Factors beyond the pure technological skills

From the above discussion, it seems that the integration of ICT into educational practice is seen as a priority in today’s school and it is welcomed by a very wide range of researchers, policy-makers, teachers and pupils. Leask and Pachler (1999: xvii) stated that:

There is an enormous amount of political pressure on teachers to move swiftly to a position where ICT is integrated into their work in

schools. Teachers around the world are feeling this pressure as governments divert funds to connect schools up to the web and to train staff.

However, it is argued in the literature that, rather than technological skills, there are many factors that influence teachers’ adoption of ICT in their classrooms either positively or negatively, such as their beliefs about the role and importance of ICT in education, their teaching strategies and pedagogies, their teaching subject, their experience and skills in using ICT, in addition to the influence of the wider context and the social interactions and relationships within this context (e.g. Alenezi, 2015; Almulhim, 2013; Drijvers, 2012; Enochsson & Rizza, 2009; Hennessy et al., 2007; Mansour et al., 2014; Sime & Priestley, 2005). These issues are discussed separately in the following sections of this chapter.

It is argued that teachers’ attitude towards the use of ICT in education could significantly influence the implementation of technology in the classroom (e.g. Blackwell et al., 2014; Jimoyiannis & Komis, 2007). They also found that many factors could influence teachers’ attitude towards ICT as a teaching and learning tool. Research (e.g. Nuttall et al., 2015; Sime & Priestley, 2005) indicates that, although most teachers are positive about ICT, their actual use of it is relatively poor and limited to some basic applications. Moreover, the subject and gender of teachers have been thought to have a direct impact on teachers’ belief about the role of ICT in education. Jimoyiannis and Komis (2007) found that technology, science and foreign languages teachers have a strongly positive attitude towards ICT as a teaching and learning tool, while mathematics and social sciences teachers have a relatively negative attitude towards it. This finding sheds light on the significant influence of the teaching subject on shaping teachers’ beliefs and perceptions about technology and their practice

and pedagogies. They also found that male teachers seem to have more positive beliefs about ICT than female teachers. This was supported by the findings of Kalogiannakis’s (2010) study which reported that male teachers have a more positive attitude about ICT in education than female teachers. He also highlighted the age impact on teachers’ perceptions about the adoption of ICT; he argued that younger teachers are more likely to adopt ICT in education than their older colleagues which was supported by Blackwell et al. (2014) and Camilleri and Camilleri (2016) arguments.

Regarding the age influence on teachers’ belief and perceptions about ICT in education, Jimoyiannis and Komis (2007) reported different findings from those of Kalogiannakis and the others who claimed that younger teachers are more likely to adopt technology. They stated that teachers with more than 30 years of teaching experience have a more positive attitude towards technology in education than those who have from 20 – 30 years’ experience, which raises a question that merits further investigation about the relationship between teachers, experience and perceptions about the role of technology in the classroom.

Cuckle and Clarke (2002) stated that teachers who have been teaching for some time may not always have sufficient ICT skills, which emphasises the importance of support and in-service training for teachers to be more confident in the integration of ICT in their teaching. Kalogiannakis (2010) also highlighted the importance of training not only for providing teachers with technological skills, but also for the effective pedagogical utilization of ICT.

From the above discussion, it can be argued that there are at least four factors that influence the use of ICT by teachers. The first factor is teachers’ beliefs and

attitudes towards the contribution that ICT can provide and the benefits and values of using technology in teaching and learning. Second is the teachers’ experience and skills that they have and their ability to use ICT in the classroom and their training in ICT uses. In addition, the availability of resources and equipment at school such as computers, access to the internet and the ownership of computers at home strongly influence teachers’ adoption of ICT in their teaching (Sime & Priestley, 2005). Community is also found to be an important aspect that can influence their use of technology. For example, teachers’ membership in a network or group that provides needed support encourages their use of technology (Sime & Priestley, 2005).

In addition to the above factors that can influence the adoption of ICT, pedagogical aspects associated with the use of technology seems to play a vital role in shaping teachers’ and pupils’ beliefs about it. Research (European Commission, 2001, cited in Tezci, 2011) found that the adoption of ICT in education to support the traditional transmission strategy of teaching can negatively influence teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes towards the adoption of ICT in the classroom (Tezci, 2011). This was the case in Saudi Arabia where research (e.g. Alenezi 2015; Almulhim, 2013) reported that saving time and effort was the only motivator of the pre-service teachers to use technology in their teaching where they usually adopt a traditional transmission strategy of teaching. In addition, the separation between technological and pedagogical preparation was also reported widely in Saudi Arabia (Al-Madani & Allaafiajiy 2014; Almalki & Williams, 2012; Almulhim, 2013). This might have led to the poor adoption of technology among Saudi teachers despite the huge fund that the educational development projects provided (Albugami & Ahmed, 2015).

Therefore, teaching strategies and teachers’ pedagogies are strongly related to how they adopt technology in their teaching. This highlights the importance of keeping teachers’ pedagogies up-to-date through training alongside technological training courses in order to improve the use of technology and make it successful. The negative impression that results from using technology to support traditional transmission teaching strategies can justify the research findings that, although huge efforts and finance have been made to provide ICT in schools and prepare teachers to adopt it in their teaching, the use of ICT among teachers is still low (Lim, 2007; OECD, 2004; Tezci, 2011). This could indicate that integrating technology into educational practice is not enough to improve teaching and learning processes; rather, many other aspects need to be considered and developed in order to integrate ICT effectively into practice such as curriculum and teacher preparation. Pineida (2011, p.54) suggested a possible explanation of this issue, which is that “many nations have focused on providing ICT to schools without making an educational project that considers other factors that also impact the TLP [Teaching and Learning Process], besides ICT”. This view coincides with Anderson’s (2008) view based on many international studies that the introduction of ICT into the traditional educational system does not necessarily improve teaching and learning processes. Moreover, many Saudi studies (e.g. Al-Faki & Khamis, 2014; Almalki & Williams, 2012; Almulhim, 2013) reported that introducing technology as part of educational reform projects into school focusing only on the technology and technological skills of teachers has led to its low adoption among teachers. This means that there is a need to consider the educational system as a whole in order to successfully integrate ICT into practice. Pineida (2011, p.54) proposed that “in order to produce good quality learning using ICT, students

should develop technological and learning competencies, and teachers should develop teaching, learning, professional, and technological competencies in order to make ICT improve learning outcomes”. This should start in an early stage of teachers’ preparation, particularly within teacher education programmes and pre-service training, taking into account the wider context and its influence in shaping the pedagogical culture in a given context.

This study is conducted to explore this gap in the literature regarding the science and mathematics pre-service teachers’ perceptions and practices of the integration of ICT in the classroom. In order to understand how successful integration could be achieved and how the adoption of ICT and the perceptions about it are shaped, this study considers the whole educational context and looks at the educational system as a whole by widening the area of focus through the lens of sociocultural theory that considers the whole environment and its social interactions and relationships, as will be discussed later in this chapter in the theoretical framework section. In addition to the school setting as a focus of the study, the university setting is considered to capture as much information as possible about how the use of ICT by pre-service teachers is influenced and shaped during their teaching practice at schools.