M. Tech. Business Information Systems. Tshwane University of Technology 2011 / This research was carried out in the context of the government’s current efforts to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in teaching and learning, in secondary schools which appears to be a major challenge. The study was exploratory and descriptive in nature where the problem that has not been clearly defined or understood was addressed. Activity theory underpinned the study because of its dynamic perspective. The essence of activity theory stems from a view of learning where individuals actively construct their understanding of the environment while engaging in goal-oriented activities. The findings show that while the South African government has made the commitment and efforts to integrate ICTs in schools, there is no logical and detailed strategy to support the usage of these ICTs in teaching and learning activities. For example, some schools do have the right technologies and infrastructure, but teachers and learners do not know how to use and adopt them appropriately. Lack of (and inadequate) teacher training and development also adds to the challenges regarding the ICT integration in suburban secondary schools.

This thesis debates differences of an ICT coordinator's work in different countries. In its theoretical part, it examines work of an ICT coordinator and If and how this role could be separated to methodical (pedagogical) work and coordinating work and emphasizes how important it is to separate this role from a work of a technician. This work also brings results of various international researches from this field and compares them with a research done in the Czech Republic. Comparing the results reveals that situation of Czech ICT coordinators does not differ in most points from their international counterparts. The two areas that show differences is that the Czech coordinators are more often expected to cover work of a an IT technican and more issues with quality of hardware and internet connection. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

In this study I wished to understand whether my short-term training intervention enabled teachers to design and implement a lesson in which technology is effectively integrated. Participants were 22 teachers, some of whom held positions on their school’s management team, and 80 learners from 4 districts of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Teachers in the province have been trained in computer literacy; however, sadly, this did not automatically translate into classroom ICT integration. Overall, teachers do not integrate technology into their teaching. A number of reasons for this are identified. People involved in integrating technologies into the teaching and learning process have to be convinced of the value of the technologies, be comfortable with them, and be skilled in using them. Therefore, a short-term training intervention was designed to test whether it can benefit teachers by enhancing teaching and learning through communication and collaboration, by means of ICT. The results revealed that the teachers on the training programme gained knowledge of how to integrate ICT, that they collaborated, that their pedagogy also changed, and that their learners felt that their learning was improved. To ensure realistic and holistic solutions for policymakers, district and school officials, the factors that prevent teachers from making full use of ICT were also iterated. Detailed results and implications of the results are discussed.

The educational policy environment in Australia explicitly supports the integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) through targeted initiatives covering infrastructure, equipment, electronic learning materials and professional development. However, for all the energy expended to encourage teachers to use ICT, it is reported that few teachers take full advantage of the significant opportunities that ICT present. A number of reasons have been cited to explain this, the most compelling of which are bound up with teachers’ knowledge and skills in harnessing ICT and their beliefs about ICT and teaching itself. This research presents a three year longitudinal study of a cohort of 35 beginning teachers located in Western Australia. The focus on beginning teachers is purposeful. It is suggested that this segment of the teaching profession can provide useful insights into the affordances and risks that teachers face in harnessing ICT. Beginning teachers may also provide a window into how ICT will be taken up in the future. The aim of the research, therefore, is to describe and explain beginning teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, dispositions and skills in using ICT within the context of their school environment(s). The research literature characterises beginning teachers as having positive self-perceptions of their ability to use ICT, and embracing contemporary, student-centred theories of learning. Given these preconditions, it might seem likely that beginning teachers would seek to integrate ICT into their teaching in innovative ways. The seven research questions that underpin and guide the research are aimed, at least in part, at confirming or challenging this assertion. The study adopts a mixed method approach in seeking to understand and interpret the dynamic nature of participants’ beliefs about teaching and their knowledge, dispositions and skills in using ICT within their socio-cultural context. A rich data set, gathered over three years and using qualitative and quantitative techniques, is presented to provide evidence in relation to the study’s research questions. The longitudinal nature of the study provides opportunities to interpret this data set over time, adding to the strength and credibility of the research. Participants articulated pedagogical beliefs that aimed to engage students in active meaning making. However, the way in which participants used ICT was generally limited to presentation-style teaching, completion of worksheets using a narrow range of productivity software and the use of the World Wide Web for simple inquiries or reinforcement. There was a clear mismatch between the ideals that participants claimed to hold to be important and their capacity to use ICT to help realise these ideals. Four interrelated factors are posited to explain this: lack of clarity over beliefs and how ICT can support these beliefs; variability of perceptions within schools of the affordances and risks of using ICT; embedded structural constraints that stall the creative use of ICT; and, deficiencies in technological-pedagogical-content knowledge. The study may interest educational policy-makers, school leaders, managers, teachers and other learning professionals that are considering how to conceptualise, plan, implement and/or enhance the use of ICT within their local context. A model is presented to help educators grapple with the implications of using ICT in the classroom and explore its transformative potential.

