Teachers' reasons for and against ICT integration into teaching and learning: a mixed methods approach

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to use a “slightly adapted” instructional transformational model (also called Hooper and Rieber model), as a basis to explain teachers’ reasons to integrate technology (or not). The research relied on the use of mixed methods approach to collect data about technology integration from teachers who had recently attended Microsoft courses. In the first phase, surveys were used to explore how teachers were currently integrating technology, in relation to the knowledge and skills gained from their training. Teachers’ integration levels were linked to the literature on factors enabling technology integration (also called “enablers”) and factors hindering integration (also called “barriers”). This enabled the researcher to understand how different factors could have possibly influenced the teachers’ reasons. In the second phase, follow-up interviews were conducted with four teachers, who were part of the first phase, to provide an in-depth account of their levels of integration. The motivation theory was used to understand how teachers developed their reasons. In the end, the results from the two phases were mapped to the Hooper and Rieber model to give a rich, more balanced explanation of the teachers’ integration levels and the reasons for their levels. Amongst some of the reasons that motivated teachers to integrate technology include: to improve learner performance; to improve learners’ 21st Century skills, and to make learning authentic. However, the research also found that teachers face many barriers or challenges to technology integration, and the two most common include access to resources and lack of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (also called TPACK). This research is valuable to anyone who wishes to understand how the interplay between internal (e.g. teacher skills level) and external factors (e.g. availability of resources) influence teachers’ reasons to integrate technology or not.