Incorporation of ICT in classrooms : barriers in integrating ICT in teaching and learning / Ahmed Aboobakuru

Abstract

The paradigm shift in curriculum from content-based curriculum to competency-based curriculum has strongly influenced teachers to integrate ICT in their classrooms practices. Apparently, the school that the research was carried out is not effectively integrating ICT in the learning environment. Hence, the main aims of this study were to investigate how Key Stage (KS) teachers integrate ICT resources in their classrooms and to explore teachers perceived barriers in integrating ICT in teaching and learning.

The research was a qualitative case study based on the interpretivist paradigm and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from seven KS 1 and 2 teachers and two Leading Teachers (LT) selected from one rural school of the Maldives. A thematic data analysis approach was used to analyse the data gathered.

The findings show that KS1 and 2 teachers use very few of ICT tools in the classrooms as most of the teachers must go to the AV room or computer lab to use readily available materials rather than using interactive activities through 1CT resources. Moreover, five findings derived from the study on the barriers in 1CT integration. First, the lack time hinders teachers to integrate ICT in classrooms. Apparently, teachers are given high workload thus they have no time to prepare materials to integrate ICT. Second, lack of training given to them on using ICT in classrooms found to be a significant factor for teachers to avoid using ICT in classrooms. Third, the availability of resources discourages teachers to integrate ICT. Fourth, support from, both school IT technician as well as the senior management is significantly influence teachers' ICT integration. Fifth, the confidence of teachers to use the available ICT tools also influenced to the teachers' 1CT integration.

The study suggests eliminating the barriers if teachers are to effectively integrate ICT in their daily lessons. Thus, the findings have implications for the school, for the teachers as well as for higher education institutes.