May 15, 2014 - The current research aims to study the role of information communications technology in-service workshops in boosting teachers' abilities by ...
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH ARTICLE
ISSN: 2249- 1465
International Journal of Current Life Sciences - Vol.4, Issue, 5, pp.1822-1825, May, 2014
E-LEARNING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION Narges Saeedian 1, Bibi Eshrat Zamani 2 and Maryam Sharifi 3 A member in the faculty of educational science, Islamic Azad University, Khoorasegan(Isfahan) Associate professor University of Isfahan 3 M.A university student of curriculum studies, Islamic Azad University, Khoorasegan(Isfahan) Department Faculty of Education Sciences, Khorasgan (Isfahan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan , Iran 1 2
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Article History: th
Received 12 , April, 2014 Received in revised form 22th, April, 2014 Accepted 15th, May, 2014 Published online 25th, May, 2014 Key words:
in-service workshops, information communications technology, teaching techniques.
ABS TR AC T
The current research aims to study the role of information communications technology in-service workshops in boosting teachers’ abilities by descriptive and survey researches. 346 elementary teachers in Isfahan out of 3500 teachers who have passed in-service workshops were chosen based on stratified random sampling. In this study, the questionnaire designed by the researcher measured two levels of effectiveness, before and after ICT in-service workshops. Each of them has 37 items and 4 dimensions (educational design, presentation, evaluation and research activities. The reliability of the questionnaire according to Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.88 and 0.92 before and after teaching respectively. We analyzed the data in two levels of description and deduction including paired T and multi-way analysis of variance by using the soft ware 18 SPSS. The results obtained showed that based on the teachers’ opinions, having in-service workshops of information communications technology will be effective in boosting the abilities such as teaching (education design), techniques while teaching (presentation) as well as the ones after it (assessment) and research activities. © Copy Right, IJCLS, 2014, Academic Journals. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the goals of education and training have become more complicated and teaching some part of knowledge and skills does not seem to be enough. In this regard, teachers are expected to expand educative guidelines and be responsible for various needs of students in the field of approaches, knowledge and abilities emphasized in their curriculum. In fact,, it refers to the guidelines with which the students are able to search, observe, test and discover basic concepts and achieve higher levels of cognitive areas such as problem-solving, creativity, collaborative learning and more importantly all skills related to learning new knowledge and its usage. Here, teachers expand their abilities and technical knowledge and reassess and improve their approaches. They should create the criteria with which they can change and expand their own role and make an attempt in finding new and comprehensive methods teaching –learning [4]. Here, we can see the role of in-service education. It includes the education presented to a person before entering an organization. It objective is to boost the abilities and competence of the personnel to prepare the employees for specific duties. This kind of education is not designed based on organizational problems but its main
goal is to prepare human resource for different jobs of the organization (Fathi Vajargah, 2011. P4). Siadati and Taghi Yar (2006) mention that information communication technology has created major changes in the life-style of mankind. One of these important areas is learning. A branch of this is learning based on computers and multimedia soft wares. Gholami (2009) believes that teachers are the mail players to enter this area and mix computers with educational system successfully to create an appropriate condition for the process of learning (Rastgarpour, Yadollahi, 2010). Karimi (2004) presents his ideas in this was that besides providing various conditions, learning should take place by encouraging students and presenting educational messages in accordance with their interests since learning does not take place unless it derives from their inner feelings. Teachers are able to take advantage of multimedia soft ware’s possessing sounds and pictures to involve the students’ sense of sight and hearing. Since many researchers have been done in the field of the use of computers and multimedia soft ware’s in education, we can say that when educational soft wares are used with traditional methodologies, they improve other results. Besides solving the problems of learning and personal
*Corresponding author: Narges Saeedian A member in the faculty of educational science, Islamic Azad University, Khoorasegan(Isfahan)
