Power and control in the one-to-one computing classroom: students’ perspectives on teachers’ didactical design

Abstract

This paper reports on a research study that scrutinised the student perspective on teachers’ different didactical designs from lessons in the one-to-one computing classroom. Specifically, the aim was to describe and understand three different clusters of didactical design in the one-to-one computing classroom from the student perspective. Each of the three clusters represents different interactions between teachers and students. The research questions embrace how the teachers or students, through the didactical design, will have an advantage over the other. The empirical material was based on student focus groups interviews, enhanced through the method of stimulated recall where different photographs of teaching and learning situations from the one-to-one computing classroom were shown to the students. The results demonstrate three empirical themes: students’ learning in class, students’ learning outside class, and classroom assessment. From a theoretical lens of power and control, the students’ reasoning demonstrates approaches to how teachers regulate students and to how students can make decisions in their learning process. For handling students’ demands, specifically in pedagogical plans, the one-to-one computing classroom becomes one component for making students’ learning processes smoother regarding when to study and how to study.