Teachers and computers : a survey of how teachers in seven High Schools in the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg perceive computers and their uses in education.
Date
1992
Authors
Thurman, Antony George
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Abstract
This study presents the findings of a survey conducted in
August 1991 to identify and analyse high-school teachers'
perceptions of computers and their uses in education.
The study has a triple purpose: to investigate how
teachers perceive computers and their uses in education:
to ascertain their knowledge and experience of computers;
and to obtain demographic and bioqraphic information.
The current uses of computers in education, and the
quality of educational software available, are considered
first. A discussion of the term "perception" follows, with
a description of the design, construction, and use of the
survey instrument.
The data provided by the instrument is then analysed, and
the findings are presented. (A copy of the survey
instrument is appended, together with statistical analyses
of the data provided by each question in it.)
Some of the findings are:
:The respondents were positive about the general concept
of computers arid their use in education. None were
negative, although some had reservations or were
non-committal.
• Although in favour of the use of computers, teachers
were not yet ready either to teach about them, or to use
them in their classrooms with their pupils.
There was greater support for the use of the computer as
a management tool than as a medium of instruction.
* Lack of knowledge about computers was perceived as the
greatest disadvantage of computer use in general.
* There was a great diversity of knowledge and awareness,
both within the individual schools and among them, as to
just how their computers were used.
*A significant number of teachers already found computers
valuable and used them regularly. Word-processing,
spreadsheets, and Updating; Records (Databases) were the
three uses best known to those teachers.
* A very large percentate of teachers (94.9%) were
interested in learning more about how to use a computer.
Description
Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the
degree of Master of Education at the University of the
Witwatersrand.
Keywords
Education -- South Africa -- Data processing., Computer-assisted instruction -- South Africa., Computer managed instruction -- South Africa.