Staff development as a condition for computer integration

Abstract

Staff development is a basic and necessary component of the continuing education of teachers, administrators and other staff as they extend their professional or technical knowledge (Orlich, 1989). Codianni and Wilbur (1983) compared the findings of seventeen major studies on effective schools and found systematic staff development as being one of six important aspects of effective schools. Besides regular updating of knowledge in one's subject, professional development and assistance are important for both the dissemination and implementation of educational innovations (Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991). Teachers need to learn new roles in order to work effectively with new programs and technologies (van den Akker, 1988). It is therefore no surprise that staff development and training is one of the factors that determine the success of implementing an innovation in the educational practice (Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1991). There are no reasons to expect that this should not also hold for the use of computers in education. The crucial role of staff development in the introduction of computers in the school is also emphasized by Moskowitz and Birman (1985), Walker (1986), Brody (1987) and the US Congress (1988). Since the introduction of the computer in education, many authors claim that the beneficial aspects of computer use in education are related to the integration of computers in the existing subjects (e.g. Collis, 1988, Hunter, 1984). However, the findings of the first stage of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)-international research project 'Computers in Education' (Comped) revealed that the use of computers in existing subjects as an aid in teaching and learning is limited. In most countries participating in this study, the introduction of the computer in schools is predominantly occurring through the introduction of a new subject like computer education or informatics, while the use of computers in existing subjects is still an activity of a rather small group of teachers. The group of intensive computer using teachers will at the best not exceed 15% (Pelgrum, in preparation). One may argue that computer use in existing subjects is not fully integrated because this form of using computers is the most complex part of the innovation: this type of computer use requires (unlike the introduction of a new and additional subject like