CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN 42
4.2 Experienced teachers’ perceptions of their current ICT practices 60
Results for this research question were obtained from both the survey and the interviews. Section 4.2.1 presents the survey results, and section 4.2.2 presents the interview results.
4.2.1 Survey results
Figure 4.2 illustrates the focus of this section, with highlights on the instrument used and the relevant research question.
Chapter 4: Results 61 Figure 4.2 Map of survey and research question 1
The survey (shown in Table 4.1 and in Appendix A) required teachers to identify, on a scale of 1 to 5, how crucial ICTs were in helping them perform their role as a teacher. The scale options were 1: no ICT Use, 2: minor ICT use, 3: moderate ICT use, 4: major ICT use and 5: total ICT use.
The National Professional Standards for Teaching (AITSL, 2011)outline what teachers should know and be able to do and are grouped into three domains of teaching: professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement. Only the first five standards were used in this survey and this included a total of 27 focus areas, which are shown below.
Table 4.1 Survey based on 27 focus areas from National Professional Standards for Teaching
Q1 On a scale of 1 to 5 identify how crucial ICTs are to help perform Standard 1 - Know students and how they learn.
1. I use ICTs to identify and understand the physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of my students.
2. I use ICTs to understand how students learn including accessing research and collegial advice. 3. I use ICTs to design and implement effective teaching strategies for students from diverse
linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
4. I use ICTs to design and implement effective teaching strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
5. I use ICTs to differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
6. I use ICTs to develop and implement strategies to support full participation of students with disability.
Q2 On a scale of 1 to 5 identify how crucial ICTs are to help perform Standard 2 – Know the content and how to teach it.
1. I use ICTs to develop knowledge of my content area and appropriate teaching strategies to develop engaging teaching activities.
What are experienced teachers’ perceptions of
their current ICT practices?
What impact has professional development
had on experienced teachers’ ICT practices? Instrument
1 - Survey
Instrument 2 - Interview
Chapter 4: Results 62 2. I use ICTs to select and organise content into coherent, well-sequenced programs.
3. I use ICTs to design and implement learning and teaching programs based on curriculum documents (e.g. syllabus/work programs) and assessment and reporting requirements.
4. I use ICTs to increase my understanding and respect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
people to provide opportunities to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians.
5. I use ICTs to increase my knowledge and understanding of effective teaching strategies to support students’ literacy and numeracy achievement.
6. I use ICTs to develop effective teaching strategies to integrate ICT into learning and teaching programs.
Q3 On a scale of 1 to 5 identify how crucial ICTs are to help perform Standard 3 – Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
1. I use ICTs to establish explicit, challenging and achievable learning goals for all students. 2. I use ICTs to plan, structure and sequence learning programs that engage students and promote
learning.
3. I use ICTs to select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop students’ knowledge, skills, problem solving, and critical and creative thinking.
4. I use ICTs to select, create or use a range of resources that engage students in their learning. 5. I use ICTs to assist with effective classroom communication to support student understanding,
participation, engagement and achievement.
6. I use ICTs to evaluate and improve teaching programs using evidence from student feedback and student assessment data.
7. I use ICTs to help engage parents/carers to be involved in their children’s learning.
Q4 On a scale of 1 to 5 identify how crucial ICTs are to help perform Standard 4 – Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.
1. I use ICTs to support student participation by establishing and implementing positive and inclusive interactions to engage and support all students.
2. I use ICTs to manage classroom activities including establishing and maintaining orderly routines to create an environment where student time is spent on learning tasks.
3. I use ICTs to manage challenging behaviour, including establishing and negotiation clear expectations with students and address discipline issues promptly, fairly and respectfully. 4. I use ICTs to maintain student safety by implementing school, system, curriculum and legislative
requirements.
5. I use ICTs safely, responsibly and ethically by using strategies that promote this to students.
Q5 On a scale of 1 to 5, identify how crucial ICTs are to help perform Standard 5 - Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning.
1. I use ICTs to develop, select and use informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative assessment strategies to assess student learning.
2. I use ICTs to provide timely, effective and appropriate feedback to students about their achievement relative to their learning goals.
3. I use ICTs to understand and participate in assessment moderation activities to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
4. I use ICTs to review student assessment data to analyse and evaluate student understanding of subject/content, identifying interventions and modifying teaching practice.
5. I use ICTs to report clearly, accurately and respectfully to students and parents/carers about student achievement, making use of accurate and reliable records.
Chapter 4: Results 63 Full results from this survey are shown in Appendix C: Survey Data.
