Chapter 5.4

Models and Practices in Teacher Education Programs for Teaching

with and about IT

Anne McDougall

Head, ICT in Education and Research

Faculty of Education

The University of Melbourne

Victoria 3010 Australia

Phone: +61 3 8344 9573

Fax: +61 3 8344 8739

Email: a.mcdougall@unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Teacher education and professional development is critically important for effective

use of IT in education. The task is complex as many new learning opportunities are

offered in IT rich settings and significant pedagogical change may be needed to

exploit the potentials offered by the fast developing learning technologies. The

chapter outlines goals and purposes for teacher education programs, and then

describes a wide range of models, structures and strategies used in award-bearing

courses for pre-service education and professional development in tertiary institutions,

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and then in less formal programs initiated from outside schools, from within schools

and by individual teachers. Evaluation of IT teacher education programs is

considered, and an argument made for more research and evaluative work in this area.

Teacher education, Teacher professional development, Affordances, IT skills, Curriculum, Standards, IT leadership, IT teachers, Professional development materials, Professional development models

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1. Introduction

Parallel with the developments in research on learning with IT and on pedagogies for

teaching with IT, the last forty years have seen important developments in teacher

education and professional development in this area. These range from the earliest

strategies where self-motivated teachers took home a desktop machine and a manual

to study in the evenings, through skill development workshops provided by hardware

and software vendors, to the wide variety of models and approaches currently in use

including train-the-trainer strategies, many different types of formal courses,

technology mentoring by critical friends, in-school just-in-time support, and

collaborative online teacher communities, to mention just a few. This chapter will

examine research informing the development and evaluation of models and strategies

for teacher learning with and about IT, in both pre-service contexts and teacher

continuing professional development. These developments are informed by research

on tertiary education, adult education, and use of IT in education, but a

comprehensive treatment of all these influences is beyond the scope of this chapter;

the focus here is on models, structures, practices and strategies in teacher education.

The importance of teacher education in this area is indicated by the frequently heard

assertion that one of the major barriers to the effective integration of IT into teaching

and learning is inadequate teacher professional development (e.g. Watson, 2001).

Other criticisms have concerned the focus of much of the available professional

development on the acquisition of basic IT skills (Downes et al., 2001; Pearson,

2003), advocating greater emphasis on curriculum integration and pedagogical issues.

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At the outset it must be acknowledged that there are significant changes in pedagogy

associated with the use of IT. Webb and Cox (2004) examined these changes,

explaining that they result from different learning opportunities or affordances

provided by the developments in technology, in interaction with the whole learning

environment.

The evidence suggests that new affordances provided by IT-based learning

environments require teachers to undertake more complex pedagogical reasoning

than before in their planning and teaching that incorporates knowledge of specific

affordances and how these relate to their subject-based teaching objectives as well

as the knowledge they have always needed to plan for their students’ learning. The

need for teachers’ professional development is clear but enabling teachers to adapt

their pedagogical reasoning and practices in response to learning opportunities

provided by IT is likely to be a very difficult and complex process.

(Webb & Cox, 2004, p. 235, 278)

In their comprehensive review paper, Webb and Cox identify effective pedagogical

practices related to IT for a range of subjects in primary and secondary schools, and

consider the implications for teacher education. They emphasise that teachers need to

understand the affordances provided by specific types of IT as well as those provided

by physical models, experiments etc., and to decide what combination of these will be

of most benefit to their particular students in achieving their objectives.

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The present chapter examines first a range of goals, purposes and aims for teacher

education programs described in the literature. Then various structures for such

programs, and strategies used within them to attain their goals are reviewed. The

chapter concludes with consideration of some approaches to evaluating IT teacher

education programs.

2. Goals, Purposes, Aims of Teacher Education Programs

There is a range of different models of teacher education and continuing professional

development in current use. A major source of this diversity stems from differences in

the underlying goals and purposes of the programs. In this section a representative set

of goals underlying many of these models will be outlined.

