Actual pedagogical use by teachers

The data shown in Table 6.20 (Students’ Questionnaire item 7) add further strength to the observation that more is being said about the use of IT in teaching than actually done. Whereas very high percentages of school heads reported at least occasional use, the student data do not suggest that it is used very often. 27.4% (P3) and 41.9% (P6) reported that their teachers had not used IT at all in the previous month or had only used it two or three times during the month. Only 41% (P3) and 34.9% (P6) of the students reported their teachers having used IT in class two or three times per week– out of a total of more than 30 lessons per week – or almost daily. However, this is already a big improvement since the Preliminary Study, in which only 15.7% of P6 students had indicated that their teachers had used IT in class for more than two or three lessons a week. In the teacher focus-group interviews the teachers all claimed that they had reached the target set by the Government of using IT for 25% of their curriculum. However, during the school tours there was little evidence observed of widespread computer use by teachers in primary schools.

Table 6.20: Frequency of computer use by teachers during class in past month as reported by students (Students’ Questionnaire, Q. 7)

P3 (N = 2392)

P6 (N = 2457) Frequency

% Cum. % % Cum. %

Almost daily 11.9 11.9 9.3 9.3

2-3 times a week 29.1 41.0 25.6 34.9

About once a week 31.6 72.6 23.2 58.1

2-3 times per month 14.4 87.0 26.8 84.9

Not at all 13.0 100 15.1 100

Total 100 - 100 -

The patterns described above are reflected further in the qualitative data collected. While teachers said in the focus group interviews that one of the main reasons for using IT was to invoke student interest and make learning more exciting, interesting and motivational – which is not necessarily an appropriate way of conceptualising the role of IT – it was noted during classroom observations that some children were losing interest over a period of time and in some cases were quite obviously bored during lessons where the teacher was using IT. In fact, in the student interviews it was expressed by

Chapter 6: General Findings from Primary School Sector

some, particularly P6, students that they would prefer their teachers to use IT less because of the time wasted by the teacher setting up and operating the technology. In the teacher focus group interviews, teachers mentioned that, because children are accustomed to the visual stimulation and excitement of games, they are not so attracted by a simple computerised presentation. In fact, as the students’

comments are already beginning to suggest, it is probably likely that this kind of novelty effect may wear off as IT becomes more and more commonly used for this purpose. The following quotes from the teacher interviews clearly illustrate this point.

The use of IT in class initially stimulates the students’ desire to learn, but not in the later stage when they are accustomed to it.

Students began to lose interest and excitement. The only way to maintain their interest is to use more sophisticated software for teaching, e.g. Flash, animation, Dreamweaver etc.

However, their application is limited.

Nevertheless, it is somewhat encouraging that 87% of P3 and 84.9% of P6 students said their teachers had used IT at least two or three times a month other than in computer lessons – this is an improvement on the figure of 61% of teachers reported in the Preliminary Study as having used it in non-Computer Studies subjects.

In the School IT Survey data (item 4d), high use was reported of word processing and presentation software, followed by spreadsheets. This reflects a focus on presentation rather than on exploration and activity. Graphics design software was reported as being used to some extent but the use of rich media and interactive software still appears to be not very common in the primary schools surveyed.

Teachers’ self-reports of the software they are using (Table 6.21, Teachers’ Questionnaire item 12) are consistent with other data suggesting that presentation and word processing software are being used a lot, along with software used by textbook publishers. Relatively low use has been reported, however, of simulations or educational software other than that provided by the textbook publishers, which in many instances appear to be only summaries of the textbooks. As mentioned previously, 37 out of the 74 classes visited (of which 66 were observed using IT in lesson) used PowerPoint in the lesson, 19 used CD-ROM and only 8 had browsed the Internet during the lesson.

