Teachers’ beliefs about ITEd

Chapter 6: General Findings from Primary School Sector

Table 6.16: Teachers’ primary objectives for using IT in teaching (Teachers’ Questionnaire, Q. 11)

SE N % of teachers choosing the option

Objectives Mean

(0 – 4) Strongly

agree

Agree Neutral/

uncertain

Disagree Strongly disagree To realise effects that can only be

achieved by using IT

2.7 0.01 3599 10.0 54.5 28.4 6.5 0.7

To enhance teaching effectiveness 2.9 0.01 3641 13.7 68.0 16.7 1.5 0.2 To strengthen communication among

students

2.4 0.02 3616 5.3 44.0 40.1 9.7 1.0

To provide more opportunities for student to work collaboratively

2.5 0.02 3621 4.9 47.3 38.3 8.6 1.0

To strengthen communication between teachers and students

2.5 0.02 3624 5.9 46.7 38.0 8.2 1.2

To strengthen communication between the school and parents

2.5 0.02 3619 5.9 45.8 38.3 8.4 1.6

To provide students with more opportunities for self-learning

3.0 0.01 3645 20.8 63.6 13.8 1.6 0.2

To provide students with more opportunities for self-assessment

2.6 0.02 3621 8.6 53.4 32.9 4.4 0.7

To assist students with learning difficulties or special education needs by specifically designed software/hardware

2.7 0.01 3616 9.6 53.0 32.0 4.6 0.9

To assist the development of gifted students by using specifically designed software/hardware

2.7 0.01 3617 11.5 53.3 30.4 4.0 0.8

However, as can be seen from Table 6.17 (Teachers’ Questionnaire item 14d), when it comes to actually describing their use of IT in the lessons with which they were the most satisfied, the primary school teachers’ paradigm still seems to be very much knowledge based, with very high proportions seeing their main roles as being to transmit knowledge (92.4%), provide learning materials and activities to enable students’ understanding of subject content (87.9%) and teaching new knowledge (87.7%). On the other hand only around 60% emphasised student engagement in problem-solving, information searching or creative tasks. Compared to the results of the parallel item on the Preliminary Study Questionnaire, it can be seen that there has been very little change in the teachers’ mean ratings for seeing their roles as transmitting knowledge to students and allowing students to do drilling exercises with computers and providing appropriate learning materials and activities to enable students to understand the subject content. However, there are small increases in the mean rating for engaging students in small group activities for problem analysis and information searching, from 3.2 (on a scale of 1 to 5 in the Preliminary Study) to 2.5 (on a scale of 0 to 4 in the Overall Study). It is interesting to note that the lowest rating was given to the use of drilling exercises, which may be an encouraging indication that they are moving away from the belief that this is the most effective use of IT, although this item also had one of the lowest mean ratings in the Preliminary Study.

The patterns of teachers’ use of IT are reinforced by the students’ perceptions of the lessons using computers they liked the most (Students’ Questionnaire item 13d). When asked to describe the teachers’ roles during these lessons, the most common were transmitting a lot of correct knowledge (rated as agree/strongly agree by 88.2% of P3 and 82.8% of P6 students), teaching new knowledge (78.7% and 80.8%), and providing appropriate learning materials and activities to enable understanding of the subject content (72.2% and 71.2%). The teacher’s role in providing drilling exercises was described by 71.8% of P3 students but only 57.2% of P6. Similarly the percentage rating provision of opportunities to learn through creative activities was higher for P3 (71.9%) than P6 (57.5%). Engagement in small group activities in problem analysis and information searching was rated highly by 60% of P3 students and 57.3% of P6.

Chapter 6: General Findings from Primary School Sector

Table 6.17: Teachers’ perceptions of their main roles in lesson with IT application that they were most satisfied (Teachers’ Questionnaire, Q. 14d)

SE N % of teachers choosing the option

Roles Mean

(0 – 4) Strongly

agree

Agree Neutral/

uncertain

Disagree Strongly disagree Transmit correct knowledge to

students

3.2 0.01 3598 32.9 59.5 6.5 0.9 0.2

Allow students to do drilling exercises with the computers

2.2 0.02 3532 4.5 40.0 33.9 17.2 4.4

Provide appropriate learning materials and activities to enable students to understand the subject content

3.1 0.01 3589 19.5 68.4 10.6 1.2 0.3

Engage students in small group activities in problem analysis and information searching

