Teachers’ concerns about integrating information and communication technologies in the classrooms

Abstract

Teachers in developing countries are facing increasing social and political pressure to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve the access to and the quality of education available to young people. This is a core part of several government-led initiatives to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4-quality education. While there is no shortage of ICT, the adoption for actual use in the classroom is often a hurdle for teachers, due to various concerns they harbour. This research study used the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to assess the stages of concern of 340 Nigerian teachers about adopting and integrating ICT in the classroom. The findings indicated that teachers’ concerns were most intense in the awareness, management and information stages respectively, and lowest at the collaborative and consequence levels. Further examination of the results also shows a significant relationship between the stages of concern and teachers’ personal attributes like teaching experience, age and the class level they teach. These findings provide practical insights into how to better create effective teacher professional development interventions, to assist teachers in adopting and integrating ICT, to enhance the learning experience of young people within the classroom.