Md. Ahasanul Arefin Chowdhury :
Changing educational practices with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a fresh concept in Bangladesh. The National Education Policy-2010 suggests increasing the use of ICT as a teaching-learning tool. Accordingly, the government is deploying ICT equipment in schools. However, studies show that deploying computers does not instigate change automatically. Teachers are the key change makers, so they need to be prepared. The author conducted a case study to investigate how the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programme in Bangladesh is preparing the teachers in integrating ICT in education. Key policies regarding ICT and education were analyzed and ten teacher educators from different teachers training colleges were interviewed to understand how they made sense of ICT for educational purposes. The study found that successful use of ICT in education requires a holistic change in all the curricular components, instruction, assessment, professional development, and academic culture. The recommendations include improving teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, confidence and professional culture in using ICT in education. For this, the teacher education curriculum should stress acquisition of both technological skills and pedagogical knowledge of cross-curricular use of ICT in education.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been introduced in education with a belief that it can contribute to making learning attractive and interesting, encouraging student-centred learning, and transforming traditional classroom-based education into an innovative way of learning at anytime from anywhere (Roblyer & Doering, 2010). Accordingly, the governments around the world have adopted different strategies and policies to integrate ICT in education systems (Kozma, 2008). However, the potential of ICT in education is not clearly realized, and one reason for this is teachers that are often not adequately prepared for teaching with ICT (Moonen, 2008 Teacher education programmes play important roles in preparing school teachers for implementing school curriculum; therefore, these programmes are suggested to enriched with the knowledge and skills of how to use ICT in education effectively (Chowdhury, 2012).
The Government of Bangladesh envisages implementing ICT in educational practices with a belief that ICT will contribute to enhancing the quality of education, and will make access to education within the reach of all citizens. Accordingly, the government is deploying ICT equipment in educational institutions throughout Bangladesh. Hossain Bilkis, Alam and Islam (2011) conducted a feasibility study on the introduction of ICT in secondary education in Bangladesh, and some of their suggestions are to train teachers in pedagogical use of ICT, to develop ICT enabled infrastructure, and to apply ICT in cross-curricular activities. Moreover, Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010) claim that teachers play the key role of employing ICT in classrooms, so they need to be prepared first. Since teachers are the key agents in implementing educational use of ICT, it is important to prepare them in this regard through appropriate training and teacher education.
The prevailing teacher education programme for the secondary teachers in Bangladesh is the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) qualification under the National University of Bangladesh. This is a postgraduate diploma in teaching and learning and the secondary teachers are required to complete this qualification. The government and non-government teachers’ training colleges (TTC) across the country are running this B.Ed. curriculum for preparing the teacher, for implementing the secondary curriculum. Since the latest education policy recommends increasing the use of ICT for instructional purposes in all levels of education, the author was interested to investigate the influence of the B.Ed. curriculum in preparing the teachers for this purpose. Therefore, this chapter is built upon the research question of how the B.Ed. programmes are contributing to preparing the secondary teachers for teaching with ICT.
In this chapter, I first explore the government’s policies of introducing ICT in education in Bangladesh, and then examine the issues of implementing ICT in teacher training programmes. After that, I discuss some Bangladeshi teacher educators’ perspectives of integrating ICT in education, and finally, I analyze how their perceptions can influence the innovation of ICT usage in the classrooms. The data for this chapter arises from my own study (Chowdhury, 2011) as well as other studies reported in national and international literature.
Changing educational practices with ICT is a comparatively fresh concept in Bangladesh. The government declared a new education policy in 2010 and one of its objectives is to increase the use of ICT as a teaching-learning tool in all levels of education. There is a need of approved knowledge of how to use ICT in schooling to meet the vision of changing education in Bangladesh (Chowdhury, 2012). This chapter discusses implications of recent research for educational change with ICT.