Table 6.21: Frequency of software used in teaching reported by teachers (Teachers’ Questionnaire, Q. 12)

% of teachers choosing the option N Software

Always Occasionally Rarely Never

Word processing software 69.1 24.1 5.3 1.5 3660

Spreadsheet software 19.0 44.2 27.2 9.5 3648

Database software 19.7 40.6 27.8 12.0 3638

Presentation software 40.2 39.0 15.3 5.4 3647

Communication software 31.2 37.6 23.5 7.7 3641

Web design software 13.2 37.5 36.6 12.7 3637

Audio/video editing software 11.0 33.7 38.4 16.9 3629

Graphics editing/drawing software 17.9 41.4 29.3 11.5 3635

Multi-media software 23.7 46.4 22.7 7.2 3639

Simulation software 5.0 28.7 43.0 23.4 3616

Practice and drill software 11.5 41.6 34.5 12.4 3629

Educational software developed by yourself 13.6 37.6 31.6 17.3 3642

Educational software developed by your school 9.5 37.5 32.4 20.7 3627

Educational software developed by EMB (Formerly ED) 6.5 37.0 39.1 17.5 3621 Educational software or teaching materials obtained from

HKedCity (HKedCity.net)

13.3 42.7 30.7 13.3 3628

Educational software developed by other government departments/voluntary organizations/tertiary institutions

6.7 36.1 39.2 18.0 3613

Educational software provided by textbook publishers 34.4 44.3 16.6 4.7 3639 Educational software developed by other software vendors 11.4 45.2 32.0 11.4 3604

From Table 6.22 (Teachers’ Questionnaire item 8) it can be seen quite clearly that teachers are using computers in primary schools, especially for searching for information (86.9%) and preparing teaching materials (81.2%), with more than 81% (about 20% more than reported in the Preliminary Study) using it occasionally or always for these purposes. In the Preliminary Study, (Table 2.3.21, p. 71, item 5) there was a similar item to one of those above, concerned with ‘Designing classroom activities/assignments that require the use of IT’. The response rate of 56.6% in the Preliminary Study compared to 71.1% rating occasionally/always on the item of the present study ‘designing inter-class activities and assignments’ gives some further support that more teachers are using computers than before. IT definitely seems to have become a more regular part of their culture and their daily routine.

However, there are still less than 39% of respondents using it to communicate with students (38.6%) or colleagues (35.6%) in ways that could enhance effective collaboration. Also, from the teacher focus group interviews it was evident that most of the teacher use is still limited to the use of presentation software although a small percentage said they give project-based homework to their students.

However, when we look at the teachers’ actual quotations, there seems to be a lot of mention of the fact that they use it for project-based work but not much detail about how they actually use it, which suggests that they instruct the students to go and find information on the Internet rather than structuring the learning experience, and there still seems to be some emphasis on learning the IT techniques rather than on higher-order thinking skills.

Students are asked to submit reports on special projects so that they can learn different IT techniques in the process.

Students were willing to accept the use of IT. They often go to the computer room and search for information to do project-based learning.

Table 6.22: Nature of use by teachers of IT in teaching-related activities (Teachers’ Questionnaire, Q. 8)

% of teachers choosing the option N Nature of use

Always Occasionally Rarely Never

Preparing teaching notes/course materials 29.5 51.7 16.0 2.8 3666

Searching for information, new pedagogy, teaching materials, etc. 35.3 51.6 11.8 1.4 3673

Designing inter-class activities and assignments 22.1 49.0 23.5 5.5 3656

Managing, administering and collecting student tests 14.5 28.5 32.7 24.3 3637

Discussing and communicating with students 6.3 32.3 40.5 20.8 3641

Discussing teaching-related matters with other teachers 5.5 30.1 41.6 22.9 3646 Carrying out collaborative projects with other schools 5.4 24.8 30.4 39.5 3619

However, the following teachers’ quotes show some encouragement that at least some teachers have a broader view of how IT can be used for project-based learning, although they also express concern over students’ ineffective use of technology for this purpose:

The next step is that students can search for information, manage data and find out answers for something unknown via the use of the computer.

As information is readily available, students tend to copy and paste information, and many times just do not think about the problems.

When we look further into the teachers’ reflections on the lessons with which they found their use of IT the most satisfying (Table 6.23, Teachers’ Questionnaire item 14b), it can be seen that the actual use is still more related to teacher-dominated than to student-centred learning, as was the case reported in the Preliminary Study. The most frequently reported use of teacher time was in explaining and demonstrating to the whole class, with 73.1% of teachers reporting to have done this all/most/half of the time. On the other hand, 61.1% of the teachers reported to have students working individually with computers for none or only a small proportion of the time, and 79.3% reported that none or only a small proportion of the class time was spent on students working in groups with the computers. There appears to be very little paradigm shift reflected in this item when compared with the Preliminary

Chapter 6: General Findings from Primary School Sector

Study result, on which the findings were almost the same as reported here. When we look at the kind of hardware and software used by teachers in the lessons with which they were the most satisfied we can see that these are again more presentation related. This supports the perception that, even in the lessons with which teachers feel the most satisfaction about their use of IT, they are still talking about didactic types of instruction, providing very little evidence that they are supporting student-centred learning or Internet use in class.