2.1 Models based on reasons for promoting IT use in classrooms

Downes et al. (2001) associate the diversity of models and strategies for teacher

learning in this area with different approaches to defining what is required from IT in

education. These writers delineate four ‘Types’ of reasons for promoting IT use in

classrooms, and thus a range of purposes for teacher education and professional

development programs:

- Type A: encouraging the acquisition of IT skills as an end in themselves.

- Type B: using ITs to enhance students’ abilities within the existing

curriculum.

- Type C: introducing ITs as an integral component of broader curricular

reforms that are changing not only how learning occurs but what is learned.

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- Type D: introducing ITs as an integral component of the reforms that alter the

organization and structure of schooling itself. (Downes et al. 2001, p. 23).

Watson (2001) advocates a “reforming outcome for the enormous IT investment

educational agencies are making” and argues for a need to “rethink professional

development intentions from skill provision with infrequent curriculum integration

examples to a model that will enable teachers to see the reforming or transforming

possibilities of IT” (Watson 2001, p. 182). Finger, Russell, Jamieson-Proctor, and

Russell. (2007) also take a “transforming” approach in their text for teacher pre-

service education and professional development. Watson identifies the necessary

stages - orientation, adoption, evaluation, innovation and institutionalisation - for

professional development programs with reforming intentions. Each stage needs a

different approach to professional development. Watson and others (Dowling, 2003;

Haaksma-Oostijen & Puper, 2003; Law, 2003; Saito & Ohiwa, 2003) draw attention

in particular to the need for programs to prepare teachers for changes of role when IT

is used well in classrooms.

2.2 Meeting Standards set by Education Departments or other bodies

Education Departments encourage teacher professional development and specify

skills that new graduates and practising teachers should have (Watson, 2001). These

may be mandated for accreditation or employment, or they may be intended as

guidelines for teacher professional development. A brief outline of the situation

regarding specified IT standards or competencies for teachers in several countries is

presented here to illustrate ways in which such standards are developed and used.

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In England, IT-related competency statements for teachers were developed in 1998. In

2002 these were revised and the standards were replaced by non-statutory guidance

for teacher training and more explicit guidance for IT, related to the National

Curriculum for schools (Selinger & Austin, 2003). Tests in IT have been developed,

which trainees must pass in order to be awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The

IT QTS test is designed to assess skills relevant to all teachers. It assesses ability to

carry out basic IT tasks using a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation

software, e-mail and an internet browser. A full description of the test is provided on

the UK Training and Development Agency web site (http://www.tda.gov.uk)..

There is no National Curriculum in the USA. A range of agencies and professional

organizations set standards (Davis, 2003). However the US Department of Education

funded project undertaken by the International Society for Technology in Education

(ISTE) has developed National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers,

including models for teacher preparation programs and standards-based performance

assessment tools for measuring the achievement of the standards (ISTE, 2000; 2002).

After an introductory section considering technology integration into teaching and

general education, this substantial book has chapters on integrating technology into

English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, at each of early

childhood, elementary, middle school, and secondary levels of education. The

standards and performance indicators for teachers are grouped under: Technology

operations and concepts; Planning and designing learning environments; Teaching,

learning and the curriculum; Assessment and evaluation; Productivity and

professional practice; and Social, ethical, legal and human issues (ISTE, 2002, p.9).

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Extensive examples of application of the standards and model strategies are provided.

This set of standards has been adopted by the USA National Council for Accreditation

of Teacher Education.

The National Goals for Schooling in Australia, adopted by all state, territory and

commonwealth ministers of education in 1999, state that students leaving school

should be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly

IT, and understand the impact of those technologies on society (Pearson 2003). Each

of the state Education Departments has developed IT competency requirements or

guidelines for teachers; generally these are supported by professional development

materials. Development and research is being carried out by education academics and

professional associations such as the Australian College of Education and the

Australian Curriculum Studies Association (Downes et al. 2001).

