The complex relationship between technology and pedagogy: Implications for interactivity and engagement in classroom learning’

Abstract

COVID-19 brought an abrupt and drastic shift to online teaching and learning worldwide. To most practitioners, the journey of learning to teach online has been a catalyst to their professional development. While acknowledging that pedagogic growth amid the pandemic is evident, this paper challenges the widely cited dictum and often-given advice of putting the pedagogy horse before the technology cart (e.g. Sankey, 2020). Citing examples from Tavares’ first-hand experience of teaching undergraduates and postgraduates in teacher education programmes at her university, it demonstrates how technology and pedagogy are interconnected and interdependent elements that work with other entities such as the teacher, students, curriculum content and learning environment. Drawing on data from Tavares’ virtual classroom, it endorses the complex systems perspective (Larsen-Freeman, 2016) and elucidates the dynamic relationship between technology and pedagogy (Tsui & Tavares, 2021). It shows how exploiting the affordances of technology has lent itself to a re-tooling of these affordances to achieve and re-imagine pedagogic goals. The positive impact on students’ self-efficacy and her own self-efficacy in online teaching has led to the emergence of new pedagogic practices which have enabled her to surpass what she could achieve in face-to-face settings. With elevated teaching methodologies, she was presented with her University’s Teaching Innovation Award (2020) and the Faculty Emergency Remote Teaching Award (2020). The paper highlights how this sheds light on her current initiatives of integrating blended learning into her university-based classes, creating enhanced opportunities for learner interactivity and engagement. Implications for the future classroom are also discussed.