TEACHER EXPENDING PEN: ICT INTEGRATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

摘要

Despite increasing investments in provision of ICT technologies (e.g. provision of government-funded laptops to students and teachers, interactive electronic whiteboards, introducing social media and applications, etc.), it is probably true that the widespread and routine use of new technology in teaching remains a goal still to be achieved. In spite of massive investment and increased presence of ICT-based technologies in schools, these technologies have not a significant lasting impact on teaching and learning practices. Why ICT technologies have found such a small place in teaching and learning practices or have been used to sustain existing practices has been a very puzzling problem. There can be unquestionably a large number of possible factors that may affect the complexity of ICT integration in education. A review of the evidence suggests that provision of a ICT- supported technologies on its own cannot lead to changes in teaching and learning, but teachers' beliefs, knowledge and expertise with these technologies can transform educational practices. In other words, ICT technologies will not be used in school unless teachers have the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to infuse it into the teaching and learning practices. Thus, it can be argued that "the teacher" is the key to understanding the ICT integration in education as the most crucial mediating factor in educational settings. For the most part, teachers use ICT-based technologies as an adjunct or add-on, and for supplemental purposes e.g. drill and practice activities, word processing, etc. but "have not yet applied these technologies in their classroom teaching and learning". Concerns about slow integration of ICT in schools' educational practices, similarly, have led leaders and policy makers at educational institutions and governmental levels to place a greater emphasis on providing more opportunities for pre-service teachers to use ICT in their educational practices. The challenge for teacher education institutions, then, is to prepare teachers who know how to integrate effective use of ICT in their pedagogical practices. This study, accordingly, looks at the integration of ICT in teacher training in the wider perspective of school development. To prepare teacher trainees for work in a rapidly changing, information rich and technology based society, more specifically, it analyses the key strategies in integration of ICT in teacher training programs and provides implications and directions for future analyses of ICT integration efforts. In order to analyse and synthesize the studies and examples of best practice to integrate ICT in education particularly in teacher education, a meta-synthesis exercise was undertaken. In other words, a systematic review method was employed to identify, critically appraise, and synthesize studies and examples of ICT integration in education generally and in teacher education programs in particular. The met-analysis outlines the key strategies that have been taken to incorporate and promote ICT in teacher-education programs. A part of the addressed strategies, which addresses the institutions policies, infrastructure and approaches, can be considered as macro strategies. Such strategies is often in alignment with the regional and national polices and stearic plans. The other part of strategies addresses the practices that teacher education programs embed to integrate ICT in their programs. By exemplifying and providing ways to employ ICT in different learning situations, these practices reflect examples of different ways of embedding ICT in teacher training programs. Mention should be made that the addressed strategies are complementary, thus a combination of the given strategies may be more efficient way in integrating ICT in teacher education programs.