Government policy in education in Northern Ireland has often followed initiatives

taken by the Department for Education in England and Wales; however since the

introduction of a devolved administration in Northern Ireland, Ministers for Education

now determine education policy (Selinger & Austin, 2003). A framework for policy in

initial teacher education, pinpointing teacher training in IT as a key issue, was

developed in 1997 by the Department for Education for Northern Ireland. Aims for

teacher development in institutions in Finland have been set by a project called OPE.fi

(Niemi, 2003). The aim was for all teachers to have developed basic IT skills in the

period 2000-2004; half of all personnel in educational institutions should have high-

level skills. These skills and competency levels are specified by the Ministry of

Education, for both pre-service and in-service teacher education.

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A set of suggested IT competencies for teachers in the Netherlands has been

developed by Hogenbirk and de Rijcke (2006). In contrast to the skills-focused

standards seen in many other examples, these competencies begin with words such as

“Becoming aware of …”, “Sharing …”, “Considering and using …”, “Reflecting on

…”, “Using local and global resources to …”, “Recognising responsibility to …”, and

“Fully exploiting ICT capabilities to …”. The competences are structured in a matrix

format, each cell representing an interaction between one of Self, Pupils, Colleagues

and Environment, with one of Pedagogy, Curriculum, Professional Development,

Organisation, Policies, Ethics, Innovation and Technical Aspects. (Hogenbirk and de

Rijcke 2006, p.58-9). These, like the requirements set by several other government

and similar bodies, is published with a set of professional development materials.

2.3 Preparation for teaching IT as a specialist subject

Teaching IT is an area where relatively few people can draw on extensive experience

from their own school years. This is in contrast to other subject areas; a mathematics

teacher, for example, will have experienced perhaps twelve or thirteen years of

subconscious critical observation at the receiving end of the pedagogical modelling of

other mathematics teachers. Even for teachers in training, who now are likely to have

had at least some IT experiences during their time at school, the rate of development

of the technology has meant that IT environments in the schools in which they will

work and the associated pedagogical affordances of the technology will be different

from those present during their schooling. An example current at the time of writing is

the relatively recent introduction of interactive whiteboards in schools.

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Hammond (2004) notes that while there is a huge literature on the use of IT in

teaching and learning, there is much less written on the teaching of IT as a subject.

Webb (2002) draws attention to a debate that has taken place over the last twenty

years about whether IT capability should be developed through teaching IT as a

separate subject or through using IT in an integrated way across the curriculum. Both

these writers comment on widespread concern about teachers’ subject knowledge in

the area, and note the absence of a strong discipline-related research base to inform

teaching in this area. For example, relatively little is known about the means by which

learners actually acquire programming skills (McDougall & Boyle, 2004).

Schubert (2003) describes the development, content and delivery of new university

courses for specialist IT teachers in Germany. The developers, in collaboration with

colleagues from other European universities, prepared web-based materials to support

these courses. As well as computing topics, the students are required to consider a

range of social and ethical issues with the assistance of classroom mentors. An

innovative approach to certification is taken: the focus of attention is not only the

product of an IT project, but as well its design process and effectiveness is examined

in group discussions with presentations, self-reflection and assessment of social issues

and the impact of IT on teaching and learning.

2.4 Preparation of future IT leaders in schools

A range of leadership programs, commonly offered at system level or as postgraduate

courses at universities, are available for principals and senior teachers aspiring to a

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principal’s position, and often these include material concerning IT. Typically these

use competence models of management training, similar to leadership programs in

other areas of education management.

Chambers (2002) describes a novel course using problem based learning and a

cognitive apprenticeship model to assist pre-service teachers in developing leadership

skills in the implementation of IT in primary schools. Teams of students undertake

realistic tasks involving IT in a fictional primary school. A rich description of the

school is available on the course’s web site. The four problems tackled are:

integrating IT into the curriculum at the school, developing a three-year IT budget,

developing an IT professional development plan, and developing a three-year IT

strategic plan. Students gain knowledge, experience, and confidence in tackling the

kinds of issues that they are likely to encounter when in a school leadership role, and

they develop leadership skills in managing a student team to prepare a detailed report

and present recommendations to the fictional School Council.

3. Structures and Strategies

3.1 Formal courses at tertiary institutions

Almost all pre-service teacher education and some continuing professional

development for in-service teachers are undertaken as award-bearing programs in

universities or colleges. Many different models of IT education exist within these

programs. They are regularly modified in response to developments in technology or

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to changes in teacher certification requirements. The websites of most universities

present current structures and course content for these programs.

