Md. Ahasanul Arefin Chowdhury :
(From previous issue)
On the other hand, through constructivist instructional approaches, teachers can cultivate environments for student-centred learning where students work with ICT individually or in groups to develop new knowledge on the basis of their existing knowledge. For example, students can be asked to create multimedia products to illustrate and report their research, or they are shown video-based scenarios and then given a problem to solve in groups, Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should have sound pedagogical knowledge about how to teach with ICT and how to instruct students to learn with ICT. Unfortunately, the existing teacher education curriculum provides a little knowledge of constructivist approach of teaching with ICT, and consequently the trainee teachers are often not confident in using that knowledge to facilitate student learning,
Teachers’ beliefs in ICT’s potential of contributing to education are reported to be very important (Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). If teachers believe that ICT supports their Instructional goals and students’ meaningful learning, they are more likely to appreciate ICT in their classrooms. However, teacher,’ negative beliefs in ICT, such as being overwhelmed at the thought of using ICT or fear of trying to keep up with frequently changing technologic” can hinder integration of ICT in education, Teachers’ beliefs in ICT can be influenced by providing them necessary competencies of teaching with ICT.
The National Education Policy 2010 of Bangladesh aspires to prepare the teachers to use ICT in teaching-learning activities. Despite the policy call for an increase of “the use of information and communication technology as a teaching-learning tool in all levels of education” (MOEBD, 2010, p. 9), there is a lack of clear guidelines of what skills and competencies the teachers must acquire in this regard. The teacher education programmes and professional development courses lack specific identification of teachers’ competencies related to pedagogical use of ICT. For example, the B.Ed. curriculum states that “it is essential that secondary teachers are able to use the computer to prepare written resources, store information and record data; and communicate and access information through the internet” (MOEBD, 2005, p. 60). It explains that ICT skills can enable teachers to prepare supplementary teaching-learning materials, to exchange information, knowledge and ideas, and to increase students’ participation in the classroom. Accordingly, the course content includes the skills of using a computer in a networked environment, saving, retrieving and printing a file document, producing word processed documents, using spreadsheets for calculations, sending and receiving email with attachments, and locating resources on the World Wide Web (WWW) using a search engine and evaluating and downloading resources for academic use. These are all technological skills, not pedagogical ones.
Clearly, the B.Ed. curriculum prescribes some ICT skills, but these skills are isolated from pedagogical knowledge of how to implement ICT in classrooms. There is evidence that teachers who have ICT skills often are not confident in using ICT in the classrooms due to lack of pedagogical knowledge (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). It can be found that different countries have adopted specific teacher-competencies with ICT in their teacher preparation programmes; for instance, in the USA, there are National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) and Students (NETS-S). The teacher training programmes in the USA follow these standards to prepare teachers to teach with ICT. Accordingly, it can be suggested that the teacher training curriculum of Bangladesh must identify and include some specific competencies regarding pedagogical use of ICT so that the teachers can be able to implement ICT effectively.
Although relevant knowledge of teaching about and with ICT is reported as crucial for integrating ICT in education, teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy is critical for this purpose. Teachers with a good knowledge base of ICT and low confidence can be less effective in using ICT for instructional purposes than teachers with less knowledge but more confidence to use ICT in the classroom (Ertmer & Ottenvreit-Leftich, 2010). Teachers’ confidence increases when they get sufficient training, experience successful use of I CT, observe their students’ successful learning, and participate in a professional learning community.
Communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) refer to the collaborative activities among the same professionals. It IS an effective process of social learning where like-minded people work collaboratively to share and exchange ideas, to discuss common problems to find solutions, and to build innovative practices. Since the concept of integrating ICT in education is comparatively a new idea in Bangladesh, teachers’ professional development with ICT skills is not likely to be made possible through the provisions of short training courses. ICT supported schooling requires involvement of the members of the community along with governments’ support (Hossain et. al., 2011). It is found that the educators help each other to learn ICT skills, and often the find expert help from their friends and relatives. This implies that establishing communities of practice among the teachers can contribute to developing teachers’ professional skills. A common place, like a computer club, can be established for teachers with the support of the government, non-government organisations and local communities, where the teachers can gather and help each other for developing ICT skills for teaching-learning activities.
Although teachers’ knowledge, confidence and beliefs in ICT are necessary, their professional culture also has a strong influence in implementing ICT in their practice. The education system is considered as a multi-layered culture, and each layer contributes to ICT’s access to education (Davis, 2010). Effective leadership, teachers’ community of practice, and developing essential infrastructure including hardware and software are often reported as influencing factors in this regard (Davis, 2010; Hossain et. al. 2011).
