Teacher`s ICT training and impact of Teaching-Learning in Primary Education

Abstract

There is an increasing concern among national as well as international development regarding the implementation Situation of ICT in Primary Education. There is a need to move beyond the accumulated facts and figures generated by using both quantitative and qualitative mixed approach research through semi structured interviews as well as classroom observation tools. To achieve this, the present research focuses on the availability of equipment, using digital content in classrooms and teachers’ skill and their training. This study investigated primary school teachers’ perceptions of the barriers and challenges preventing them from integrating ICTs in primary school and how it impacts on the learning process. The participants of this study were head teachers, ICT trained teachers and all the students of the observing classroom from the 5 schools at Brahmanbaria Sadar Upazila. The objective of this study is: 1. To explore the teacher’s self-assessment of their ICT training skills. 2. To determine the impact of the learning on the teaching and learning activities. 3. To identify the challenges in providing ICT teaching for learners. According to the findings of the study primary school teachers are not yet ready to integrate ICTs into their classrooms due to a number of obstacles that include unavailability of ICT friendly classrooms, equipment and webbased resources in the school. The lack of competence of the teachers in understanding the existing ICT training along with the shortage of technical support and proper technological knowledge on how to integrate ICT into their teaching and learning process altogether have also contributed to the inability to integrate ICT properly into the primary school classrooms. It is therefore needed to extend the duration of the existing ICT training programmes and also introduce refresher training courses for those who have received it earlier. Most importantly, all primary school teachers who have not yet received the training should be given ICT training immediately. The study recommends that partnership with public and private sectors is necessary to enable effective training of teachers, ensure ICT friendly classrooms, equipment, web-based resources, connectivity and overall coverage for quality education.