Ecer 2007: School Policies and ICT Use in Primary Education
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Despite the assumption that the integration of ICT influences the entire school system, research focusing on ICT in schools is generally limited to the study of variables at classroom level. In contrast to these studies, the present research explores ICT integration from a school improvement approach. More particularly, it examines the local school policy with respect to ICT integration from both the principal’s perspective and perceptions of teachers. Furthermore, it studies the relationship between school policies and the actual use of ICT in the classroom. To answer the research questions, a representative sample of 53 primary school principals was interviewed. In addition, the interview data were supplemented with survey data of 574 teachers from the same 53 schools. What emerged from the analyses was that school-related policies, such as an ICT plan, ICT support and ICT training have a significant effect on class use of ICT. In addition, the findings from the interviews indicate that school policies are often underdeveloped and underutilised. The discussion section focuses on challenges to improve the potential of an ICT school policy. More info: Tondeur, J., Van Keer, H., van Braak, J., & Valcke, M. (2008). ICT integration in the classroom: challenging the potential of a school policy. Computers and Education.51, 212-223.
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Ecer 2007: School Policies and ICT Use in Primary Education
- 2. Cooperation for the dissemination of ICT-related knowledge (Triggs & John, 2004) Networking and exchange of good practice (Hopkins & Reynolds, 2001) Evaluation to monitor the integration of ICT and guide ICT planning (Kennewell, Parkinson, & Tanner, 2000) (Self) evaluation systems for monitoring change (MacBeath, 1999) Support and training to ensure ICT integration (Lai & Pratt, 2004) Profession development and support (Stoll, 1999) Leadership to direct the process of ICT integration (Dawson & Rakes, 2003) Strong leadership to guide change efforts (Gray, 1997) Development of an ICT plan (Otto & Albion, 2002) Clear goals and systematic strategies for educational change (Reynolds et al., 2000) ICT-integration School improvement
- 4. Data collection ICT school policies School characteristics ICT class use Perceptions ICT policies Teacher characteristics Aim Interviews Vragenlijstonderzoek Instrument 57 principals Same schools 570 teachers Primary education Flanders Sample Study 2 Study 1
- 5. To what extent does your school have an ICT plan? ICT plan Extensive Limited None Percent 40 30 20 10 0 Developing
- 6. What engagements are made at school level? What engagements are made at school level? ICT-plan Learning and instruction Training Learning path Standards Software Infrastructure
- 7. “ Despite the effort of the ICT co-ordinatior to set up a strategic plan, teachers are not aware of the specifics of the plan.” [Principal/School 17] ICT-plan
- 8. Parents Study group Teachers ICT co-ordinator Support Which actors play an important role in the development of an ICT policy?
- 9. Support “ Last year, our school had an excellent ICT co-ordinator; now that he’s gone, ICT-integration doesn’t receive a lot of attention anymore…” [Principal/School 37] “ With three hours a week, our ICT co-ordinator has enough time to repair our computers, but not enough for pedagogical input” [Principal/School 4]
- 10. Support What are the needs and the barriers for a better integration of ICT in the classroom? More training (20%) Limited level of ICT skills of teachers (18%) More ICT co-ordination (36%) Not enough ICT- co-ordination (28%) Better infrastructure (58%) Lack of access to resources (52%) Needs Barriers
- 11. Support “ In 2002, the Flemish government reached the aim of one PC for every 10 pupils, but they forget that these computers need an update.” [Principal/School 27]
- 13. Impact of school and teacher characteristics on ICT integration in class Pupil / PC-ratio ICT training ICT support ICT plan School characteristics - Principal + + + Teacher
- 14. Intensity computer use Computer attitudes Innovativeness Individual characteristics Principal + + + Teacher
Notas do Editor
- As you all know, the integration of ICT in education is a complex innovation. This innovation is influenced by different actors and factors on different levels: class level, school level and even national level. As you can see, most of the variables are situated at class level: Pupils’ behavior, teachers’ behavior, content, and infrastructure. Little is known about the role of the management We wanted to know more about the impact of the school level with respect ICT integration in the classroom.
- Our starting point is that ICT integration can be discussed from a school improvement perspective. In This Table you can see five key factors from the school improvement approach and how they can be linked to ICT integration in the classroom.
- describe the state of the art regarding ICT school policies in Flemish primary schools with respect to five areas emerging from the school improvement approach Within this research we first examine the involvement and the perception of school leaders with respect to the use of ICT in Flemish primary education, Furthermore we want to measure the effect of the ICT school policy on the way teachers use ICT for learning and instruction.