Little empirical study on the effective use of ICT can be found in Bangladesh. The available studies mostly focused on applying ICT in adult learning (Hoque & Alam, 2010; Pouezevara & Khan, 2007) and examining feasibility of deploying ICT in the schools (Hossain et. al., 2011). There is lack of empirical studies on the effective educational use of ICT in Bangladesh, whereas, empirical data is imperative for the successful implementation of ICT in schools. The Bangladeshi educators suggested conducting researches on pedagogical use of ICT (Chowdhury, 2011). Therefore, it is suggested that the teacher education curriculum engage the interested trainee teachers to investigate the effective use of ICT in education.
The existing B.Ed. curriculum contains five learning areas: professional studies, teaching studies, education studies, technology and research studies, and teaching practice. The technology and research studies are a relatively new learning area introduced in 2005. This learning area includes two courses: Basic Computer Skills (BCS), and Action Research. While the former course aims “to develop basic computer skills for use in organizing and presenting information and for recording assessment data” (MOEBD, 2005, p.22), the latter course’s objective is “to examine Action Research methods and carry out and write up small scale project on some aspect of teaching and learning” (MOEBD, 2005, p.22). According to this learning area, some trainee teachers can be engaged to design and examine pedagogical use of ICT through action research. Action research can be done on the pedagogical, technological, organizational and socio-cultural aspects of implementing ICT in the schools. Research objectives may include understanding the teaching-learning process with the support of ICT, developing reusable learning objects, innovation of new forms of pedagogy, effective use of internet and social networks in education, developing appropriate models for instruction and implementation.
It is clear that reforming teaching practices with support of ICT is taking place in the educational settings in Bangladesh. However, there is a need to prepare teachers for making effective use of ICT in classrooms. This chapter explored the question of how the teacher education programmes (B.Ed.) in Bangladesh are preparing the teachers for implementing ICT in educational activities, and suggested some further developments. It identified a number of significant factors: improving teachers’ beliefs in the role of ICT in education by showing them relevant evidence and examples, enhancing their pedagogical knowledge of using ICT in classrooms, providing them with facilities to innovate and examine ways of teaching with ICT, and cultivating teachers’ professional culture with employing ICT in academic purposes. Therefore, the knowledge and skills related to these factors need to be included in the teacher education curriculum. Further investigations of the pedagogical, technological and socio-cultural factors discussed are required in order to develop a knowledge base for the successful usage of ICT in schooling in Bangladesh.
(From previous issue)
On the other hand, through constructivist instructional approaches, teachers can cultivate environments for student-centred learning where students work with ICT individually or in groups to develop new knowledge on the basis of their existing knowledge. For example, students can be asked to create multimedia products to illustrate and report their research, or they are shown video-based scenarios and then given a problem to solve in groups, Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should have sound pedagogical knowledge about how to teach with ICT and how to instruct students to learn with ICT. Unfortunately, the existing teacher education curriculum provides a little knowledge of constructivist approach of teaching with ICT, and consequently the trainee teachers are often not confident in using that knowledge to facilitate student learning,
Teachers’ beliefs in ICT’s potential of contributing to education are reported to be very important (Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). If teachers believe that ICT supports their Instructional goals and students’ meaningful learning, they are more likely to appreciate ICT in their classrooms. However, teacher,’ negative beliefs in ICT, such as being overwhelmed at the thought of using ICT or fear of trying to keep up with frequently changing technologic” can hinder integration of ICT in education, Teachers’ beliefs in ICT can be influenced by providing them necessary competencies of teaching with ICT.
The National Education Policy 2010 of Bangladesh aspires to prepare the teachers to use ICT in teaching-learning activities. Despite the policy call for an increase of “the use of information and communication technology as a teaching-learning tool in all levels of education” (MOEBD, 2010, p. 9), there is a lack of clear guidelines of what skills and competencies the teachers must acquire in this regard. The teacher education programmes and professional development courses lack specific identification of teachers’ competencies related to pedagogical use of ICT. For example, the B.Ed. curriculum states that “it is essential that secondary teachers are able to use the computer to prepare written resources, store information and record data; and communicate and access information through the internet” (MOEBD, 2005, p. 60). It explains that ICT skills can enable teachers to prepare supplementary teaching-learning materials, to exchange information, knowledge and ideas, and to increase students’ participation in the classroom. Accordingly, the course content includes the skills of using a computer in a networked environment, saving, retrieving and printing a file document, producing word processed documents, using spreadsheets for calculations, sending and receiving email with attachments, and locating resources on the World Wide Web (WWW) using a search engine and evaluating and downloading resources for academic use. These are all technological skills, not pedagogical ones.
