In-Service Mathematics Teachers' Integration of ICT as Innovative Practice

Abstract

The Professional Development School (PDS) can serve as a catalyst for the professional development of mathematics pre-service as well as in-service teachers. In the present research, we describe lower-secondary in-service mathematics teachers' development of ICT integration in their teaching. This is done through the Innovation Diffusion Model of Rogers, which consists of five stages: knowledge of an innovation, (2) forming an attitude toward the innovation, (3) taking a decision to adopt or reject, (4) implementation of the innovation, and (5) confirmation of the decision by affirming or rejecting it. In the present research, ICT integration in mathematics teaching is considered as an innovation candidate for adoption by mathematics in-service teachers, where this adoption is facilitated by a community of inquiry consisting of in-service teachers, pre-service teachers and researchers. Five in-service middle school mathematics teachers participated in the present research. We used two data collecting tools: observations and semi-structured interviews to collect data about different issues related to the integration of ICT in the lessons of the participating in-service teachers. The categories of the innovation diffusion model were used to analyze the participants' adoption of ICT for their teaching before and after our intervention through the implementation of the PDS model for the period of one academic year. The research findings indicate that the participating in-service mathematics teachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding the benefits of ICT for mathematics teaching were positive at the beginning of the experiment as well as at its end. At the same time, teachers' knowledge and experience of using ICT tools in mathematics teaching improved, which contributed positively to the confirmation of their decision to adopt these tools for their classrooms. Specifically, the research results indicate that the PDS can support the in-service mathematics teachers in their adoption of new innovations, specifically when this innovation is practiced by the pre-service teachers in the training school.