A considerable number of studies have been conducted to investigate teachers’ use of ICT in education. Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010) reviewed more than 40 studies on teachers’ use of ICT in education and indicated that some variables were commonly identified by the researchers that affect teachers’ ICT implementation: beliefs in the potential of ICT in education, professional culture of implementing ICT throughout the institution, pedagogical knowledge of using ICT, and confidence in handling ICT in classrooms.
Judson (2006) found that teachers with traditional pedagogical beliefs implement more traditional or low-level technology use strategies where teachers use technology to support their existing traditional way of teaching. On the other hand, teachers with more constructivist beliefs use more student-centred or high-level technology strategies where teachers use technology to engage students in participatory learning activities and to facilitate their construction of their own knowledge bases. Although teachers’ beliefs direct their use of technology, the school culture in which they practice has a strong influence in shaping their beliefs. Somekh (2008 p. 450) states that “Teachers arc not ‘free agents’ and their use of ICT for teaching and learning depends on the interlocking cultural, social, and organizational contexts in which they live and work.” Therefore, it is also important to investigate the contextual factors that teachers perceive as influential for integrating ICT in education.
With the introduction of ICT in education came the need for teachers to develop their knowledge base about how it could be integrated effectively in the classrooms. Koehler and Mishra (2008) argue that the reason behind teachers’ less effective use of ICT is because of their lack of knowledge about how ICT can be intertwined with pedagogical content knowledge. Therefore, they proposed a theoretical framework of teachers’ knowledge and called it Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). This framework prompts methods of effective teaching with technology that require proper understanding of the potential of technologies to support the representation of concepts along with appropriate pedagogical approaches to use technologies in a constructive way to teach content knowledge. This framework explains that teachers need to understand more than technology alone, more than pedagogy alone, and more that content alone ; they must understand an appropriate mixture of these domains of knowledge to teaching with ICT. For example, Doering and Veletsianos (2007) point that a geography teacher needs to know the complex intertwining of these three domains of knowledge rather than what they know separately- about Google Earth (technology), cultural geography (content) and the way of teaching geography (pedagogy). However, the framework also suggests the importance of specific knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). Therefore, it is understood that technological knowledge alone is not sufficient to integrate ICT in education; rather teachers require an intertwined knowledge of lCT, pedagogy and subject in order to implement ICTs for teaching-learning activities,
Teachers’ confidence in using ICT for instructional purposes is an important consideration. Frequently a gap is noticed between what teachers know about and what they do with ICTs in their classrooms, and this is due to their lack of confidence in competing the task successfully (Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Studies suggest that increasing teachers’ confidence in using ICTs prerequisite for teaching and learning activities is an essential for integrating ICTs in education, and it is teachers’ positive experiences with computers that promote their belief in the technology and builds their confidence in its potential in education (Mueller, Wood, Willoughby, Ross, & Specht, 2008).
The objectives of the study are concerned with Bangladeshi teacher educators’ experiences and their understanding of implementing ICT in education, the influences of the introduction of ICT courses In teacher training programmes, the implications of teachers’ professional development with ICT, and the crucial themes the educators believe need to be addressed for the integration of ICT in education. Therefore, a case study research approach was adopted to enable the researcher to cover contextual or multivariate conditions and to rely on multiple and not singular sources of evidence. A case study may involve a range of methods, such as interview, document analysis and observation. Accordingly, ten teacher educators from five different teachers’ training colleges were interviewed to explore their understanding and suggestions in the successful integration of ICT in education. Moreover, three key policy documents were examined to understand how they position the nature of ICT in education: The National ICT Policy– 2009, the National Education Policy – 2010, and the Bachelor of Education Curriculum (a one-year post-graduate qualification under the National University of Bangladesh).
