THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Educational interventions have been defined as efforts to implement and improve
educational programs within a specific context, and are based on research. Barraza (2006)
explains that educational interventions seek for innovative approaches to problematic concerns.
He adds that innovation emerges from an individual concern, or experiences, which acquire a
particular meaning from the professional practice of the people involved.
Based on this perspective, it is possible to place teachers at the center of problematic
situations as the main agents of change. Thereby, teachers become teacher-researchers and are
responsible for identifying the problematic situations: aspects that need to be fixed or that could
be improved.
Later in the process, teacher-researchers need to work on the construction of proposals
that help improve or change their context. This context can be as particular as the teacher’s own
practice or as general as the institution where the experience takes place.
According to Barraza (2005), there are three different kinds of educational innovation.
The main difference among these three lies in the specific area of the context being impacted by
the changes produced as a result of the innovation and therefore the intervention. These areas can
be: the institution, the curriculum, or the teaching practice. The extent to which the changes are
beneficial, or not, is determined by the teacher’s own perceptions.
There is some research regarding the use of mobile technologies to enhance English
learning, however, there seems to be a lack of research regarding our particular local and
national context.
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