Clearly, the B.Ed. curriculum prescribes some ICT skills, but these skills are isolated from pedagogical knowledge of how to implement ICT in classrooms. There is evidence that teachers who have ICT skills often are not confident in using ICT in the classrooms due to lack of pedagogical knowledge (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). It can be found that different countries have adopted specific teacher-competencies with ICT in their teacher preparation programmes; for instance, in the USA, there are National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) and Students (NETS-S). The teacher training programmes in the USA follow these standards to prepare teachers to teach with ICT. Accordingly, it can be suggested that the teacher training curriculum of Bangladesh must identify and include some specific competencies regarding pedagogical use of ICT so that the teachers can be able to implement ICT effectively.
Although relevant knowledge of teaching about and with ICT is reported as crucial for integrating ICT in education, teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy is critical for this purpose. Teachers with a good knowledge base of ICT and low confidence can be less effective in using ICT for instructional purposes than teachers with less knowledge but more confidence to use ICT in the classroom (Ertmer & Ottenvreit-Leftich, 2010). Teachers’ confidence increases when they get sufficient training, experience successful use of I CT, observe their students’ successful learning, and participate in a professional learning community.
Communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) refer to the collaborative activities among the same professionals. It IS an effective process of social learning where like-minded people work collaboratively to share and exchange ideas, to discuss common problems to find solutions, and to build innovative practices. Since the concept of integrating ICT in education is comparatively a new idea in Bangladesh, teachers’ professional development with ICT skills is not likely to be made possible through the provisions of short training courses. ICT supported schooling requires involvement of the members of the community along with governments’ support (Hossain et. al., 2011). It is found that the educators help each other to learn ICT skills, and often the find expert help from their friends and relatives. This implies that establishing communities of practice among the teachers can contribute to developing teachers’ professional skills. A common place, like a computer club, can be established for teachers with the support of the government, non-government organisations and local communities, where the teachers can gather and help each other for developing ICT skills for teaching-learning activities.
Although teachers’ knowledge, confidence and beliefs in ICT are necessary, their professional culture also has a strong influence in implementing ICT in their practice. The education system is considered as a multi-layered culture, and each layer contributes to ICT’s access to education (Davis, 2010). Effective leadership, teachers’ community of practice, and developing essential infrastructure including hardware and software are often reported as influencing factors in this regard (Davis, 2010; Hossain et. al. 2011).
Little empirical study on the effective use of ICT can be found in Bangladesh. The available studies mostly focused on applying ICT in adult learning (Hoque & Alam, 2010; Pouezevara & Khan, 2007) and examining feasibility of deploying ICT in the schools (Hossain et. al., 2011). There is lack of empirical studies on the effective educational use of ICT in Bangladesh, whereas, empirical data is imperative for the successful implementation of ICT in schools. The Bangladeshi educators suggested conducting researches on pedagogical use of ICT (Chowdhury, 2011). Therefore, it is suggested that the teacher education curriculum engage the interested trainee teachers to investigate the effective use of ICT in education.
The existing B.Ed. curriculum contains five learning areas: professional studies, teaching studies, education studies, technology and research studies, and teaching practice. The technology and research studies are a relatively new learning area introduced in 2005. This learning area includes two courses: Basic Computer Skills (BCS), and Action Research. While the former course aims “to develop basic computer skills for use in organizing and presenting information and for recording assessment data” (MOEBD, 2005, p.22), the latter course’s objective is “to examine Action Research methods and carry out and write up small scale project on some aspect of teaching and learning” (MOEBD, 2005, p.22). According to this learning area, some trainee teachers can be engaged to design and examine pedagogical use of ICT through action research. Action research can be done on the pedagogical, technological, organizational and socio-cultural aspects of implementing ICT in the schools. Research objectives may include understanding the teaching-learning process with the support of ICT, developing reusable learning objects, innovation of new forms of pedagogy, effective use of internet and social networks in education, developing appropriate models for instruction and implementation.
It is clear that reforming teaching practices with support of ICT is taking place in the educational settings in Bangladesh. However, there is a need to prepare teachers for making effective use of ICT in classrooms. This chapter explored the question of how the teacher education programmes (B.Ed.) in Bangladesh are preparing the teachers for implementing ICT in educational activities, and suggested some further developments. It identified a number of significant factors: improving teachers’ beliefs in the role of ICT in education by showing them relevant evidence and examples, enhancing their pedagogical knowledge of using ICT in classrooms, providing them with facilities to innovate and examine ways of teaching with ICT, and cultivating teachers’ professional culture with employing ICT in academic purposes. Therefore, the knowledge and skills related to these factors need to be included in the teacher education curriculum. Further investigations of the pedagogical, technological and socio-cultural factors discussed are required in order to develop a knowledge base for the successful usage of ICT in schooling in Bangladesh.
(Md. Ahasanul Arefin Chowdhury is Govt. Teachers’ Training College, Pabna)
