Over the last fifty years there has been a shift concerning the way in which many developed and developing nations operate in a working and economic context, from a reliance on physical resources and manual labour, towards working conditions characterised by knowledge and information handling. The explosion of ICT as a social and economic tool has created the necessity for a workforce that is capable, confident, and competent with technology and the associated skills, which are often cited as the ability to access, compile, synthesis and exchange knowledge or information (Summak and Samancioglu, 2011: 2). Many jobs in modern economies are defined, at a base level, by the necessity for people to be able to engage with these information age skills. Many authors, on the topic of ICT, state that the ability to use technology has become pivotal to economic success, and they stress "the increasing importance of knowledge as the principle source of wealth creation in society" (Solvell and Birkinshaw, 2000: 83). With this assertion as a starting point, it seems prudent that any country or region that aspires to increase its economic power needs to devise an educational strategy that promotes ICT use and which encourages the development of the associated skills, which are now often viewed as prerequisite to engage in knowledge economy interactions. This thesis is an account of research into the effectiveness of the Educational Technology Strategy in Northern Ireland; specifically it examines teachers' and principals' perceptions of the current lCT strategy and the professional development provided for primary teachers. This study is based on the analysis of policy documents, a questionnaire survey with ninety responses from a total of three hundred teachers surveyed and interviews with nine active primary school teachers and four school principals. The research provides valuable insights into the provision of professional development for teachers aimed at supporting the appropriate use of ICT. It discusses the value attached to ICT skills development throughout education and also in an economic context. It critiques the current educational provision in Northern Ireland and it explores alternative models, which may be more effective in maximising the potential of ICT as a cross-curricular tool, and the development of subsequent and associated ICT skills and competences for pupils.

Policymakers who have invested in the use of ICT in education are often motivated by its promise to realise pedagogical innovations. However, the unrelenting gap between the promise and performance of ICT has continued to prompt further research into how the affordances of technology can be better harnessed in schools. This three-year qualitative case study hopes to shed light into this matter by looking at the: 1) ecological factors of how an ICT-enriched primary school in Singapore had been using technology to support the pedagogical reform for student-centred learning; 2) conditions that led to its sustained use of technology for this purpose. Complexity theory was employed as the analytical framework for the study. By examining the inter-connectedness of systemic influences governing the in-situ use of ICT in the exemplar school, educational leaders and policymakers can gain a holistic perspective of the factors that may promote or impede technology integration effort. Through the use of interviews, lesson and meeting observations as well as document analysis, the trajectory of the school’s ICT journey was mapped out. The development history surrounding the use of technology for teaching and learning provided a precursor to investigate how the school organisation as the unit of analysis had created favourable conditions leading to the sustainability of ICT-related innovations. Specifically, five themes had emerged: 1) continuous scanning of environment; 2) multi-pronged capacity building efforts; 3) mitigating systemic tensions amongst stakeholders; 4) shared accountability and 5) systematic pacing. Based on the findings to the study, a complexity-informed model for technology leadership, stakeholders’ dynamics and guidelines for policymaking were drawn up. The dissertation concludes with reflections on the use of complexity theory and recommendations for future research.

The deployment of technology across the globe towards creating efficient learning environments is growing rapidly. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government is investing an enormous amount of money in primary school early years programming lessons. The ideology behind this push is to strengthen the link between the younger generation and the technological growth that will continue to have an ever-increasing impact on their lives and to fuel the pace of innovation. One of the core themes of this area is that of computer programming, which has now become a mandatory subject in early years’ education. As a result of this change, many challenges are being faced by teachers and pupils; for example, teachers require more training and young students need appropriate tools that suit their level of learning. Therefore, this research aimed to help facilitate the process of teaching and learning programming for the young generation via the provision of a suitable technologically educational programming system whereby they can develop their programming skills. This proposed system has some pedagogical characteristics that distinguish it from other programming tutoring systems. The proposed system is based on assessment-driven learning whereby pupils are provided with suitable programming learning that fits their appropriate learning levels. Another characteristic of this proposed system is that pupils are learning programming through a deep learning approach, e.g. thinking and analysing how to solve the problem, not like other existing tools which have attempted only to achieve lower learning outcomes, e.g. remembering a concept and then answering multiple-choice questions. Two experimental studies were conducted on pupils from two UK primary schools to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed system, and the results indicated that pupils found the proposed system helped them to learn programming, as well as they made good progress and they enjoyed what they were learning. Consequently, it can be interpreted from the research findings that an automated teaching and learning programming system that supports the right pedagogical aspects, e.g. assessment-driven learning with the inclusion of game-based learning, would make the learning process more successful and enjoyable for pupils in early years of education.