Fostering inquiry in the high school social studies classroom: how the 1:1 shapes teacher decision-making

During the past decade, laptop programs (also known as 1:1 initiatives) have become increasingly common in schools throughout the United States. Current studies suggest that these programs accommodate middle school and high school teachers’ ability to implement an engaging teaching practice called inquiry-based learning. This study investigates this idea by looking at social studies teachers’ lesson planning before and after their school’s laptop program began. In doing so, six high school social studies teachers from the same school were interviewed to determine if their students’ laptops fostered inquiry learning in their classrooms. Ultimately, there were some instances where the social studies teachers used the computers to implement inquiry, but others where they did not. In this sense, the new technology had a moderate influence on promoting inquiry-based learning in the social studies classroom. These findings suggest that school officials would be wise to offer more training to help teachers learn how to effectively incorporate laptop technology into their instruction.