3.1.1 Pre-service courses

Courses preparing for secondary school teaching usually contain a component of

curriculum studies or ‘method’ subjects; a student preparing to teach IT as a specialist

subject in schools would include IT method in his or her program. As well as the IT

core subjects in teacher preparation programs, elective subjects for IT skill

development or for consideration of across-curriculum and pedagogy issues are

offered in some programs. The IT leadership course described earlier is an example of

this strategy.

It is clear from the literature that there is a widely held view that all teachers should

graduate from their pre-service courses with good skills in IT. Where there is not

agreement is whether these skills are best obtained through separate IT subjects (with

titles such as ‘IT in the classroom’) or through using IT integrated across the

curriculum throughout the teacher education course (Webb, 2002). Downes et al.

(2001) point out that the separate IT subjects provide a focus on skills acquisition and

seem appropriate where accreditation of skills is necessary, but tend not to provide the

opportunities for teacher education students to consider the use of IT across a range of

subject areas, and rarely lead to integration within practical experience in schools.

They note that while introductory IT subjects have become common in teacher

education programmes, subjects providing skills for the integration of IT into teaching

and learning are far less evident, although the bulk of the literature supports integrated

approaches for student teachers to be able to make meaningful use of IT in their

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teaching experiences. Pearson (2003) raises the need for appropriate staffing in this

area, noting that in some universities these subjects are taught by staff whose primary

expertise is in computing rather than in the use of IT in education, with the result that

course content that may not be directly relevant and useful to initial teacher education

students.

Pre-service teacher education courses typically provide students with a mix of on-

campus coursework and school-based professional experience. The relative

proportions of these two components can vary widely and is itself the subject of

considerable debate. It is important that student teachers have good experience of

using IT during their teaching practice in schools. Downes et al. (2001) report on a

study of student teachers that found that until they had worked with children their

interests and concerns had only related to equipment and hardware; through the

activities with the children they developed interest in pedagogy and concerns for

technology use to enhance students’ learning.

Some universities support partnership arrangements to facilitate placement of student

teachers in schools with well integrated IT use. Pre-service students might be paired

with practising teachers in a mentoring role, or collaborations arranged with IT

teacher associations or teacher groups from other curriculum areas (e.g. Davis, 2003).

Where partnership arrangements with local schools exist student teachers might work

on campus with children in face-to-face classroom situations (Downes et al. 2001).

Virtual classrooms on CD-ROM or online can also be developed for similar purposes,

and online mentoring by practising teachers can be arranged to provide assistance and

advice to student teachers working on projects and campus-based tasks (Chambers

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2002). If student teachers spend sustained periods in schools, for example undertaking

internships toward the end of their course, small classroom-based action research

projects can be undertaken in partnership with classroom teachers (Pearson 2003).

It is widely agreed in the literature that IT should be used extensively to support

learning throughout initial teacher education programs, to model its use in teaching

and to demonstrate a wide range of IT’s affordances for teaching and learning in a

range of curriculum areas (Davis, 2003; Drenoyianni, 2004; Pearson, 2003).

Professional agencies and the institutions themselves are encouraged to develop

exemplars such as multimedia case studies, or examples of electronic portfolios or

toolkits, to guide and inform contemporary teacher education practice (Chambers and

Stacey, 2005; Downes et al.,2001; Hewitt et al., 2003).

Textbooks for IT in pre-service teacher education courses have been prepared in many

countries. Generally these reflect the experience, reflection and research of teacher

educators working in the area. In countries or systems where school IT subjects and

teacher education requirements are prescribed centrally, the textbooks are developed

to support these courses. For example, pre-service teacher education textbooks have

been written recently to support the teaching of IT as a curriculum subject in the

National Curriculum in the UK, by Kennewell, Parkinson, and Tanner (2003) for

secondary level, and by Potter and Darbyshire (2005) for primary schools.

