Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

Teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices play a significant role in influencing how and why teachers teach. Thus, exploring teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practice of integrating ICT in different curriculum areas at the school level will help to understand the issues and areas for focused teacher development, to enable them to use technology to enhance teaching and learning in their classrooms. This study was done in a natural environment, that is, the school aiming at exploring the teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices in integrating ICT in curriculum areas in a private secondary school in Karachi, Pakistan through a case study of four teachers. Methods of collecting data included classroom observations, stimulated recall interviews, informal conversations and analysis of documents. The use of stimulated recall interviews, that was not used by previous studies on teacher cognition, helped to make explicit teachers' tacit thinking underlying their observable actions. Data were analysed using QSR NUDI*IST, software for qualitative data analysis. Through classroom observations, followed by stimulated recall interviews, it was found that teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices significantly influenced how they integrated ICT in the curriculum areas. Furthermore, it was revealed that there is a dialectical relationship amongst teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices. However, in some cases, it was difficult to identify the relationship to any degree of certainty. Due to time limitations, the study could not trace how the teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices changed over time. A longitudinal study is recommended to trace the changes in teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices in regard to use of ICT over a longer period of time.

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