Orchestration: Providing Teachers with Scaffolding to Address Curriculum Standards and Students’ Pace of Learning

Abstract

While investment in technology for use in the classroom is increasing, studies still do not reveal significant improvements in learning. Investigations have shown that aligning the design of learning experiences with students’ needs creates synergy in the teaching and learning classroom processes. This can be achieved through orchestration, the guided integration of conventional and digital resources. This study seeks to investigate how orchestration increases student learning while taking into consideration their different pace of learning and monitoring the standards that the curriculum requires of a teacher. This is done by adopting a model which incorporates both the requirements of a school system’s curriculum, as well as the students’ specific needs based on their effective learning. It also seeks to determine which elements enrich the learning experience within an orchestrated framework. This study experimentally shows a significant increase in student learning when orchestrations are made available to teachers, when teachers successfully integrate technology into the classroom and when systematic use of the available resources is made. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the importance of addressing weaknesses in each student’s base of knowledge by adapting the activities in the classroom to their individual pace of learning.