Abstract : Information and communication technologies (ICTs, henceforth) have become ubiquitous in our society. The plethora of devices competing with the computer, from iPads to the Interactive whiteboard, just to name a few, has provided teachers and students alike with the ability to communicate and access information with unprecedented accessibility and speed. It is only logical that schools reflect these changes given that their purpose is to prepare students for the future. Surprisingly enough, research indicates that ICT integration into teaching activities is still marginal. Many elementary and secondary schoolteachers are not making effective use of ICTs in their teaching activities as well as in their assessment practices. The purpose of the current study is a) to describe Quebec ESL teachers’ profiles of using ICTs in their daily teaching activities; b) to describe teachers’ ICT integration and assessment practices; and c) to describe teachers’ social representations regarding the utility and relevance of ICT use in their daily teaching activities and assessment practices. In order to attain our objectives, we based our theoretical framework, principally, on the social representations (SR, henceforth) theory and we defined most related constructs which were deemed fundamental to the current thesis. We also collected data from 28 ESL elementary and secondary school teachers working in public and private sectors. The interview guide used to that end included a range of items to elicit teachers’ SR in terms of ICT daily use in teaching activities as well as in assessment practices. In addition, we carried out our data analyses from a textual statistics perspective, a particular mode of content analysis, in order to extract the indicators underlying teachers’ representations of the teachers. The findings suggest that although almost all participants use a wide range of ICT tools in their practices, ICT implementation is seemingly not exploited to its fullest potential and, correspondingly, is likely to produce limited effects on students’ learning. Moreover, none of the interviewees claim that they use ICTs in their assessment practices and they still hold to the traditional paper-based assessment (PBA, henceforth) approach of assessing students’ learning. Teachers’ common discourse reveals a gap between the positive standpoint with regards to ICT integration, on the one hand, and the actual uses of instructional technology, on the other. These results are useful for better understanding the way ESL teachers in Quebec currently view their use of ICTs, particularly for evaluation purposes. In fact, they provide a starting place for reconsidering the implementation of ICTs in elementary and secondary schools. They may also be useful to open up avenues for the development of a future research program in this regard. / Résumé : Les technologies d’information et de communication (TIC) sont devenues omniprésentes dans notre société. L’abondante panoplie de dispositifs rivalisant avec l’ordinateur, allant de l’iPad au Tableau blanc interactif, pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns, a permis aux enseignantes et enseignants ainsi qu’aux élèves de communiquer et d’obtenir de l’information avec une vitesse et une accessibilité jamais égalées jusqu’à aujourd’hui. De ce fait, il serait attendu que les pratiques éducatives traditionnelles, qui ne semblent plus compatibles avec les attentes des élèves et les besoins de main-d’œuvre d’aujourd’hui soient modifiées (Ahmed et Nasser, 2015). Malheureusement, la recherche indique que les réalités d’intégration des TIC sont toujours loin de la rhétorique. Plusieurs enseignantes et enseignants d’écoles primaires et secondaires n’utilisent pas les TIC d’une façon efficace et ce, autant dans leurs activités d’enseignement que dans leurs pratiques évaluatives. La présente étude, de type exploratoire-descriptif, vise à 1) décrire les profils des enseignantes et enseignants d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) utilisant les TIC dans leurs activités quotidiennes d’enseignement et leurs pratiques évaluatives; 2) décrire les pratiques d'intégration des TIC dans les activités d’enseignement et les pratiques d'évaluation de ces enseignantes et enseignants; et 3) décrire les représentations sociales (RS) des enseignantes et enseignants concernant l'utilité et la pertinence de l'utilisation des TIC dans leurs activités quotidiennes d'enseignement et leurs pratiques d'évaluation. Pour atteindre nos objectifs, nous basons principalement notre cadre théorique sur la théorie de la RS et nous définissons les concepts et les construits les plus étroitement associés qui sont considérés comme fondamentaux pour la thèse actuelle. Nous avons recueilli nos données auprès d’un échantillon de 28 enseignantes et enseignants d’ALS du primaire et du secondaire qui travaillent dans les secteurs publics et privés. Le guide d'entretien utilisé à cette fin comprend un nombre d’items visant à favoriser l’élucidation des RS des enseignants en matière de l’usage quotidien des TIC dans les activités d'enseignement ainsi que des pratiques d'évaluation. De plus, nous avons réalisé nos analyses dans une perspective de statistique textuelle, un mode particulier d’analyse de contenu, afin d’extraire les indicateurs sous-jacents aux représentations des enseignants. Les résultats suggèrent que, bien que presque tous les participants utilisent un large éventail d'outils de TIC dans leurs pratiques, il s’avère que la mise en œuvre des TIC n’est pas exploitée à son plein potentiel et, en conséquence, est susceptible de produire des effets limités sur l'apprentissage des élèves. En outre, aucun des interviewés affirment qu'ils utilisent les TIC dans leurs pratiques d'évaluation et ils tiennent encore à l'approche traditionnelle du papier-crayon dans l'évaluation de l'apprentissage des élèves. Le discours commun des enseignantes et enseignants révèle un écart entre le point de vue positif en ce qui concerne l'intégration des TIC, d'une part, et les utilisations réelles de la technologie pédagogique, de l'autre part. Ces résultats sont utiles pour mieux comprendre la façon dont les enseignantes et les enseignants d'anglais langue seconde au Québec perçoivent leur utilisation des TIC, en particulier à des fins d'évaluation. En effet, ils fournissent un point de départ pour reconsidérer la mise en œuvre des TIC dans les écoles primaires et secondaires. Ils pourraient également être utiles pour élaborer des pistes pour le développement d’un futur programme de recherche à cet égard.

