An Effective Path for Rural Teachers to Use Digital Education Resources in Chinese Underdeveloped Areas: A Study Based on Grounded Theory

Digital education resources (DERs) is an important part of the digital transformation of education. At the same time, DERs has potentially important functions in improving the quality of rural education and narrowing down the gap between rural and urban education. However, how DERs can be effectively applied in rural schools in underdeveloped areas is the key to the effectiveness of this potential function. This study took a rural school in a Chinese underdeveloped area as a case, and conducted in-depth interviews with the school principal and 8 teachers who frequently use DERs. The interview data was proceeded in NVivo11 and openly coded into five core categories as schools' development planning, teaching environment support, teachers' professional development, teachers' community atmosphere and effective application mode according to the Grounded Theory. Finally, an effective path for rural teachers to use DERs in teaching was obtained. The study found that the effective path for DERs usage of rural teachers in underdeveloped areas was as follows: 1) The principal leads the teachers to jointly explore the development direction that is suitable for the actual situation of the school and is recognized by the teachers, 2) Teachers actively explore and establish a positive professional learning atmosphere, and normalize the application of DERs in teaching, 3) Finally, teachers will be rewarded with more active learning and exploration based on excellent and visible teaching effects.