The National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy-2009) of Bangladesh envisages producing a productive 21st-century-ready workforce; accordingly it tends to bring reform in curriculum, pedagogy, and teachers’ capacity building to ensure quality education for all. In order to meet this vision, the policy considers ICT as an important skill of the 21st century, and recommends providing teachers and students
of primary, secondary and tertiary education levels of Bangladesh with ICT literacy. It regards ICT as an effective tool for teaching and learning activities; therefore it suggests equipping classrooms with ICT devices such as computers with internet connection and multimedia projectors. Accordingly, the Government of Bangladesh has already taken initiatives to provide the schools with laptops, internet connection, multimedia systems and projectors. The intent of these initiatives is to encourage the teachers and students to use ICT in classrooms to make education attractive and effective. The policy encourages the preparation of multimedia-based content and learning materials, such as e-hooks, animated cartoon characters and documentary video clips as supplementary tools for learning.
The National Education Policy-2010 policy emphasizes the integration of ICT in the education system, suggesting that ICT is one of the most important elements to lever the quality of education. The policy consists of 30 general objectives of education and the twenty-first objective is “to extend the use of information and communication technology (ICT) instrumental in educational process at every level” (Ministry of Education of Bangladesh [MOEBD], 2010, p. 9). This policy aims to develop citizens’ computer literacy, and to encourage research and development work in ICT. To develop ICT literacy among Bangladeshi citizens, the policy advocates ICT courses in primary, secondary, technical and vocational education and training programmes. For this purpose, the policy recommends developing the ICT infrastructure in schools and teacher training institutions through the provision of computers, local area networks and internet connections. The policy recommends recruiting teachers in schools who have considerable ICT knowledge and skills.
The existing Bachelor of Education Curriculum perceives ICT as an essential teaching skill for upgrading teacher performance. It states that “In the rapidly changing IT environment of Bangladesh, 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” Ministry of Education of Bangladesh [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. However, the educational rationale of ICT in the Bangladeshi policies mainly emphasizes using ICT as a tool to support the existing teaching-learning practices. It seems less concerned with transforming traditional practices with the innovative use of ICT, such as, Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) which allows anytime communication via internet to link together teachers and students in a collaborative learning process. Hiltz, Turoff, and Harasim (2007 argue that ALN can involve learners actively in constructing knowledge by applying concepts to problems, and can facilitate them to formulate ideas into words, building on reactions and responses of others.
(To be continued)
Changing educational practices with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a fresh concept in Bangladesh. The National Education Policy-2010 suggests increasing the use of ICT as a teaching-learning tool. Accordingly, the government is deploying ICT equipment in schools. However, studies show that deploying computers does not instigate change automatically. Teachers are the key change makers, so they need to be prepared. The author conducted a case study to investigate how the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programme in Bangladesh is preparing the teachers in integrating ICT in education. Key policies regarding ICT and education were analyzed and ten teacher educators from different teachers training colleges were interviewed to understand how they made sense of ICT for educational purposes. The study found that successful use of ICT in education requires a holistic change in all the curricular components, instruction, assessment, professional development, and academic culture. The recommendations include improving teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, confidence and professional culture in using ICT in education. For this, the teacher education curriculum should stress acquisition of both technological skills and pedagogical knowledge of cross-curricular use of ICT in education.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been introduced in education with a belief that it can contribute to making learning attractive and interesting, encouraging student-centred learning, and transforming traditional classroom-based education into an innovative way of learning at anytime from anywhere (Roblyer & Doering, 2010). Accordingly, the governments around the world have adopted different strategies and policies to integrate ICT in education systems (Kozma, 2008). However, the potential of ICT in education is not clearly realized, and one reason for this is teachers that are often not adequately prepared for teaching with ICT (Moonen, 2008 Teacher education programmes play important roles in preparing school teachers for implementing school curriculum; therefore, these programmes are suggested to enriched with the knowledge and skills of how to use ICT in education effectively (Chowdhury, 2012).
The Government of Bangladesh envisages implementing ICT in educational practices with a belief that ICT will contribute to enhancing the quality of education, and will make access to education within the reach of all citizens. Accordingly, the government is deploying ICT equipment in educational institutions throughout Bangladesh. Hossain Bilkis, Alam and Islam (2011) conducted a feasibility study on the introduction of ICT in secondary education in Bangladesh, and some of their suggestions are to train teachers in pedagogical use of ICT, to develop ICT enabled infrastructure, and to apply ICT in cross-curricular activities. Moreover, Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010) claim that teachers play the key role of employing ICT in classrooms, so they need to be prepared first. Since teachers are the key agents in implementing educational use of ICT, it is important to prepare them in this regard through appropriate training and teacher education.