International Journal of Current Life Sciences - Vol.4, Issue, 5, pp.1822-1825,May, 2014 differences, this process will have a positive effect on policy, the educational events, and methodology. If we learning as well as teaching speed and the results [7]. convert an ability of students to a quantity, and judge it, we have assessed them. A teacher deals with teaching and Turban and ibid (2005) believe that information nurturing affairs and is interested in reforming and communication technology encompasses gathering, improving the inappropriate conditions in a way to come organizing, saving and publishing information such as up with the reformed and improved results in educational sound, picture, text or number processed by computer tools activities [6]. [5]. Research Questions Currently, ICT and the processes of teaching and learning are progressing in the same horizons. From one hand, new 1. To what extend ICT in-service education is effective approaches with new criteria and models cause targeted in prior teaching skills (lesson planning) of expansion of technologies for better learning and network elementary students? using and on the other ICT expand educational soft ware’s 2. To what extend ICT in-service education is effective and portals in a way that the required bases to apply new in teaching skills (presentation) of elementary theories and methodologies in learning are provided. students? Mixing traditional models of education with electronic 3. To what extend ICT in-service education is effective ones successfully is the effort of those experts who have in post teaching skills (assessment activities) of been trying in the recent years to get others to trust elementary students? traditional education and electronic one (Ebrahim Abadi, 4. To what extend ICT in-service education is effective 2010). in research activities of elementary teachers? Hajizadeh and Fakhari [2] in a research among 412 highschool teachers of Mazandaran province titled “The Impact of Internet Skills on Professional Ones “concluded that internet and professional skills of the teachers are in the moderate level. Also, the results showed that the more teachers are skillful in internet, the more professional skiils they will possess. The amount of professional skills among teachers in the indexes of technology-educational, designeducational, methodology, and assessment were 73.19%, 63.35%, 57.77%, 59.70%, respectively [2]. In a research titled “The Impact of Information Communication Technology on Teaching and Learning Skills among the University Students of Teaching”, Oviawe and Oshio [10] who did the research in Nigeria concluded that applying ICT affects teaching and learning positively and causes better understanding in the process of teaching. Maleki and ibid [9] studied the impact of ICT on learning. They found out that those schools whose teachers use ICT while teachings have a better rate of learning among the students. In fact, there was a significant meaning between the control group and the experimental one whose teachers applied ICT for teaching materials. The rate of learning among the students who had ICT while learning was higher. While teachers’ skills are a lot, we consider four of them in this research which are designing, performing, assessment and educational activities. Instructional design determines the process of teaching the way teachers and students act. A capable teacher designs his/her plan before performing the duties just like a skillful engineer. This process like that in other fields requires specific knowledge. Without it, a proper planning is not possible. Another important step in the process of teaching is performing the plans designed for the class. If the best lesson plans are not performed properly, or face failure due to different reasons are not valuable. But performing the plans correctly and successfully needs the teachers’ recognition of various guidelines and philosophy of teaching-learning condition as well as his or her mastery over the educational materials since it is the teacher’s decisions which determine the
RESEARCH METHOD According to the objectives of the current research, which is studying the impact of ICT in-service education on improving elementary teachers’ abilities on Isfahan province during the educational year of 2011 – 2012, the research method here is descriptive from its survey kind. The population of this research includes all elementary teachers of the city of Isfahan who have passed ICT course. Their total number was 3500. We used stratified random sampling and received 336 completed questionnaires out of 346. The rate of receiving the questionnaires was 97% and since the most common tool in gathering information in survey studies is questionnaire, in the current research, a questionnaire has been designed. It studies the role of ICT in-service education in applying the techniques in teaching in field of four dimensions including design, plan, assessment, and research activities. The process was done by looking at the topics related to ICT and interviewing the managers and teachers of the course. The sections “personal information” and the questions regarding the assessment of effectiveness of ICT in boosting elementary teachers’ abilities were before and after teaching. This questionnaire had 37 items designed according to Likert and scoring is as follows: The way scoring in the questionnaire (the effectiveness of ICT before and after teaching) is done Very Much 5
Much
Very little
Little
Never
The option
4
3
2
1
Point
The validity of the questionnaire before and after ICT education was .88 and .92 respectively based on SPSS software, which is shown in table 2. The validity of the questionnaire (the effectiveness of ICT before and after teaching) Validity after ICT course 0.93 0.95 0.91 0.92
Validity before ICT course 91.0 85.0 74.0 90.0
Questionnaire Educational design Presentation Assessment activities Research activities