2.5 0.02 3538 9.5 49.1 27.3 10.0 4.2

Provide opportunities for students to learn through creative activities

2.6 0.02 3551 11.3 50.4 26.3 8.4 3.6

Teach students new knowledge 3.1 0.01 3571 22.1 65.6 10.2 1.9 0.3

Provide diversified exercises/practices

2.8 0.02 3559 16.8 58.1 18.3 5.2 1.7

From the teacher focus group interviews it was found that a large proportion of teachers think that using PowerPoint means they have already met the target of using IT. Certainly this was supported by observations during the classroom visits, in which 37 out of the 74 classes observed (of which 66 used some IT) used PowerPoint, with a further 19 using CD-ROMS, compared to only 8 in which some Internet browsing occurred during the lesson. A lot of teachers actually see IT as a way to make lessons more interesting or attract students’ attention rather than as a tool to facilitate student-centred learning. The following typical quotations from teachers’ interviews clearly illustrate further that teachers are tending to think about IT in this way.

IT can help make teaching more interesting to students as a variety of tools can be used, images, multimedia tools can make learning more interesting.

We show PowerPoint, pictures, graphics and charts and use on-line exercise games. They help to illustrate the content clearer and attract students’ attention more easily.

With the help of IT devices we can attract children’s attention easier.

In the interviews with representatives from the tertiary education sector and some of the EMB representatives interviewed, it was reiterated further that the majority of teachers are tending to use IT as a presentation tool to support teacher-centred learning than as a means of facilitating more student-centred learning.

There are many teachers who are very competent in the technical aspects but very weak in applying it in teaching and learning...More needs to be done to get teachers to rethink how they actually use IT in class, how they actually teach. (Tertiary institution representative)

Unless the system issues are in place and aligned, IT by itself isn’t going to change education. It’s a complement. It’s the ‘good ordinary’ teacher who needs as much as possible support and persuasion to use IT in effective ways – and the problem is that these are often the teachers that are using IT just as PowerPoint – which is probably just a waste of the teacher’s time! (Policy maker)

In terms of training the progress has been pretty good, but in terms of professional development we still have a long long way to go – at present a significant number of teachers still look upon IT as just a presentation skill – still a lot who have not grasped the

picture of what IT can do for their students – still have to do a lot along this line. (Project Owner)

Some indicated that they know there is more to ITEd than using PowerPoint presentations but find it difficult or even do not know how to do more. There is still a perception that good use of IT in teaching means good use of visual and audio impact such as animation facilities, rather than good pedagogical use of IT as a tool to stimulate thinking or facilitate students to construct their own knowledge. Lack of resources (hardware and software) has most commonly been quoted as the main reason for the didactic use in the classroom.

We are restricted by the limited facilities in the classroom. It is difficult to achieve the desired level of interactive teaching. Students’ participation is still very limited unless the class is conducted in the computer room.

Some publishers would provide additional exercises but most just provide an electronic version of the textbook. It would be very helpful should they produce some activity-based content.

While the next quotation also illustrates the above point, it is interesting to note that this teacher seems to believe having several students share one computer is not good practice, when in fact in terms of student-centred pedagogy such as social constructivism it is a very important practice (Papert & Havel, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978).

Resources are still very limited. It is still hard to work out the effect of interactive teaching and learning. Several students share one computer. Sometimes the situation can be even worse. What teachers can do now is using IT for presentation only, not interaction.

In the post-classroom observation interviews most teachers reported that they had felt satisfied with the outcomes of the lesson, and admittedly they probably would have had a better understanding of the context and background than the observers to enable them to judge this. However, some questionable practices were observed with which the teachers appeared to be satisfied. One example was a senior teacher who lacked IT skills. Before the lesson she had spent a whole day just to find a particular website relevant to the topic. In the class, she told the children that they had better skills than she did, wrote the website address on the board but almost immediately covered it with the screen before the children had a chance to use it, and left the children to find the site for themselves. She told the children not to ask her for help. Even after the children had located the site, they were left simply to browse it by themselves, without any teacher guidance about what to look for. The lesson lacked clear objectives and focus and no attempt was made to assess or discuss what the students had actually learned from their browsing, yet the teacher gave this lesson a rating of ‘4’ for satisfaction on a five-point scale. This is one example that suggests an observed tendency for teachers to feel overly satisfied with their own performances, which implies there may be a mismatch between what they think is good practice and what is really good use in terms of facilitating student-centred learning.