The prevailing teacher education programme for the secondary teachers in Bangladesh is the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) qualification under the National University of Bangladesh. This is a postgraduate diploma in teaching and learning and the secondary teachers are required to complete this qualification. The government and non-government teachers’ training colleges (TTC) across the country are running this B.Ed. curriculum for preparing the teacher, for implementing the secondary curriculum. Since the latest education policy recommends increasing the use of ICT for instructional purposes in all levels of education, the author was interested to investigate the influence of the B.Ed. curriculum in preparing the teachers for this purpose. Therefore, this chapter is built upon the research question of how the B.Ed. programmes are contributing to preparing the secondary teachers for teaching with ICT.
In this chapter, I first explore the government’s policies of introducing ICT in education in Bangladesh, and then examine the issues of implementing ICT in teacher training programmes. After that, I discuss some Bangladeshi teacher educators’ perspectives of integrating ICT in education, and finally, I analyze how their perceptions can influence the innovation of ICT usage in the classrooms. The data for this chapter arises from my own study (Chowdhury, 2011) as well as other studies reported in national and international literature.
Changing educational practices with ICT is a comparatively fresh concept in Bangladesh. The government declared a new education policy in 2010 and one of its objectives is to increase the use of ICT as a teaching-learning tool in all levels of education. There is a need of approved knowledge of how to use ICT in schooling to meet the vision of changing education in Bangladesh (Chowdhury, 2012). This chapter discusses implications of recent research for educational change with ICT.
A considerable number of studies have been conducted to investigate teachers’ use of ICT in education. Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010) reviewed more than 40 studies on teachers’ use of ICT in education and indicated that some variables were commonly identified by the researchers that affect teachers’ ICT implementation: beliefs in the potential of ICT in education, professional culture of implementing ICT throughout the institution, pedagogical knowledge of using ICT, and confidence in handling ICT in classrooms.
Judson (2006) found that teachers with traditional pedagogical beliefs implement more traditional or low-level technology use strategies where teachers use technology to support their existing traditional way of teaching. On the other hand, teachers with more constructivist beliefs use more student-centred or high-level technology strategies where teachers use technology to engage students in participatory learning activities and to facilitate their construction of their own knowledge bases. Although teachers’ beliefs direct their use of technology, the school culture in which they practice has a strong influence in shaping their beliefs. Somekh (2008 p. 450) states that “Teachers arc not ‘free agents’ and their use of ICT for teaching and learning depends on the interlocking cultural, social, and organizational contexts in which they live and work.” Therefore, it is also important to investigate the contextual factors that teachers perceive as influential for integrating ICT in education.
With the introduction of ICT in education came the need for teachers to develop their knowledge base about how it could be integrated effectively in the classrooms. Koehler and Mishra (2008) argue that the reason behind teachers’ less effective use of ICT is because of their lack of knowledge about how ICT can be intertwined with pedagogical content knowledge. Therefore, they proposed a theoretical framework of teachers’ knowledge and called it Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). This framework prompts methods of effective teaching with technology that require proper understanding of the potential of technologies to support the representation of concepts along with appropriate pedagogical approaches to use technologies in a constructive way to teach content knowledge. This framework explains that teachers need to understand more than technology alone, more than pedagogy alone, and more that content alone ; they must understand an appropriate mixture of these domains of knowledge to teaching with ICT. For example, Doering and Veletsianos (2007) point that a geography teacher needs to know the complex intertwining of these three domains of knowledge rather than what they know separately- about Google Earth (technology), cultural geography (content) and the way of teaching geography (pedagogy). However, the framework also suggests the importance of specific knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). Therefore, it is understood that technological knowledge alone is not sufficient to integrate ICT in education; rather teachers require an intertwined knowledge of lCT, pedagogy and subject in order to implement ICTs for teaching-learning activities,
Teachers’ confidence in using ICT for instructional purposes is an important consideration. Frequently a gap is noticed between what teachers know about and what they do with ICTs in their classrooms, and this is due to their lack of confidence in competing the task successfully (Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Studies suggest that increasing teachers’ confidence in using ICTs prerequisite for teaching and learning activities is an essential for integrating ICTs in education, and it is teachers’ positive experiences with computers that promote their belief in the technology and builds their confidence in its potential in education (Mueller, Wood, Willoughby, Ross, & Specht, 2008).