An application of IT that has been explored in some teacher education courses is

electronic networking for student teachers, school-based mentors and university

supervisors (Pearson, 2003). Pearson argues that this has the potential to be an

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important innovation in initial teacher education and reports that student teachers have

been generally positive about the benefits of this form of communication. He cautions

though that in some cases the potential has not been fully realised, with access to

computers in schools, and ‘lack of time’ to read and respond to messages being

reported by student teachers. A full treatment of the use of electronic networking to

foster teacher communities for professional development is provided in the chapter by

Looi, Lim, and Chen (2008) of the Handbook.

3.1.2 Postgraduate courses for professional development and research

In some education systems it is required that teachers undertake regular award-bearing

courses as professional development for continued employment or for promotion. In

others there is no compulsion, even no recognition of formal professional

development activity, but teachers continue nevertheless to undertake postgraduate

study to update or extend their qualifications, knowledge and skills. IT is an area

regarded by many teachers as important in this regard, particularly because of the

ongoing rapid developments in technology and its role in education, and in many

cases because they want to become involved in research in the area. Some of these

programs consist purely of coursework and are regarded as most valuable for teachers

wishing to update knowledge and skills; some programs comprise preliminary

coursework followed by small research projects, and some involve the undertaking

and reporting, with academic supervision, of more major research studies.

A survey of university websites reveals that many institutions now offer research

programs at Master and Doctoral levels specialising in IT in education. For example,

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Davis (2003) describes a PhD program involving opportunities for internships as

teachers and researchers. Research projects undertaken in partnership with schools

and other educational settings can lead to particularly novel ideas and approaches. An

example is reported in a study undertaken in an after-school computer clubhouse,

where children worked with young volunteer mentors from the IT industry; highly

successful but novel pedagogical strategies were revealed, consistent with the work

practices of IT professionals, and utilising students’ considerable willingness to seek

skills they need as they work on programming projects (McDougall & Boyle, 2004).

As well as the formal award programs just described, many universities and IT

professional associations offer professional development modules that can be taken as

stand-alone programs or, if an assessment requirement is completed, can also be used

as credit towards a university award course (Pearson, 2003).

3.2 Non-award programs, less formal models

Teacher professional development is variously referred to in the literature as staff

development, in-service training, and continuing professional development. (Downes

et al., 2001)

3.2.1 Programs from sources outside the school

Many substantive professional development programs [on IT] for experienced

teachers are initiated by employing authorities, though these may also be conducted

by other providers. Often these are presented for two or three members of staff from

each of several schools, as the centre of a train-the-trainer model in which these

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teachers are expected to return to their schools and teach other staff members what

has been learnt. Pearson (2003) notes that in the absence of published evaluations of

subsequent classroom practices, the impact of IT professional development programs

of these kinds cannot be determined.

Specially resourced ‘navigator’ or ‘lighthouse’ schools may be developed by central

authorities, to provide on-site visits, short courses or mentoring for staff from other

schools. Again the impact of these exemplar schools is not known as the experiences

of teachers visiting them, and actual changes in classroom practice that may have

resulted from these visits, typically are not documented (Pearson, 2003).

Downes et al. (2001) found in their research a range of models of systemic

professional development programs [with a focus on IT].. Strategies used included

sponsorship of self-directed formal professional development, school-focused

programs, single event programs, serial courses, curriculum development or teaching

projects, professional learning communities projects, and teacher research projects.

Infrastructure components involved with these initiatives included central and

advisory services, teachers’ centres, exemplar schools, allocation of specialist staff to

schools as professional development coordinators, development and provision of

resources, provision of hardware to teachers, partnerships with teacher education

institutions, and recognition and certification of learning.

Publications of teacher IT standards often include professional development materials

- scenarios, “model” lesson outlines, and so on. (ISTE, 2002; Kirschner & Wopereis,

2003; Hogenbirk & de Rijcke, 2006). Central authorities may also prepare and

17

distribute booklets for teacher professional development, or multimedia materials

such as video-based case studies of learning environments, or in-service training

modules (Downes et al. 2001; Karpati, 2003). Again, authors such as Downes et al.

note that there is as yet little empirical or theoretical evidence to support the extensive

claims about the effectiveness of the use of such media.

