ICT Training for teachers Why they need good policyAndrew Hulme Postgraduate Student of GSE Bristol University
This paper raises and discusses issues and concerns arising from the governments requirement that all teachers must become competent in using ICT1 in their teaching by 2003. Oftsted2 reported that the governments NOF- Training3 for teachers policy has had a measure of success in increasing confidence in their teaching practices. However, gaining universal acceptance from teachers for the policy has had its difficulties. ... “If we wish to ensure that our children and our country reap the benefits of ICT we must cherish our teachers and do everything we can to help them to take it on board” (Stevenson, 1997) Introduction The independent report by Stevenson (1997) into the potential of ICT in schools highlighted the difficulties that teachers face in the classroom and made recommendations as to how these difficulties they might be addressed. The report emphasised the importance of ICT in education and acknowledged that if young people are to become equipped to complete in the global information society, education has to be transformed (Galanouli et al. ... Following the massive ICT infrastructure investment in 1998 from the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) £230 million was made available in 1999 from the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) for its training program. Ofsted (2001) reported that that the new infrastructure initiatives had contributed to a steady improvement in pupils achievements particularly in ICT. However, there was less cause for optimism for the NOF training program. This NOF training initiative for teachers was first implemented in 1998 with the primary aim of raising the failing achievement levels of students in the UK by developing the ICT-competence of teachers (Galanouli et al., 2004), but only half of the teachers had enrolled by 2001, and of them only a small number had completed the course4. So why has the general acceptance of the NOF training program been so problematic? There are a number of factors that could have influenced and contributed to the failure of the policy and these form the basis to the argument as to why we need good policy in training teachers in the use of ICT. Ownership The Ofsten (2002) reported that as a result of the training only a minority of schools were able to benefit from ICT improvement. Typically the training was considered most successful where schools had made training a priority, where senior managers were actively involved and where teachers were able to adapt training material to there own purposes. Charles Clark5 now accepts (BETT, 2004) that without the ownership of the training by the individual teachers and management structures, the policies of the NOF training initiative will not succeed. However, there is very little obvious evidence that ownership was a key purpose of the original NOF training strategy. Nevertheless, the challenge remains for teachers to own these changes in order for them to become competent in ICT skills. Almost in recognition of the failings of NOF training, Charles Clarkes speech appeals to the teachers sense of professional duty to make it happen. ... In spite of these undertones, educating pupils in the use of computers is becoming a key professional responsibility for teachers (Loveless, 2003) even if there is a certain amount of coercion. However, retaining an element of choice in the face of obvious uncertainty would provide a reality check on and give support for the vision of teachers (Farmer, 2001). It is possible that the strong encouragement and even the forcing of teachers to reform may even have helped to bed down the now wide spread perception that computers are here to stay, playing a central role in education (Faulkner and Stewart, 2003). Government knows that if these policies are to be successful then it will not be enough to simple train teachers in the use ICT, they must also change their perception, which is important in order to win their confidence.