The results from this instrument showed that these experienced teachers’ believed that only three focus areas required the use of ICT to a major level, 16 focus areas used ICT to a moderate level and only three focus areas used ICT to a minor level. None of the focus areas had results at the extremes of the scale (1: no ICT use or 5: total ICT use).
Overall, the standard that had the highest reported use of ICT was Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it. Standard 2 includes content expertise, teaching strategies, sequencing of teaching programs and differentiation strategies. The standard with the next highest reported use was Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning. The data shows that the majority of ICT use by experienced teachers is occurring outside the class through planning and lesson preparation processes or through reporting processes. While schools have largely been successful in reaching infrastructure goals (Norton & Hathaway, 2011, p. 1011), there is ongoing concern about the use of ICTs to enhance students’ creative and critical thinking and their connected learning (Horizon Report, 2011, p. 7; Starkey, 2011, p. 2). These results support this concern and it is suggested that the low level of ICT use by teachers in the classroom for higher order thinking and connections could be attributed to teachers’ lack of knowledge (Morris, 2010; Pelgrum, 2001), limited experience with ICTs (Wachira & Keengwe, 2011), or in some cases, a lack of confidence (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010; Morris, 2010). The next section presents the results from the interviews. Figure 4.3 shows the instrument used and the relevant research question.
Figure 4.3 Map of interview and research question 1
What are experienced teachers’ perceptions of
their current ICT practices?
What impact has professional development
had on experienced teachers’ ICT practices? Instrument
1 - Survey
Instrument 2 - Interview
Chapter 4: Results 64
4.2.2 Interview results
The interviews were conducted over a period of two weeks and generally lasted approximately one hour each. All interviews were digitally recorded and then fully transcribed. The goal of the interviews was to collect data on teachers’ perceptions of their current ICT practices by asking them about the frequency of their ICT use, the primary use of ICT in areas such as administration, planning, implementation, assessment and communication, and if the rollout of higher numbers of laptops in the school had any impact on their ICT practices. The interview also sought to gather data on whole-school culture, school-wide processes and individuals’ beliefs about ICT practices.
The interview data, once transcribed (see Appendix B for the full transcripts) and analysed, was similar to the survey data in that it showed that the majority of ICT use by teachers was occurring outside the classroom. The results indicate that all six participants were highly motivated and engaged in ICTs, and were keen to ensure that their use of ICTs benefitted students. All six identified a variety of access issues related to the use of ICTs, which prevented them from regularly utilising ICTs in their classroom. The primary use of ICTs was in the form of planning, email and finding resources. This corroborates the results from the survey. When ICTs were used internally, it was mainly for the dissemination of information, via the presentation of multimedia or textual information, or for inquiry or research. Importantly, no participant discussed the use of ICTs for critical or creative thinking. However, it was clear from the participants’ responses that ICTs were frequently used to collect students’ assessment, provide timely and detailed feedback, and maintain regular communication with students.
Teachers were asked about their perceptions of the whole-school ICT culture, the school-wide processes to maintain and improve ICT use within the school, and their own individual perspectives and beliefs about ICT use. These interview questions were based on the theoretical foundations of Diffusions of Innovations (Rogers, 2003) and A theoretical and instrumental framework for implementing
change in ICT in education (Tearle, 2004). The data shows that while the majority of
participants felt that the whole-school culture and school-wide processes were encouraging ICT innovation and implementation, it was not as important as other school priorities, such as literacy and numeracy scores and Overall Position (OP)
Chapter 4: Results 65 results, which is the tertiary entrance rank process that Queensland schools follow. The lower priority on ICT use largely stems from the performance targets and standardised testing benchmarks that are at the forefront of all schools’ achievements. In addition, it is not easy to measure the effectiveness of ICTs (Erstad, 2009, p. 21; Hixon & Buckenmeyer, 2009, p. 2; Starkey, 2010, p. 3); currently, ICT performance measures are based on staff and student opinions, and ratios of equipment to students.
The data from this research indicates that teachers believe ICT promotes student engagement and positive attitude (Hattie, 2009); collaboration; and the motivation of students, teachers and school leaders. However, demands from competing priorities and the pace of change cause obstacles (MacDonald, 2008, p. 429; Pollard & Pollard, 2004, p. 150; Starkey, 2001, p. 20). If leaders are lacking in their own knowledge and confidence in ICTs, and are managing other priorities in addition to shaping whole-school culture and developing school-wide processes, this results in further obstacles that prevent the effective implementation of ICTs. The role of school leadership in ICT practices is further analysed in Chapter 5. The next section presents the results for the second research question.