DAVID C. DWYER, CATHY RINGSTAFF, AND JUDY H. SANDHOLT/ Changes in Teachers' Beliefs and Practices in Technology-Rich Classrooms Teachers who had regular access to computer technology in their classrooms over several years' time experienced significant changes in their instruction, but not until they had confronted deeply held beliefs about schooling. An increase in cottaborative teaming in ACOT classrooms is evident not only among older students but among much younger ones an wett Here, two students at Stevens Creek I£tementan> School are working together to create a HyperCard'^'' based report about Catifomia whales using a Macintosh^ computer Sam (a priman-grade student) I don't know if we'll have computers |ncxt year]. If we don't, it will be weird Cause the teacher talks prett>' long, and you have to listen MAY 1991 '-i mother: He's really into it—I think computers are )ust part of our lives now. And it ha.sn't made Sam any less deter- mined in terms of wanting to read or paint ur draw And he's really proud, .Sam's teacher: I think computers are going to help me. It's not going to hun stu(.!ent,s—I think that they are j^oing to get as much out of working on the computers as they will out of woikinj^ out of work- hooks, 1 think But see, I'm not even 100 percent sure of that. Researcher It appeared chat chiltlrcn interacted with each other more frequently while working at computers And the inter- action.s were different—the ,stuclents spon- taneously helped eacli other They were curious about what others were doing. They were excited about their own activi- ties, and they were incendy engaged. These hehaviors were iuxtapo.sed against a baekdrop in which the adults in the environment variously encouraged and tliscouragcd alternative patterns of operat- ing. It was as if they were not really sure whether to promote or inhihit new behav- iors (Thclan 1989) 45