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International Journal of Current Life Sciences - Vol.4, Issue, 5, pp.1822-1825,May, 2014 teachers in applying ICT has an important effect in the Descriptive analysis of the data gained from the main process of teaching-learning. The results have showed items of the questionnaire presenting ways to create changes and reforms during the Table No 5: The mean and standard deviation of the professional growth of teachers in our country is required. elementary teacher’s opinions regarding the effectiveness Information communication technologies are not effective of in-service ICT education in boosting their skills and the by themselves unless teachers learn about how to apply ones before it. them in their classrooms properly. Courses Instructional Design Presentation Assessment activities Research activities
Group Before learning After learning Before learning After learning Before learning After learning Before learning After learning
Mean 41/17 13/26 07/15 57/20 60/12 03/20 58/14 99/21
SD 779 91/8 39/6 82/6 48/5 60/6 19/6 99/7
Question No.1: To what extend ICT in-service education is effective in prior teaching skills (lesson planning) of elementary students? The results in table 3 showed the mean of instructional design prior to learning is 17.24 and after it is 26.13 which is a higher number. In fact, instructional design after learning is more that before it. Also, the results of this research are the same as the ones in Hajizadeh and Eftekhari’s as well as Oviawe and Oshio’s study [2]. In clarifying this hypothesis, we can say that ICT is a valuable source for producing knowledge. It is also an appropriate framework to transmit content and a tool to create evolution in the process of learning-teaching in the classroom. But, with its rich equipment making learning enriched, its main elements emphasize the position of moderate growth. In this study, the results show the effectiveness of these courses and clarify that elementary teachers use this technology but with less effectiveness. To what extend ICT in-service education is effective in teaching skills (presentation) of elementary students? The results in table 3 showed the mean of presentation prior to learning is 15.07 and after it is 20.57 which is a higher number. In fact, instructional design after learning is more that before it. Also, the results of this research are the same as the ones in Hajizadeh and Eftekhari’s as well as Oviawe and Oshio’s study [2]. In clarifying this hypothesis, we can say ICT has a significant power because of its ability in creating a dynamic connection in a way that according to the scientific findings the role of computers in the process of teaching and training is obvious. Staff, teachers and students who took advantage of computers had more and proved benefits compared to others. Using computer in education can shorten the time up to 30% and reduce the costs in comparison with the traditional way. ICT presents a new solution to learner which is why teachers need to be aware of potential abilities of ICT and get more experience in this field. To what extend ICT in-service education is effective in post teaching skills (assessment activities) of elementary students? The results in table 3 showed the mean of assessment activities prior to learning is 12.60 and after it is 20.03 which is a higher number. In fact, instructional design after learning is more that before it. Preparing and teaching
Question No 4: To what extend ICT in-service education is effective in research activities of elementary teachers? The results in table 3 showed the mean of presentation prior to learning is 14.58 and after it is 21.99 which is a higher number. In fact, instructional design after learning is more that before it. Concerning the capabilities of ICT for research, undoubtedly, one of the necessities of research is gathering some sources such as books, articles and new scientific media in the world. Perhaps, satisfying this need is not difficult due to the progress in information technology and informatics including computer networks especially internet. Before getting involved in research activities, teachers should possess some knowledge. Effectiveness in teaching, publishing scientific books and preserving the scientific position in a specific major are the needs of using the sources of data. Teachers, who are research sources in boosting the country, are supposed to be familiar with these technologies. The current study clarified that teaching ICT has been able to create changes in instructional design, presentation, assessment and research activities of teachers but the amount of the education is less than normal which is needed to be more. Recommendation Proper and effective performance of ICT courses comes true when the government supports this program financially and socially. We should mention that managers of offices and schools are guiding leaders of ICT program in the ministry of education. So, they need to have special abilities to perfume the program. ICT education should be perfumed gradually with the presence of experts of this field. These courses are effective in employees’ abilities and can create bases for boosting their skills. Enough time, required and complete facilities can be effective in holding these courses because appropriate equipment leads to a better and practical utilization of this program. Emphasizing the fact that less effectiveness of ICT courses can be seen in the performance of teaching staff, we should say that those who hold these courses need to attempt in improving the teachers’ performance to be able to know how to utilize these educational courses for a better and practical performance.
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