Although information and communication technology (ICT) has gradually become a standard teaching technology in schools in many countries and regions like Hong Kong, the implementation of ICT in teaching and learning in schools still fails to meet high government and public expectations. This study was an investigation into the potential of peer support to enhance professional development of ICT integration for secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. The study utilized peer support as a social approach to professional development and employed action research to examine the experiences of ten secondary school teachers who worked in five peer support groups for sixteen months. A peer support model was introduced to the participants who then applied these principles in their own contexts. Data on participants' reflections and evaluations of the peer support process was collected through individual interviews and peer-group conferences. Each participant was interviewed at the beginning, middle and end of the research period and each peer group was interviewed at the end of the project. By employing a grounded theory approach, themes related to the participants' experiences of peer support for ICT integration and the impact of peer support as a means of professional development were generated from the data. The study's findings indicate that the participants responded positively to peer support as a means of professional development. Peer support was successful in: increasing professional interactions; broadening perspectives of ICT; increasing reflection; and providing personal and emotional support. From an analysis of the study's findings, in conjunction with a review of the appropriate literature, a teacher professional development model for ICT integration has been developed that may be helpful in furthering the goal of successful ICT integration. This model focuses on the importance of intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic incentives and is based on a developmental process in which individual teachers determine their own practice through peer support enhanced critical reflection that continually expands their personal context of ICT integration.

An explanatory mixed method research design was utilized to examine the elementary teachers&rsquo / (classroom teachers) perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching. In the first phase instruments were translated into Turkish and pilot tested with 282 classroom teachers. For the main study, the survey was distributed to classroom teachers in 90 schools in Ankara. With a 45% percent return rate, 1055 surveys from elementary teachers were used in the quantitative data analysis part. Two simultaneous multiple regression analysis were conducted and the results showed that teachers&rsquo / perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching can be explained by different sets of variables where the most important one is teachers&rsquo / pedagogical beliefs. In the third phase, teachers were clustered under constructivist and behaviorist groups and ten teachers from each group were interviewed to reveal the differences on teachers&rsquo / ICT integration perception in relation to education and their teaching. The research result presented that elementary teacher pedagogical beliefs affect their perceptions towards ICT integration in teaching and learning process. Qualitative data analysis presented differences between constructivist and behaviorist group participants in relation to ICT integration in teaching and learning process.