Many university teacher education departments have in-service courses where IT is

used as a tool for developing teaching and learning. As examples, Polyzou (2005)

studied the evolution of teachers’ knowledge through the design of teaching materials

using an authoring tool, and Angeli and Valanides (2005) advocate the use of an

instructional systems design model and activities involving design of IT-enhanced

lessons to develop IT-related pedagogical content knowledge. However Watson

(2001) questions the role of tertiary institutions in provision of IT professional

development, arguing that university staff may be far removed from actual school

classrooms. Watson further suggests that university resources are often inferior to

those in schools, though the opposite view is proposed by Karparti (2003).

Vendors of hardware and software provide a range of workshops for teachers.

Generally these comprise short programs focused on the development of skills needed

to use the products concerned, although the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow project

(Sandholtz, 2001) is a clear counter-example.

Professional and teacher associations provide professional development through

organization of conferences. These are held at local, national and international levels,

and may be research oriented, more practically focused, or a mix of both. In this

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rapidly changing area, attendance at such events can be of considerable value for

classroom teachers.

3.2.2 In-school professional development activities

Watson (2001) argues that teachers prefer school-based short courses and workshops

rather than extended courses from sources outside the school. ‘Curriculum days’ or

‘school development days’ (usually one or two days per term) provide opportunities

for teachers to address policies and programs that are specific to their own schools

(Pearson, 2003). School-based on-site teacher in-service training courses are found to

be more effective than those conducted at college campuses or laboratories of training

firms; one reason suggested for this is that schools do not have the level of

infrastructure available at the external venues, and thus teachers cannot apply

knowledge gained in the well-equipped settings (Karpati,2003).

In-school mentoring is popular as a strategy for professional development (Downes et

al., 2001). Some members of a school’s staff might be appointed or designated as

technology mentors and given a time allocation for professional development tasks

such as individual just-in-time consultations, small group support, team teaching, or

software assessment and acquisition. Jones and Vincent (2006) describe an effective

mentoring scheme in a school introducing interactive whiteboards. Contrary to the

more common introduction of experts as mentors, this school’s principal deliberately

chose two current staff members from different discipline areas who were not experts

in technology use. These teachers used their time allocation to learn and share with

other staff members, who willingly accepted help from their staffroom colleagues and

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gradually developed a culture of sharing technical knowledge and pedagogical ideas

more widely across the school.

3.2.3 Individual teachers’ activities for personal professional development

A good deal of teacher professional development in IT occurs as a result of teachers’

individual activities. Some of the strategies used include self-directed learning

through private reading or study, attendance at short courses, seminars or workshops,

reflection on practice or action research, joining teacher online communities, and

participation in the activities of a teacher or professional association. Kirschner and

Wopereis (2003) emphasise the need for teachers to be reflective life-long learners.

They advocate teachers’ participation in communities of practice, communities of

interest and communities of expertise in schools, teacher training institutions, and

society in general.

The provision, usually by teacher or professional associations, of a range of IT-related

conferences was mentioned earlier. Large numbers of teachers attend these

conferences, and many present papers or demonstrations about ways in which IT is

being used in their school settings. Many of these presentations are ‘cutting edge’

demonstrations of ways in which IT can support learning. The sharing of information,

and the networking amongst teachers that develops as a result of participation in these

conferences present important opportunities for teachers to shape their own

professional development (Pearson 2003).

4. Evaluation of Teacher Education and Professional Development Programs

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It was noted earlier in this chapter that the literature provides relatively little evidence

of evaluation findings for many of the IT teacher education initiatives described.

Indeed it is argued that very little encouragement is given for evaluating the strengths

and weaknesses of professional development practices (Watson, 2001). This is not to

say no evaluation has been undertaken; it is possible simply that the results of

evaluation studies have not been published. For example Davis (2003) reports that

evaluations were a required part of all projects within the Preparing Tomorrow’s

Teachers to use Technology initiative in the US, with the results being shared at

annual conferences.

Calls for more and better evaluation work in this area have resulted in the

development of evaluation frameworks and approaches to assist in this endeavour.

