Digitala läromedel, en möjlighet eller ett hinder i engelskundervsningen? : En studie om hur engelsklärare i mellanstadiet använder digitala läromedel i undervisningen

Sammanfattning: Digital teaching aids have become increasingly available in Swedish primary education. One subject which, however, is still dominated by analogue teaching aids is English. The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about how English teachers in grades 4–6 use digital teaching aids in teaching. This is done by investigating to what extent and when the digital teaching aids are used, as well as teachers' perceived pros and cons regarding the use of digital tools. This has been investigated through observations of three classes, and interviews with the three teachers who taught them, working in two municipal and one independent school. The results show that teachers use digital teaching aids less than half the time of the lesson, more precisely in the middle to the end part of lessons. These are mainly used when students work individually to solve tasks related to the lesson’s topic. Furthermore, teachers who have a positive attitude towards digital teaching aids are more likely to use them in the classroom. The advantages of using digital teaching aids in teaching were the possibilities of better facilitating individualization and using it as a tool for motivation while the common disadvantage was the lack of control over what students do on their computers. Lastly an unexpected finding was that the digital teaching aids that the teachers were using were not adapted to newly arrived immigrant students. Finally for teachers to be able to use a digital teaching aid as a mediating tool, more than specific knowledge about the digital teaching aid is required. Knowledge such as technical, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) should be embraced simultaneously and is required to be able to teach effectively with technology.