The objectives of the study are concerned with Bangladeshi teacher educators’ experiences and their understanding of implementing ICT in education, the influences of the introduction of ICT courses In teacher training programmes, the implications of teachers’ professional development with ICT, and the crucial themes the educators believe need to be addressed for the integration of ICT in education. Therefore, a case study research approach was adopted to enable the researcher to cover contextual or multivariate conditions and to rely on multiple and not singular sources of evidence. A case study may involve a range of methods, such as interview, document analysis and observation. Accordingly, ten teacher educators from five different teachers’ training colleges were interviewed to explore their understanding and suggestions in the successful integration of ICT in education. Moreover, three key policy documents were examined to understand how they position the nature of ICT in education: The National ICT Policy– 2009, the National Education Policy – 2010, and the Bachelor of Education Curriculum (a one-year post-graduate qualification under the National University of Bangladesh).
The National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy-2009) of Bangladesh envisages producing a productive 21st-century-ready workforce; accordingly it tends to bring reform in curriculum, pedagogy, and teachers’ capacity building to ensure quality education for all. In order to meet this vision, the policy considers ICT as an important skill of the 21st century, and recommends providing teachers and students
of primary, secondary and tertiary education levels of Bangladesh with ICT literacy. It regards ICT as an effective tool for teaching and learning activities; therefore it suggests equipping classrooms with ICT devices such as computers with internet connection and multimedia projectors. Accordingly, the Government of Bangladesh has already taken initiatives to provide the schools with laptops, internet connection, multimedia systems and projectors. The intent of these initiatives is to encourage the teachers and students to use ICT in classrooms to make education attractive and effective. The policy encourages the preparation of multimedia-based content and learning materials, such as e-hooks, animated cartoon characters and documentary video clips as supplementary tools for learning.
The National Education Policy-2010 policy emphasizes the integration of ICT in the education system, suggesting that ICT is one of the most important elements to lever the quality of education. The policy consists of 30 general objectives of education and the twenty-first objective is “to extend the use of information and communication technology (ICT) instrumental in educational process at every level” (Ministry of Education of Bangladesh [MOEBD], 2010, p. 9). This policy aims to develop citizens’ computer literacy, and to encourage research and development work in ICT. To develop ICT literacy among Bangladeshi citizens, the policy advocates ICT courses in primary, secondary, technical and vocational education and training programmes. For this purpose, the policy recommends developing the ICT infrastructure in schools and teacher training institutions through the provision of computers, local area networks and internet connections. The policy recommends recruiting teachers in schools who have considerable ICT knowledge and skills.
The existing Bachelor of Education Curriculum perceives ICT as an essential teaching skill for upgrading teacher performance. It states that “In the rapidly changing IT environment of Bangladesh, 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” Ministry of Education of Bangladesh [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. However, the educational rationale of ICT in the Bangladeshi policies mainly emphasizes using ICT as a tool to support the existing teaching-learning practices. It seems less concerned with transforming traditional practices with the innovative use of ICT, such as, Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) which allows anytime communication via internet to link together teachers and students in a collaborative learning process. Hiltz, Turoff, and Harasim (2007 argue that ALN can involve learners actively in constructing knowledge by applying concepts to problems, and can facilitate them to formulate ideas into words, building on reactions and responses of others.
(To be continued)
