The role of personal and contextual factors when investigating technology integration in general and vocational education

This study aims to investigate the extent to which perceived personal and school-related factors influence the quality of technology integration in teaching at the upper secondary level and how this differs between general and vocational education. The quality of technology integration was operationalised through the different activities supported by technology according to the ICAP model. We used data from a survey of 1660 teachers from 106 upper secondary schools in Switzerland to construct structural equation models of the interplay between school-related factors, teacher-related factors, and technology integration. Apart from confirming that technology integration is generally high across all school types, the study shows that among school-related factors, goal clarity is a significant predictor of constructive learning activities and of all the three personal factors considered in the study: teachers’ positive beliefs, technological knowledge, and technological pedagogical content knowledge. Moreover, these personal factors, in turn, constitute significant predictors of all the four types of learning activities. Both full-time and dual vocational schools integrate constructive and interactive activities more than general schools, and vocational teachers report significantly higher beliefs and lower technological pedagogical content knowledge than general school teachers. These findings confirm the importance of considering the interplay between personal and school-related factors when training teachers in technology integration, with interesting differences across school types that seem to depend more on the contextual culture than on the curriculum organisation. • Most teachers in Swiss upper-secondary schools use technology very often, both in general and vocational education. • Personal factors (beliefs, TK, TCPK) were always significant predictors of quality of technology use. • Among school-related factors, goal clarity was a significant predictor of personal factors. • Vocational teachers reported much higher cognitively demanding technology use than general education teachers.