Table 6.23: Teachers’ allocation of time for different purposes in lessons in which they were most satisfied with IT application (Teachers’ Questionnaire, Q. 14b)

% of teachers choosing the option N Purposes

All of the time

Most of the time

Half of the time

A small of proportion of time

None of the time

Teacher explaining and demonstrating to whole class 3.1 30.5 39.5 26.0 1.0 3623 Students working individually with the computers 0.6 12.1 26.3 41.9 19.2 3487 Students working in group with the computers 0.5 5.6 14.6 42.3 37.0 3435

When students were asked to report their perceptions of the lesson using computers that they like the most (Students’ questionnaire item 13c), 60.4% of students in both grades reported that their teachers had been explaining and demonstrating to the whole class for at least half of the time. On the other hand, 50% of P3 and 60.4% of P6 students said students had worked individually with the computers a small proportion or none of the time and 66.5% of P3 and 74% of P6 students said students had worked in small groups with the computers a small proportion or none of the time.

The qualitative data also corroborate the findings from the quantitative data that the most common practices are still teacher-centred. One of the teachers made the following comment, which may explain the slow process of paradigm change:

Despite the heavy promotion of IT in Education, some teachers still possess traditional concepts of teaching and stick to the old teaching culture. I believe this makes it hard to make changes.

There were some descriptions in the teacher interviews of more creative use of IT but this was more commonly found in learning areas (like music and art) where richer resources and examples are available. The following example illustrates this:

IT is really useful for Art lessons. ... Many times, I will ask students to do some research first to arouse their learning motivation. When they go back home, they will really work on that.

e.g. if I try to introduce sculpture, I ask them to collect some information first. It turns out that they can find out many different sculptors, afterwards, it can turn to a small-scale project. I think this really helps to broaden their sphere of learning.

However, not many mentioned any creative use in any of the other Key Learning Areas. One teacher’s comment is typical of the reasons given for not doing so:

I think the effect will be better for science subjects but not language subjects. Say Chinese, students just key in the words, and there is no chance for them to practice writing. Their handwriting becomes worse. In addition, communication and presentation skill need practising. They need to speak more and no one can help. You need face-to-face conversation in order to achieve that.

As far as teachers’ reporting of use of IT in student assessment is concerned (Teachers' Questionnaire item 9a), there is little evidence that this is a common practice or that most teachers perceive it to be a worthwhile thing to do. Only 48.6% of teachers said that they had used IT for processing student assessment data and 41.7% that they had used it for evaluating students’ learning progress and efficacy.

Only around half or less of the teachers reported that saw benefits in using IT for evaluating students (Teachers’ Questionnaire item 9b). 56.7% said it allows greater flexibility in both time and place for evaluating students, 51.3% that it is easier to follow up on student evaluation, 45.9% that it is easier to relate evaluation results to students’ weaknesses, 45.1% that in enables students to conduct self-review and self-evaluation on their own initiative, and 44.1% that it supplements existing evaluation tools.

More teachers seemed to be aware of the benefits of using IT for processing student evaluation data (Teachers’ Questionnaire item 9c), 73.2% saying that it is faster to obtain the evaluation results and 60.5% that it allows for more accuracy in evaluation results. However, only 48.6% agreed that student performance can be evaluated in greater detail, 45.2% that it is easier to follow up on student evaluations and 43.4% that it is easier to relate evaluation results and students’ weaknesses.

When asked to comment on the use of IT to cater for individual students’ needs (School Heads’

Questionnaire item 7), 98.2% of the primary school heads indicated that IT had been used in certain subjects for practice or individual counseling to strengthen learning outcomes, but only 45%-59.5%

reported any cases of tailoring for various kinds of individual differences in the classroom.

Nevertheless, there is a marked increase (from 14-20% reporting this kind of use in the Preliminary Study to 45%-59.5% in this Study).