Certain Predictors in the Selection and Design of the New Media Environment for Learning and Teaching

In Croatian classrooms it is possible to observe teaching scenarios that follow the features of constructivist and traditional teaching theories and many variants and combinations of teaching didactics that are student centered and those that are teacher centered. Teachers struggle to find their way in the selection and design of a media environment that fulfils the developmental needs and ways of learning of the net generation. In many classrooms, pupils still spend most of their time seated in twos at tables aligned in three columns listening to and watching what the teacher is saying and doing (in other words, teacher-centered instruction). Teaching equipment and furniture are mostly adjusted to the needs of the traditional theories of teaching and frontal instruction. The research was carried out on a total sample of 435 pupils in the upper secondary level of education in four counties in the continental part of the Republic of Croatia in order to examine the predictors of using the new media environment for learning. The authors employed the stepwise model to determine statistically significant predictors within the model. The predictors, such as the subject specialisation of the teacher, years of service, the traditional didactics paradigm and the constructivist position paradigm account for 12.7% of the variance of the criterion variable of using the new media environment for learning. Sex, type of school and the frequency of permanent professional development were not seen as statistically significant predictors, i.e., they were not included in the stepwise regression models. The question then arises about what the other, non-investigated predictors of the new media environment for learning would be, considering that the predictors determined do not provide an explanation for the high variability of the criterion variable. Years of service and the subject specialism of the teacher are seen as the most significant predictors of using the new media environment for learning. [This report is a selected paper from the International Conference on Education (ICED-2015) (4th, St. Petersburg, Russia, Jun 26-28, 2015).]