Factors that Encourage Teachers to Use Technology
Cox et al (1999) carried out a study examining the factors relating to the uptake of ICT in teaching. A questionnaire was designed to collect evidence from teachers and other educators about their ICT experiences, expertise and use in teaching, their attitudes to the value of ICT for teaching and learning, the training they had received and, when relevant, their reasons for being a member of an association like MirandaNet, The National Association of Coordinators and IT Teachers and Teachernet UK. The sample consisted of 44 male and 28 female computer-using teachers with a mean age of 42 years. The results showed that the teachers who are already regular users of ICT have confidence in using ICT, perceive it to be useful for their personal work and for their teaching and plan to extend their use further in the future. The factors that were found to be the most important to these teachers in their teaching were: making the lessons more interesting, easier, more fun for them and their pupils, more diverse, more motivating for the pupils and more enjoyable. Additional more personal factors were: improving presentation of materials, allowing greater access to computers for personal use, giving more power to the teacher in the school, giving the teacher more prestige, making the teachers’ administration more efficient and providing professional support through the Internet. Veen (1993) carried out a study 8 years earlier to describe the day-to- day practice of four teachers from a Dutch secondary school who were implementing ICT in their classrooms. The teachers were provided with a computer at home, and a computer and a liquid crystal display in their classrooms. School factors played an important role in how the teachers made use of their computers including the essential technical support of 20 hours per week and the positive attitude of the principal. However, teacher factors outweighed the school factors in explaining the teachers’ use of computers. These teacher-level factors were grouped into two subcategories: beliefs and skills. The most important of these were teachers’ beliefs regarding what should be in the curricula (content) and the way in which their subjects should be taught (pedagogy). The skills that most influenced their uses of computers were those related to the teachers’ competence in managing classroom activities; to their pedagogical skills; and, less importantly, to their computer-handling technical skills. The most important finding from Veen’s work is that if the software matched the teacher’s pedagogy they used it. Several studies (e.g. Becker, 1994; Hadley & Sheingold, 1993; Sheingold & Hadley, 1990) used survey data to identify factors likely to be in evidence in teachers who to some extent have integrated computers into their teaching practices. Sheingold & Hadley (1990) conducted a nationwide survey of fourth to twelfth grade teachers in the USA. The three major factors involved in these ‘accomplished’ teachers’ success were: