Teachers’ ICT Skills and ICT Integration in the Classroom: The Case of Vocational and Technical Teachers in Malaysia

Abu-Obaidah Alazam,S Asmiran,A R Bakar,R Hamzah

doi:10.4236/ce.2012.38b016

Abstract

This study was to determine the levels of ICT skills and ICT usage in the classroom among technical and vocational teachers in Malaysia. The data of this study were collected using quantitative techniques, whereby the questionnaire was administered to 329 technical and vocational teachers who were teaching engineering subjects in Malaysian technical and vocational schools. The questionnaire included items related to teachers’ ICT skills, ICT use and their demographic factors. The study has shown that teachers’ ICT skills were at moderate levels, and that a vast majority of teachers who participated in this study were moderate users of ICT in classroom teaching. There were significant differences of teachers’ ICT skills as a function of demographic factors: gender, age, years of teaching experience, and type of ICT training. Also, there were significant correlations between ICT skills and ICT integration in classroom. Teachers’ demographic factors (age, gender, teaching experience, except level of education) did not influence ICT integration in classroom.

Highlights

The explosion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the last two decades has impacted the life of many people and the nature of jobs in all fields
Majority of the teachers attended the basic ICT courses (135, 41.0%) and courses related to Web, multimedia and programming (129, 39.2%); courses related to ICT integration in teaching and learning process were attended by 33 respondents (10.0%), while 32 respondents (9.7%) did not attend any course related to ICT
In respect of the research question number one as to the level of ICT skills among technical and vocational teachers in Malaysia, this study found that ICT skills among technical and vocational teachers was moderate (M = 2.42, S.D. = 0.64)

Summary

Introduction

The explosion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the last two decades has impacted the life of many people and the nature of jobs in all fields. In line with the rapid development and usage of ICT in the workplace, it is important that the current generation of students need to well-prepared with ICT knowledge and skills for them to face the tasks in the world-of-work in the future. To be able to compete in the globalized world, Malaysia need to develop knowledge workers. In line with that VISION, The Ministry of Education in Malaysia has recommended the minimum ICT skills that teachers should have in order to lead Malaysian students to compete in the global economy. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has the capability of preparing high skilled workforce and the integration of ICT in their classroom will enhance the quality of TVET graduates and will make them the most sought after potential employees. In order to integrate ICT in TVET classroom, teachers must have the required skills

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion