State of the nation : a comparative analysis of teacher professional development with ICT between ICT PD clusters and non-ICT PD schools : research project.

• Main Author: James, Martin Barrie
• Language: en
• Published: University of Canterbury. School of Educational Studies and Human Development 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/2803

Professional Development programmes in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT PO) in schools have had significant growth since the development of successive national ICT strategies by the Ministry of Education. Since the late 1990s the Ministry has provided funding to clusters of schools to carry out professional development programmes in the use and the integration of ICT into teaching and learning. Research, looking at the impact this ICT PO is having on teacher skills and attitudes, has amassed large quantities of rich data. By the end of 2004 40% of New Zealand schools will have been involved in an ICT PO cluster. This research sought to make a comparative analysis of ICT PO and non- ICT PO schools. The project looked at data from those exiting an ICT programme, those about to enter a programme and those who had had no involvement in ICT PO cluster programmes. This project found that schools who had not been involved in ICT PO clusters had high levels of personal ICT skills and confidence on a comparable level to those who had completed three years of ICT PD. Differences in the cohorts were apparent in the amount of time teachers attempted to integrate ICT into their programmes for student's use. It appears that: • ICT PO clusters are making a difference. The key difference is that they increase ICT usage by teachers and students. • ICT PO clusters create high levels of anxiety for teachers on entry cluster programmes. • Other ICT initiatives are having a positive effect on teachers unable to access ICT PO cluster programmes.