International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 12, No. 3 (2016)

The effects of pre-service training on ICT implementation in the classroom

Hicham Zyad, Hassan II University, the Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ben M'Sik, Morocco

Abstract
This paper aims to explore practicing teachers’ perceptions of the approach adopted in their pre-service training programs with regard to educational technology. The paper also investigates the extent to which the teachers employ technology to accomplish pedagogical goals as well as the instructional methodology they embrace when they use ICT in the classroom. The thrust of the argument in the current study is that the way practicing teachers use educational technology is reflective of the inadequacy of the pre-service training programs that still insist on disentangling ICT from pedagogy and content. Informed by TPACK, a four-section, five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 56 ELT practitioners in middle and secondary education in the province of El-Jadida. It was found that the integration of technology, pedagogy and content was left to the discretion of the teachers. This approach resulted in limited ICT implementation for instructional purposes and inconsistent interpretations of how ICT can best be used in the classroom. Although the teachers reported that they embraced a student-centered methodology while using ICT, they also fell back on teacher-centered instructional principles. On the basis of the results obtained, a number of implications will be offered for an effective ICT-oriented ELT teacher education. Keywords: ELT; TPACK; Pre-service teacher education; ICT; Middle and secondary education.

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