The purpose of the study was to identify the factors affecting the information and communication technologies. integration in the basic education schools. Mixed Model Research Design was utilized to find out the factors directly affecting integration of ICT integration in schools of K-8. Three different research methods were use sequentially. In the first step, new curricula used for Math, Social Studies and Science and Technology courses were examined to draw the pattern of ICT use defined by these curricula. In the light of the information gained through examination of curricula, 20 teachers were interviewed to understand whether they can put ICT based activities defined by curricula into practice or not. Simultaneously, they also identified common problems preventing them to integrate educational technology in their lessons and possible solutions to have a better ICT and education relationship. The literature and the information gained through first two step of the study suggested computer self-efficacy of teachers is very important factor within the integration of ICT. To assess teachers&#039 / computer self-efficacy, a questionnaire was designed by the researcher and necessary pilot studies were completed to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Final form of the questionnaire was distributed to K-8 schools&#039 / teachers from 12 predefined cities of Turkey according to statistical information provided by EUROSTAT (Statistical Office of European Union). 1025 correctly filled questionnaire forms were returned and the data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics techniques. Result of the study suggested that, Internet is the most vital technology to successfully apply the curricula. Use of Office programs and different educational software also constitute considerable part of the curricula. But teachers indicated that they cannot apply curricular ICT based activities in school setting because of lack of access to technology, literacy, training, time and confidence/self-efficacy. It is also found that, teachers&#039 / age/ and teaching experience negatively contributed to their level of computer self-efficacy when their personal or home computer use was contributing very positively. On the other hand, existing computer training programs were found less effective than expected in terms of ICT integration. Based on these results, some basic improvements and modifications in curricula, training programs, and technology infrastructure of schools were suggested.

La récente réforme des lycées en France de 2009 s'est accompagnée d'un changement de programmes en mathématiques. Relativement à la classe de seconde, deux sujets nous questionnent : d'une part, la nouvelle place de l'algèbre, désormais plongée dans le domaine fonctionnel, lui conférant un rôle essentiellement d'outil, et d'autre part l'introduction d'une familiarisation avec l'algorithmique. De par l'intérêt de lier ces deux sujets, ce travail de thèse propose une étude didactique de la reprise de l'algèbre élémentaire en classe de seconde, et plus particulièrement des objets gravitant autour du concept d'équation, objets dont nous cherchons à affiner le sens par le détour de l'algorithmique. Nous situant dans le cadre de la théorie anthropologique du didactique de Chevallard, nous étudions les conditions et les contraintes de cette reprise. Au travers d'une ingénierie didactique mise en place avec la collaboration de trois enseignants de lycée, nous montrons comment la reprise de concepts d'algèbre élémentaire par le biais de l'algorithmique induit pour les élèves un geste de généralisation, tout en réalisant une certaine matérialisation des objets algébriques, en les manipulant au sein d'un programme informatique. Pour les enseignants, cette ingénierie provoque un questionnement sur les praxéologies de leur enseignement de l'algèbre, suscité par des tâches non routinières de catégorisation et de modélisation des équations. Enfin, nous mettons en évidence la question de l'intégration du domaine de l'algorithmique dans la discipline des mathématiques et le besoin d'une formation des professeurs pour assurer la viabilité de cet enseignement. / The recent French schools reform (2009) was accompanied by a change in mathematics curriculum. With respect to the “classe de seconde” (9th-10th Grade in US High School), two subjects question us: first, the new positioning of algebra, now part of the functional domain, giving it a primary role of tool, and on the other hand, the introduction of algorithmic concepts.Through the value of combining these two subjects, this thesis proposes a didactic study of the resumption of elementary algebra in “classe de seconde”, and especially of the objects orbiting around equation concept, objects of which we search to refine the meaning, through the detour of algorithmics. Positioned within the anthropological theory of the didactic by Chevallard, we study the conditions and constraints of this resumption. Through a didactic engineering implementation in collaboration with three high school teachers, we show how the resumption of basic algebra concepts through algorithmics induced for students a gesture of generalization, while achieving some materialization of algebraic objects, manipulating them in a computer program. For teachers, this engineering induces a questioning of their praxeology teaching algebra, generated by non-routine tasks of equations categorization and modeling. Finally, we highlight the challenge of integrating algorithmics domain within mathematics discipline and the need for teachers to be trained, to ensure the viability of this teaching.

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