of the sample.\u00a0 Only 9% of the final sample is middle school teachers, with the other 91% reporting that they currently teach grades 9-12.\u00a0 While half of the teachers participating in the survey report teaching in a small city or suburb, there is fairly wide distribution across school size and students\u2019 socioeconomic status.\u00a0 There is also a wide distribution in terms of teachers\u2019 ages and experience levels.<\/p>\n\n Interpreting the results <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n There are several important ways the teachers who participated in the survey are unique, which should be considered when interpreting the results reported here.\u00a0 First, 95% of the teachers who took the survey teach in public schools, thus the findings reported here reflect that environment almost exclusively.\u00a0 Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the majority of teachers in this sample (56%) teach AP, honors and accelerated courses, thus the population of middle and high school students they work with skew heavily toward the highest achievers.\u00a0 These accelerated classes may have resources and support at their disposal\u2014particularly in terms of specialized training and access to digital tools\u2014that are not available in all classrooms.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n In addition, it is critical to keep in mind that almost a third of the sample (NWP teachers) has received extensive training in how to effectively teach writing in today\u2019s digital environment.\u00a0 The National Writing Project\u2019s mission is to provide professional development, resources and support to teachers to improve the teaching of writing in today\u2019s schools.\u00a0\u00a0 The NWP teachers included here are what the organization terms \u201cteacher-consultants\u201d who have attended the Summer Institute and provide local leadership to other teachers.\u00a0 Research has shown significant gains in the writing performance of students who are taught by these teachers.[10.numoffset=”10″ More specific information on this population of teachers, the training they receive, and the outcomes of their students are available at the National Writing Project website at www.nwp.org.] <\/p>\n\n Thus, the population of teachers participating in this research might best be considered \u201cleading edge teachers\u201d who are actively involved with the College Board and\/or the National Writing Project and are therefore beneficiaries of resources and training not common to all teachers.\u00a0 It is likely that teachers in this study are developing some of the more innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching research and writing in today\u2019s digital environment, and are incorporating classroom technology in ways that are not typical of the entire population of middle and high school teachers in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n![\"Methodology](\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/4AF7056C3B3B41CDB0BE93C84F80647A.jpg\")
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