Downes et al. (2001) point out that the effectiveness of any teacher development

model will depend to some extent on the goals which the model’s designers want to

achieve through IT use. These writers acknowledge that the simultaneous existence of

the four types of goals:. acquisition of IT skills as an end in itself; IT integration in the

curriculum; IT as part of curriculum reforms; and IT as a means to transform

education, complicates the task of assessing models of teacher professional

development (Downes et al., 2001). Watson (2001), whose transformational goals for

IT in education were also outlined early in the chapter, states that the literature

provides numerous examples of what are claimed as successful models of professional

development, but, she argues, most of these aim at integrating IT into existing

curriculum and thus will not result in any fundamental or lasting educational change.

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McDougall and Squires (1997) propose a framework for reviewing teacher

professional development programs in IT which uses five commonly observed foci for

teacher professional development: skills in using particular software applications;

integration of IT into existing curricula; IT-related changes in curricula; changes in

teacher roles; and underpinning theories of education. These foci are considered in

terms of a ‘perspectives interactions’ paradigm, which looks at interactions between

pairs of the three ‘actors’ contributing to the learning situation when IT is used: the

teacher, the software designer and the student. This approach is based on a situated

view of cognition ensuring an authentic approach, and leads to consideration of the

comprehensiveness of a teacher education or professional development program. This

framework has been used to review several professional development initiatives

(Davis, 1997).

The IT standards publication from the International Society for Technology in

Education (ISTE, 2000; 2002) describe assessment systems designed to assist teacher

preparation institutions in evaluating the success of their programs. The book (ISTE

2002) contains suggestions for assessment of student teachers throughout, measuring

progress toward attainment of the ISTE standards. It also contains recommendations

for institution infrastructure to enable quality programs.

In a study using comparative case methodology Sandholtz (2001) examines the

teacher development programs of two different organizations: a private computer

company and a public school district. Both programs were considered effective when

judged by participants’ evaluations, gains in skills and plans for use of IT in

classrooms. However Sandholtz looked beyond this result, investigating the teachers’

22

abilities to implement what they learned in their classrooms. She used five criteria:

access to equipment; administrative support; technical support; collegial support; and

classroom implementation. She found firstly that key components of effective

technology programs include: teacher input to the design; teacher choice;

administrator involvement; situated teacher development; participant collaboration;

constructivist environment; flexibility; and adequate funding. Further she concluded

that issues of access and support directly influence the extent to which teachers use IT

in their classrooms.

5. Conclusion

New opportunities for valuable learning experiences afforded by the powerful

technologies now available in schools mean that more than ever we need effective

teacher education programs for teaching with and about IT. It is clear that a wide

range of models and practices for such programs already exist, and that novel

approaches and strategies are continually being developed. The existence of such a

range of models seems appropriate in the light of differing goals and purposes for the

use of IT in education and in a context in which the technology itself is constantly

developing to enable new ways of exploiting its power to support learning and

teaching. This constant technological change creates a need for ongoing learning

throughout a teaching career, further contributing to the devising of different models

and practices for pre-service teacher education and continuing professional

development.

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The constant development of the technology means that there is still need for teacher

education programs containing elements of IT skill development, despite the now

wide availability of and access to technology in schools in many countries. However

there is a clear need for programs that address the more complex issues of curriculum

integration of IT, transformation of education through using IT, and pedagogical

strategies to exploit the potential of IT to support individual and social learning.

There have been relatively few published evaluations of specific approaches, and the

impact of IT teacher education initiatives on classroom practices remains largely

undocumented (Pearson, 2003). Much more research is needed in this area (Downes

et al., 2001; Romeo, 2003; Webb, 2002), particularly evaluation studies and

investigations of linkages of IT supported pedagogical strategies with student

learning, so that the time and resources expended on teacher education programs for

teaching with and about IT can be used most effectively.

References

Angeli, C. & Valanides, N. (2005). Preservice elementary teachers as information and

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Suggested terms for Glossary

Pedagogy – the science of teaching, involving facets such as teaching methods and

student organization (Webb & Cox 2004)

Affordance – what the learning environment offers the learner (Webb & Cox 2004)

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