Student teachers’ first reflections on information

Original article

Student teachers’ first reflections on information
and communications technology and classroom
learning: implications for initial teacher
education
Daniela SimeÃ & Mark Priestleyw
ÃGlasgow Centre for the Child & Society, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK,

wInstitute of Education, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

Abstract

This article explores student teachers’ views of the use of information and communication
technologies (ICT) in schools. There is limited research literature regarding the perceptions
that such students develop in relation to the use of ICT in teaching while observing practice
in schools. The paper offers an interpretive analysis of the opinions that a cohort of undergraduate student teachers at a Scottish University expressed in an online forum, following
a period of school placement. As part of their initial teacher education (ITE), the students
were asked to post messages on the forum in relation to the factors that they perceived as
promoting or hindering the use of ICT in schools. Perceptions that students held were found
to be complex and varied. Students associated the use of ICT with changes in the nature of
classroom relations, as well as a reshaping of learning and teaching. While they welcomed
the introduction of ICT as a tool for modernising teaching, students identified a variety of
factors that hinder this process. The paper finishes by identifying some of the implications
for those working with student teachers in encouraging their development of reflective
practice with ICT and enhancing their positive attitudes in relation to the use of ICT in
schools.

Keywords

ICT use, reflective observation, student attitudes to ICT, student teachers, online forum

Introduction

Technology has become a key mediator of human
relationships not only in schools, but also in other
fields, such as commerce, media and business, etc.
Family relationships are changing due to increased
access by parents and children to technological devices. Home access to computers and other technoloAccepted: 16 February 2005
Correspondence: Daniela Sime, Glasgow Centre for the Child &
Society, University of Glasgow, 66 Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow G12
8LS, UK.
Email: d.sime@socsci.gla.ac.uk

130

gies is growing rapidly (Livingstone & Bovill 1999;
Livingstone & Bober 2004). Computers and other
related technologies have become symbolic goods
(Cawson et al. 1995), and owning them is identified
with social distinction and intellectual superiority.
Parents are led to believe by companies (and schools)
that investing in technology is a form of ‘good parenting’ (Buckingham et al. 2001) and that computers
give children limitless options to learn, a claim that is
still under debate in current literature. In the face of
such trends, public perceptions of the benefits that
computers and other technologies play in children’s
lives are varied: they range from total fascination and

r Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 Journal of Computer Assisted learning 21, pp130–142

Student teachers’ reflections on ICT

amazement at their power to circulate information to a
form of latter day Luddism, characterised by fears of
unseen dangers and risks.
Such societal phenomena are reflected within the
education system. The impact of information and
communication technologies (ICT) is most evident at
a policy-making level. For example, it has become in
recent years a priority of policy makers in UK, where
the present government emphasises the role that
technology could and should play in transforming
learning by making it more accessible to individuals
everywhere through online tutoring and individualised
programmes appropriate to each pupil’s needs (DfES
2002). This priority given to technology in mediating
the reform of the content of education and in changing
the types of interactions between teachers and pupils
and pupils and pupils in schools anticipates a new,
‘digital generation’ of learners. Such a context generates new expectations and strategies, both for upskilling existing teachers, and for preparing newly
qualified teachers to use ICT as part of their teaching.
This paper examines the perceptions that student
teachers in a Scottish University developed in relation
to the use of ICT in schools, following a period of
school placement. It draws on the analysis of messages
posted by 82 second-year students in an online discussion forum. The paper briefly examines the recent
research developments in relation to teachers’ and
student teachers’ attitudes to the uses of ICT in
schools, before considering the data from our study.
Based on the evidence emerging from our data, we
examine how ICT is transforming teaching and
learning in student teachers’ perspective and what
factors affect the successful use of ICT, in their views.
We finally conclude with some implications for student teacher learning and training.
Teachers and ICT

Recent research (e.g. Waite 2004) indicates that although teachers in schools show great interest and
motivation to learn about the potential of ICT, in
practice, use of ICT is relatively low and it is focused
on a narrow range of applications, with word processing being the predominant use, and video/network
conferencing, emailing and the Internet being rarely
used. International research suggests that ICT as a tool
to promote learning is not generally well embedded in

