Technology Integration in the Early Elementary Classroom: Lessons for Teacher Preparation Programs and Professional Development

Background

Based on the evidence, a review of the literature focused on identifying the best practices used to integrate technology into the early elementary classroom setting. The authors examined both qualitative and quantitative research. The definition of early elementary, for the purposes of this study, was students in PK-3, encompassing children ages three to eight.

In conducting this review, the researchers utilized EBSCO to search for peer-reviewed articles from the past five years (2015-2020) to find the most relevant best practices for technology integration in PK-3 classrooms. Search terms included “early childhood and technology,” “elementary and technology,” “preschool and technology,” “kindergarten technology,” “primary grades technology,” “technology integration in elementary,” “technology use in elementary,” “technology use in preschool,” “teacher perceptions of technology,” “teacher use of technology,” “novice teacher use of technology,” and “first-year teacher use of technology.” The search did not include articles that discussed students above grade three. The main language of the researchers is English; therefore, the review of the literature included only articles written in English. This study included data from the U.S. because the researchers’ graduates were in U.S. schools after graduation. The primary search yielded about 100 articles. Upon further investigation, several of those articles did not meet the scope of the intended search. A secondary search included articles from around the world because the initial search did not yield as many articles as anticipated. Furthermore, the research utilized full, peer-reviewed articles accessible to their institution.