CONSIDERATIONS ON PUPILS’ FEEDBACK RELATED TO ICT INTRODUCTION IN NATURAL SCIENCE TEACHING

Abstract

Nowadays ICT offer a large scale of instruments which lead to the change of the teaching process from one closed and rigid, oriented on teacher, to an inciting and interactive educational process focused on learners. In addition, new ICT tools are seen not only like some of the learning elements content but also as didactic tools used during the teaching process of different areas, including Natural Science. The necessity of ICT introduction in the Romanian educational process comes from the achievement of the compatibility between Romanian and European educational systems. In addition, the reassessment of pedagogical approaches, teachers’ competences and teaching methods have to be reconsidered. That is the reason for performing a high-level in-service teacher education. In this sense, Valahia University of Targoviste organized an on-line course for in-service teacher training in the frame of the Socrates Comenius 2.1 European Project “FISTE – A Future Way for In-Service Teacher Training across Europe” (http://fiste.ssai.valahia.ro), co-funded by the European Commission, Education and Training, Socrates: Comenius. The content of the mentioned on-line course entitled “Integrating ICT in Traditional Training” included methods for integrating face-to-face and web based learning tools. The final products made by the trained teachers have been implemented in the classrooms (Dumitrescu et all. 2006). The presented ICT tools have been implemented in different disciplines, but this analyze - designed on the pupils’ feedback - is including data just for the implementation of the ICT tools in Natural Science classrooms, at the primary and secondary level. On the base of analyze, some important aspects can be expressed: (a) combining ICT with traditional methods increased the fastness and the attraction for the teaching modalities; (b) the understanding of the contents due to the ICT introduction in the classrooms became easier; (c) the general feeling for spreading ICT tools for teaching other disciplines was huge. At the same time, another conclusion expresses that a minimum level of preparation is required for conducting any lesson based on ICT tools. Generally, this means familiarity with software, hardware and the computer room set-up. Beside all, the use of ICT in the teaching process of Natural Science disciplines conducted to the increasing of pupils’ motivation.