Teachers' Perceptions and Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Chinese Language Education

Abstract

This chapter reports on a mixed-methods study that examined how factors intrinsic and extrinsic to teachers influence their pedagogical use of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Chinese Language (CL) education. Three-hundred-eleven primary school CL teachers in Singapore participated in an online questionnaire survey that addressed four ICT-related variables: competence to use ICT, availability of resources and support, perceived usefulness of ICT, and pedagogical use of ICT. The results show that the four variables were significantly correlated, and teachers' pedagogical use of ICT was predicted significantly by all the other three variables. To supplement the questionnaire survey, Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted on a randomly selected sample of the teachers who participated in the survey. Teachers reported local (e.g., ICT facilities and resources) as well as global (e.g., national high-stake examinations) factors that determined how ICT-mediated pedagogy was strategically blended with non-ICT-mediated traditional pedagogies. In conclusion, the authors argue that achieving the desired effects of learning through ICT integration necessitates consideration of factors intrinsic to teachers as well as those extrinsic to them that often shape the teacher-intrinsic factors.