Teachers’ concerns about integrating information and communication technologies in the classrooms

Abstract

Teachers in developing countries are facing increasing social and political pressure to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve the access to and the quality of education available to young people. This is a core part of several government-led initiatives to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4-quality education. While there is no shortage of ICT, the adoption for actual use in the classroom is often a hurdle for teachers, due to various concerns they harbour. This research study used the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to assess the stages of concern of 340 Nigerian teachers about adopting and integrating ICT in the classroom. The findings indicated that teachers’ concerns were most intense in the awareness, management and information stages respectively, and lowest at the collaborative and consequence levels. Further examination of the results also shows a significant relationship between the stages of concern and teachers’ personal attributes like teaching experience, age and the class level they teach. These findings provide practical insights into how to better create effective teacher professional development interventions, to assist teachers in adopting and integrating ICT, to enhance the learning experience of young people within the classroom.

Teachers’ sense of competence in terms of ICT use: the case of secondary school teachers

“…In addition, our findings are reflected, with similar trends, in other studies in different contexts, especially when it comes to the dimensions of digital competence that require creative and innovative abilities, despite using various measurement tools and labels of digital competence (e.g. Artacho et al 2020;Dele-Ajayi, Fasae, and Okoli 2021;Garzón-Artacho et al 2021).…”

“…This conclusion is backed up by other studies' findings (e.g. Benali, Kaddouri, and Azzimani 2018;Dele-Ajayi, Fasae, and Okoli 2021). Thirdly, significant differences were found regarding teachers' learning readiness.…”

“…A surprising remark is that none of the studies we consulted indicated significant differences in digital competence regarding gender (e.g. Benali, Kaddouri, and Azzimani 2018;Dele-Ajayi, Fasae, and Okoli 2021;Garzón-Artacho et al 2021;Sánchez Prieto et al 2020). Lastly, it was found that teachers in science and activity school subjects feel significantly more competent in terms of ICT use than those in literary school subjects.…”

“…Although it is an old theoretical model, the CBAM is still used in recent research which considers the integration of technology in education as an innovation (e.g. Alnujaidi 2021;Ashrafzadeh and Sayadian 2015;Dele-Ajayi, Fasae, and Okoli 2021;Hao and Lee 2015;St-Laurent and Poellhuber 2018).…”

Understanding student perceptions of social computing and online tools to enhance learning

“…Similarly, inadequate facilitation knowledge on how to effectively use social computing software has the potential to elicit technical anxiety associated with their use [ 10 ]. Additionally, educators express concerns about the management aspect of innovative social computing tools [ 11 ], which can adversely impact the online teaching and learning process [ 12 ].…”