The innovation of teaching practices with digital technologies in higher education: a study in the initial teacher training framework

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of innovation in teaching practices by presenting the perceptions of teachers and students about innovative practices using digital technologies. The theoretical groundwork of this study is a research on innovative teaching practices using digital technology in initial teaching certificate courses, which focused on the identification of these practices, as well as on identifying their characteristics and contexts within the institutional setting. The following sequence defines the methodological design of this paper: bibliographic review, analysis of the courses’ outlines, application of questionnaires and interviews, and the analysis of the data. The data collected through 220 respondents to an online questionnaire and through 45 respondents to a semi-structured interview comprise the empirical basis of this study. The subjects of both questionnaire and interview were students and professors of teaching certificate courses in a public institution of Higher Education. The analysis indicates that the innovation of teaching practices with digital technologies relates to three factors: a favorable institutional setting, the courses curriculum and, mainly, the continuous teacher training. It was possible to conclude that innovation seems to correspond to a cultural change which involves appropriation of concepts and teaching practices using these technologies.