Strategies for teachers’ professional development : Fostering ICT proficient use

Almost in third decade of the 21 century, with so many affordable or free technologies available, most teachers still don’t use digital technologies in their scholar activities. That was the focus of this entire research. The problem and the questions we aimed to answer with the present research are related to the variables that revealed the strongest predictive weight in the most credible scientific models that try to understand the technology acceptance by teachers. To answer those questions, we carried on two separate studies: i) A first study, with a methodology similar to a “survey research” where we propose a new development in the Technology Acceptance Models; ii) A second study, with a methodology close to “design-based research”, which proposes a model for the development of teachers' digital skills (in a quest for "Digital Proficiency”). The present research may be included in the scientific domain of technology acceptance and adoption theories and methodologies and the most credible scientific models look to identify the factors that foster the use of ICT in education (TRA, TPB, TAM, UTAUT). However, the variable “ICT skills” is not present in any of these models. Is that a neglectable factor? We believe that “ICT skills” is far from neglectable and we tried to develop a model that integrates this dimension, along with some other factors already present in the models from the available literature. In the first study (the we have called “A new development in the Technology Acceptance Models”) we searched the literature for the instruments already validated for the Portuguese reality, and we developed a new instrument, built over the reunion of 4 questionnaires, that was applied to teachers from all Professional Schools in Portugal (N=7293) and we received 444 complete answers, from 67 different professional schools. iv Strategies for teachers’ professional development: Fostering ICT proficient use We have named the model that emerged from this process, developed using the Structural Equation Modelling technique, “ISTTU model” (ICT Skills Towards Technology Use). We discovered that “ICT Skills” have a strong influence over “ICT Intention to Use” (the strongest predictor of “ICT use”). The structural model revealed that ICT knowledge” was the factor that revealed the strongest effect (β=.63; p<.001) over the “Intention to use ICT”. The trajectory “Learning through ICT” → “Intention to use ICT” was not significant (β=.10; p=.037). Nevertheless, this model explained 45% of the variance, which means that other variables explain the remaining 55% and further field experience research is necessary to identify the other variables that may increase the variance explained by the ISTTU model: Effort Expectancy, Computer Anxiety, Perceived Usefulness, and Perceived Ease-of-Use. We believe, however, that first we need to provide teachers with adequate training, if we want them to be more willing to use the digital technologies in pedagogical contexts. The question is: how may we help them to develop these skills? Given the results and the conclusions of the first study, some questions have emerged: 1) Are online models suited to acquire digital skills? 2) Is online education (where digital skills are required) adequate to acquire “digital skills”? 3) Are online courses adequate to empower teachers to overcome their barriers to the use of digital technologies? 4) Will the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) increase the will to use digital technologies in the classroom? The second study (“A quest for "Digital Proficiency”) was developed to look for the answers to the questions that emerged from the first study, trying to mitigate (or eliminate) the barriers to the usage of digital technologies and empower the “average teacher” to proficiently use the common productivity applications and produce and share their own digital educational resources. Strategies for teachers’ professional development: Fostering ICT proficient use v For the second study, we have chosen a more pragmatic approach and we developed: a) online courses that aimed to provide teachers with the skills to proficiently use some of the productivity Office programs (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and resource production software (image editing, audio recording and editing, video recording); b) face-to-face workshops that targeted the same goals, but in a warmer and more informal environment, where fellow teachers and trainers (himself a teacher) were present and all doubts and questions could be immediately answered. From the results of both studies, we discovered that teachers are able and willing to shift from “technophobic” to “consumers” and from “consumers” to “producers”, as long as we provide them with the adequate scaffolded training. We also concluded that: i) “ICT skills” is a non-neglectable predictor of “Intention to use ICT”; ii) The online models are not suited when ICT skills are the subject to learn; iii) A series of workshops is much more profitable in the first stage to overcome barriers and anxiety. After these workshops, online courses may be suited to learn specific technologies; iv) There are no significant gender differences regarding the use of digital technologies; v) Considering the “Teaching Area”, teachers from the technical areas are more predisposed to use digital technologies, but the good response from those of “social and cultural” areas when compared with the “scientific” area teachers was surprisingly positive; vi) The use of Virtual Learning Environments do increase the use of Digital Technologies, indeed. After this research we have proved to be possible to change the landscape of “ICT use” in a microscale. The question now is: “will it be possible for this model to disseminate, and how much time will it take to reach a widespread use of Digital Technologies in todays’ schools”?