(1767) THE INTEGRATION OF ICT IN TEACHING VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL SUBJECTS: ARE MALAYSIAN VOCATIONAL TEACHERS READY?

摘要

The use of computer in Malaysian can be traced as far back to 1966 when the first computer systemwas introduced by the Government. As one of the important central agency, The Ministry of Educationhas implemented various initiatives in support of the VISION 2020. In the last 10 years the MOE spentRM6 billion on ICT in education initiatives to ensure students know how to use ICT and are able toleverage it effectively to enhance their learning. Benefits if using ICT in education has been documentby many researchers, yet researchers in many countries also documented an under-utilized of ICT inmany classrooms. Reasons given were many and among others are: lack of confidence, poorattitudes, skills, lack of knowledge, and administrative support. In this paper we will present findings ofa research done involving 329 respondents (vocational and technical teachers in Malaysia). Teachers'readiness to integrate ICT in teaching is assessed using an instrument consisting of threecomponents: attitudes toward the use of ICT, ICT skills, and ICT knowledge. The reliability coefficientof the instrument was: 0.85 for ICT knowledge;;0.97 for ICT skills, and 0.86 for ICT attitudes. Thefindings of the study showed that majority of teachers had a moderate ICT related knowledge,moderate ICT related skills, but positive attitudes toward the use of ICT. We found that 69.9% ofteachers use ICT at a moderate level, 7.9% use ICT at a high level, and 22.2% use ICT at a low level.