- Therefore we interviewed a sample of 55 school leaders in primary education. This data collection fits into a broader research framework: we already had organized a survey among 570 teachers in the same schools a few months before. About…
- A first question is concerned with the availability of a local ICT plan. In Flemish primary education, only 20% of the principals reported the existence of an extensive ICT plan. 39% has a limited ICT Plan, another 39 % has no ICT Plan whatsoever, of which half are ready to start the development of an ICT plan. The next slide presents information on the content of the ICT-plan
- In most of the cases, the ICT-plan included information on what pupils should learn at each grade level, as well as agreements concerning ICT infrastructure and software. Not so much information is included on professional development and aspects related to learning and instruction.
- As school leaders perceive their role mainly as supportive, they expect a lot from ICT-co-ordinators. They are convinced that ICT-co-ordinators have a main responsibility for the development of an ICT school policy.
- School leaders support the idea of ICT-co-ordination, but they all agree that the ICT-co-ordinator has not enough time. ICT-co-ordinators mainly perform as technical experts, but their impact in educational or policy related issues is rather limited. The government in Flanders is aware of this problem and has put forward the definition of a clear mandate of ICT-coordinators as one of the priorities for the next term.
- We asked school leaders about the barriers they perceive for an easy integration of ICT in the classroom, as well as their needs. The main barriers reported were a lack of access to resources, too little personnel to coordinate the adoption of ICT and the limited level of ICT competencies of teachers. Translated in needs, school leaders need more and better infrastructure, more ICT-co-ordination and more professional development for teachers.
- A general frustration of Flemish primary school leaders is the fact that the government stopped financing ICT infrastructure once they reached the aim of 1 computer for every 10 pupils. It is not sure yet if the government will restart a financing program in the near future.
- We asked school leaders if implementation of ICT in school is submitted to any kind of evaluation process. Only a few school leaders report an evaluation of their ICT policy in a systematic way. The answer is not really unexpected if you know that most of the schools have no ICT plan available.
- we used for multilevel modelling to analyse the impact of teacher and school level variables on the classroom use of ICT, because data from teachers (level 1) are not independent due to the school context shared by the teachers in this school Our multilevel analyses revealed almost 20% of the variance in’ ICT class use of is situated at the school level, while the remaining 80% is at class level. In this table, we only see the variables with a sign effect on. What we can learn from these results is ICT class use can only be explained by school characteristics in an indirect way. It is not the ICT school policy that matters but the perception teachers about the . The existence of an ICT-plan is important only when teachers are aware of the content of the plan. The perception teachers have on the ICT-plan contributes significantly to the explanation of ICT class use. The same argumentation can be made for ict support and training. Another finding is the effect of the pupil/pc-ratio on ICT class use. This pupil/pc-ratio has no effect unless these computers are in the classroom! A possible reason is that they are located closer to Other effect of teacher characteristics on ICT class use confirm results of structural equation modeling reported earlier in European Journal of Psychology of Education. It concerns innovativeness, intensity of ICT use and ICT training. We found a positive effect of computer training in predicting ICT class use. This finding suggest that higher computer training leads to higher levels of ICT class use. As a consequence, professional development should stay at the centre of innovating educational policies. Another finding is that the more teachers are using ICT as a supportive tool, like for example keeping an agenda, using e-mail and searching information on the Internet, the more they will use ICT in the classroom. The relationship between the proportion male-female and ICT class use might be surprising. Teachers in schools where the degree of male teachers as opposed to their female colleagues is high, integrate ICT more into their classroom. This small but significant gender effect does not seem to disappear when controlling for other variables. Shapka & Ferrari stipulate that gender differences might still exist in the use of ICT applications that are less familiar. Teachers in primary education show higher familiarity with supportive ICT use than class use. This might partially explain why gender differences only in class use, but not why there’s an effect at school level? A first goal was to examine the impact of factors at school level. At the same time the data allowed us to look for effects of factors at class level.
- Other effect of teacher characteristics on ICT class use confirm results of structural equation modeling reported earlier in European Journal of Psychology of Education. It concerns innovativeness, intensity of ICT use and ICT training. We found a positive effect of computer training in predicting ICT class use.
- Our results suggest that teacher use of ICT is generally not linked to a strategic school policy. Only 22% of the schools reported to have developed an extensive ICT plan. This is not surprising. Schools in our sample only started using ICT on average four years ago. Now that most of the schools are creating an ICT policy, the question raised is what is needed for a good ICT plan which has an impact on the class use of ICT? Multilevel analysis on our data reveals that it is not the ICT policy that matters; the perception teachers have on the ICT policy matters. As a consequence, an ICT policy plan seems to be an important indicator and incentive to foster integrated use of ICT in classroom practice, but only when teachers are aware of the content. An important question is: which actors are involved in the development of and ICT school policy And second, how is this ICT school policy communicated en evaluated with all stakeholders?