The 21st century is considered an era of information explosion. Information and communication technology is developing fast and penetrating into everyone's life and daily living. Governments of countries all over the world have invested huge amounts of money into the development of ICT in teaching and learning over the past 20 years. The Hong Kong government, with no exception, has invested huge sums of money alongside the declaration of initiatives for implementing the use of ICT into teaching and learning. However, the progress is still lagging behind the expectation despite the money and human resources invested. The implementation involves not only the introduction of a tool in changing classroom practice and pedagogy, but also a paradigm shift. The complexity of change, as Fullan (2001) describes it, is far beyond people's expectations. This multi-phase single case study on the implementation of using ICT in teaching and learning in a secondary school in Hong Kong attempts to look at the process of change through the lens of Activity Theory (Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy, 1999). It is argued that Activity Theory, as a dynamic and evolving body of thought, is a suitable framework for analysing change by describing and comparing the components of the system, the focal school, at different phases, in order to understand the change process or development. The concept of contradiction which is the driving force for development is given serious consideration in order to more fully understand teacher change. By presenting the focal school as a chronological series of activity systems at the three phases, comparisons of the components, subject, object, outcome, tools, rules, division of labour and community are studied, using the framework suggested by the Activity Theory. A thorough analysis of the relationships between the components helps to capture a holistic view of the activity system and the change process. Factors that might have facilitated or inhibited the change are identified along the way and interpreted in order to better understand the cultural and historical factors that have caused the present situation. An Activity Theory analysis of the contradictions that have driven development at different phases helps to reveal the change process and factors affecting the implementation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:546583 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Mo, Hoi Ling Stella |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12972/ |
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