Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
An explanatory lens for examining how teachers brought content, pedagogy and technological knowledge together during planning.
All projects
Educational Research | Mixed Methods | Evidence-Informed Design
Educational Technology Research
How international school teachers use technology to support active learning
Research overview
Technology integration in curriculum planning for active learning.
This MA Education dissertation examined how teachers in international and private English-medium schools in Thailand used digital technology during curriculum planning, and the conditions that shaped whether that use was pedagogically meaningful and practically feasible.
- Institution
- University of Nottingham
- Qualification
- MA Education
- Year
- 2026
- Approach
- Pragmatic sequential explanatory mixed methods
- Context
- International and private English-medium schools in Thailand
- Evidence
- 20 questionnaires and 7 completed follow-up interviews
Research context and problem
Looking beyond access to the decisions made during planning.
Technology-integration research often concentrates on classroom use or learner outcomes. This study focused instead on curriculum planning: the stage where teachers interpret curriculum requirements, formulate learning intentions, select resources and anticipate practical constraints.
International schools in Thailand offered a context in which teachers worked across varied curricula, organisational routines and levels of digital provision. The research therefore examined not only which tools were used, but how professional judgement, pedagogy and local conditions shaped planning decisions.
Research questions and objectives
A focused inquiry into practice and purpose.
Main research question
How do teachers in international (and private English-medium) schools in Thailand integrate digital technology into curriculum planning to support active learning?
Sub-question 1What types of digital tools are most commonly used to promote active learning?
Research aim: To examine how teachers in international schools in Thailand integrate digital technology into curriculum planning, and to identify the factors that shape these decisions.
- 01
To describe how teachers incorporate digital tools during curriculum planning in international school settings.
- 02
To identify individual factors (for example, beliefs, confidence and professional knowledge) that influence planning decisions about technology integration.
- 03
To examine organisational and cultural factors (for example, leadership expectations, collaboration practices and school norms) that shape technology-related planning.
- 04
To explore how teachers perceive the relationship between curriculum aims, pedagogy and digital tools during planning.
Theoretical framework
Three related but distinct analytical lenses.
Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition
A descriptive lens for considering how technology changed a task; it was not treated as a guarantee of pedagogical improvement.
Participation, cognition and design quality
An interpretive anchor for distinguishing visible activity from tasks that require learners to explain, apply, discuss or solve problems.
Research methodology
From broad patterns to contextual explanation.
- 01Research designPragmatic, sequential explanatory mixed methods
- 02Questionnaire20 teachers; closed and open-ended items
- 03Interviews7 completed online interviews; approximately 30–45 minutes
- 04AnalysisDescriptive statistics and thematic analysis
- 05InterpretationJoint interpretation and mixed-methods meta-inferences
Recruitment and sampling
Non-probability convenience and snowball sampling through professional networks and referrals across varied curricula, phases and subject areas.
Data collection
An online questionnaire mapped reported patterns. Follow-up semi-structured interviews explored reasoning, constraints and examples in greater depth.
Analysis and integration
Frequencies and percentages were used descriptively. Open responses and interview transcripts underwent thematic analysis, followed by joint interpretation across both strands.
Ethical considerations
University ethical approval, voluntary informed consent, confidentiality, pseudonymisation, secure storage, withdrawal rights and reflexive attention to insider positionality.
Key findings
Five themes from the integrated evidence.
Pragmatic planning support
Technology was most firmly embedded in short-cycle lesson planning, particularly for finding, adapting, organising and creating teachable resources.
Relevance to practice: Design should account for the practical workflows through which teachers turn curriculum intentions into classroom activity.
Conditional support for active learning
Tools supported participation, interaction and clearer representation when tasks were purposefully designed, but could also distract learners or disrupt lesson flow.
Relevance to practice: Interaction should serve cognitive and social learning processes rather than engagement alone.
Time and workload constraints
Preparation demands and immediate instructional pressures encouraged teachers to favour tools with a clear, short-cycle return.
Relevance to practice: Reusable resources and low-friction workflows can protect time for task design and adaptation.
Infrastructure, access and reliability
Device availability, subscriptions, technical reliability and support pathways affected whether more interactive approaches were feasible and sustainable.
Relevance to practice: Implementation planning needs accessible alternatives and realistic fallback routes.
Organisational coherence
Aligned platforms, expectations, professional learning and support mediated teachers’ ability to sustain technology-supported practice.
Relevance to practice: Technology integration is a systems issue as well as an individual design decision.
Discussion and implications
What the evidence suggests for educational practice.
The study found that meaningful technology integration was pedagogy-led, pragmatically enacted and shaped by organisational coherence. These findings inform practical considerations for related professional roles.
Separate a tool’s planning value from its pedagogical value, make the intended learning process explicit and prepare workable alternatives where reliability is uncertain.
Connect technology decisions to curriculum aims, assessment expectations and the time available to translate plans into classroom-ready resources.
Design for meaningful participation and sense-making, while reducing avoidable preparation and navigation demands.
Treat platform coherence, access, reliability, support and workflow fit as conditions of educational usefulness—not secondary implementation details.
Research limitations
A contextual study with clearly bounded claims.
- The study was bounded to international and private English-medium schools in Thailand; transferability depends on similarity of context, curriculum structures, resourcing and expectations.
- The non-probability questionnaire sample was small and subject to self-selection, supporting exploratory insight rather than statistical generalisation.
- Both strands relied on self-report and captured participants’ interpretations rather than direct observation of planning or classroom practice.
- The study did not directly measure student outcomes, so it does not establish causal impact on learning.
- Researcher positionality shaped access and interpretation; reflexive memos and transparent integration strengthened trustworthiness but did not remove interpretation.
Reflection and application to learning design
Applying research to learning design.
The research strengthened my practice of starting with educational purpose, distinguishing workflow value from learning value, and treating implementation conditions as part of the design problem.
Research finding
Teachers valued technology that fitted curriculum intentions, planning routines and classroom conditions.
Professional interpretation
Good learning design must connect pedagogy, content, technology and feasibility rather than optimise for novelty.
Prototype application
Learning Horizons explores curriculum visibility, reusable resources, teacher agency and more connected workflows as design hypotheses.
Learning Horizons was conceived after the MA research. The prototype applies a later professional interpretation of the findings through curriculum visibility, teacher agency and connected planning workflows.
Explore Learning HorizonsSupporting evidence
Read the source documents.
Use the concise portfolio case study or consult the complete dissertation for the full methodology, analysis, references and appendices.