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teachers’ practice (Cox et al. 1999; Pedretti et al.
1999; Zhao & Cziko 2001) and that ‘information
technology in the classroom is used in an ineffective
way and it has proven difficult to integrate within traditional curriculum settings’ (Jules Van Belle & Soetaert 2001, p. 38) In the Scottish context, the evidence
suggests a similar picture (Williams et al. 1998). Many
teachers recognise a range of benefits for pupils and
themselves in using ICT, but more often than not fail to
integrate it in their teaching, continuing to ‘teach ICT
rather than teach with ICT’. In primary schools, teachers tend to use ICT to support classroom practice,
while secondary school teachers use it more for professional development and personal use rather than for
teaching. The same study showed that teachers who use
a computer at home tend to use it more in classrooms
and that differences exist between subject areas in the
practice and attitudes towards ICT, with teachers of
business management using it more and Mathematics
and science teachers using it the least.
Many reasons have been suggested for the failure of
ICT to embed more completely in schools. Pelgrum
(2001) reports on an international survey of teachers’
perceived obstacles to using ICT and identifies three
major factors: lack of resources, lack of knowledge
and skills and pedagogical difficulties to integrate
technology in instruction. The competence factor and
teachers’ confidence in their skills as a major factor
that conditions teachers’ willingness to integrate
technology in their teaching is cited by other research
(Williams et al. 1998; Mooij & Smeets 2001). Dawes
(2001) identifies the critical importance of the following factors as perceived barriers in teachers’ use of
ICT: ownership of up-to-date technology; a sense of
purpose for ICT use; adequate training; realistic time
management; and inclusion in supportive communities
of practice. Zhao and Cziko (2001, p. 27) identify
three conditions that must be fulfilled for teachers to
be motivated and use ICT in their practice:
1 Teachers must believe that by using technology
they are more likely to achieve a higher-level goal
than through other means used (‘effectiveness’).
2 They must believe that if used, technology will not
disturb the other high-level goals that they want to
achieve (‘disturbances’).
3 Finally, teacher must believe that they are in control, having the ability and resources to use ICT
effectively (‘control’).

& Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 21, pp130–142

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D. Sime & M. Priestley

These authors suggest that once these conditions achieved, teachers will introduce ICT in their
lessons. Cox et al. (1999) talk about a ‘technology
acceptance model’, explaining the interplay between
external factors and perceived usefulness and ease of
use as conditioning the use of ICT. Teachers
were reported to include mainly external factors
(training, time to explore software, new computers,
appropriate software) when discussing their progress
with using ICT for literacy activities (Waite 2004). In
the same study, almost 75% of the teachers considered
that when using computers and the Internet, they
had to change the ways in which they planned
their teaching. This may suggest another factor that
may act as a barrier in using ICT in classrooms, as
teachers may require extra time to prepare a class. A
teacher may have to book the computer suite or a
laptop, decide activities suitable for computer use,
check software in advance and have a contingency
plan etc. Many of these issues can be neatly encapsulated by the practicality ethic articulated by
Doyle and Ponder (1977). This suggests that teachers
may oppose or fail to enact change even where it is
congruent with their core values, should such change
lack instrumentality (i.e. be difficult to enact) and if
there are potentially significant costs (for example
professional risks). The practicality ethic may be
strengthened, and teachers thus motivated to use ICT,
when there exists a supportive community of users
among practitioners who can learn collaboratively by
exchanging ideas either in face-to-face discussions or
in online communities, through emails, discussions,
and online staff boards, etc. (Preston 1999; Leask
&Younie 2001).
In summary, there seem to be four major issues
identified by research for introducing technology in
teachers’ practice. These are:
Beliefs: personal ideas about the contribution that
technology can make to the processes of teaching
and learning and classroom management;
Experience: own training and ICT skills, abilities to
control ICT use in the classroom and cope with
technical failure;
Resources: available technologies in schools and
ownership of own computer at home;
Community: membership to a network of colleagues
who can provide support, encourage use and constitute a learning community.

Student teachers and ICT

Fewer studies exist on the beliefs and attitudes that
student teachers hold in relation to their use of ICT in
their teaching practice. Students have been reported to
attribute their progress in using ICT for teaching
mainly to their use of computers for personal purposes
at home, at work, and in university (Trushell et al.
1995; Cuckle et al. 2000). In another study that involved a longitudinal monitoring of students’ learning
with and about ICT (Taylor 2003), students reported
that they consciously used a repertoire of learning
strategies whilst developing their ICT skills. They
perceived several factors as affecting their progress,
including previous experience, match of learning opportunities with their preferences and software attributes. A later study by Taylor (2004) provides a
helpful typology to explain the development of sophistication in student teachers’ thinking about the use
of ICT in teaching; this study highlights three factors –
university-based teaching, assignments and teaching
using ICT – as being significant in this development.
Student teachers are now required to not only show
good ICT skills, but also to be able to include ICT in
their teaching in a manner which enhances children’s
learning. In Scotland, the SOEID guidance on the use
of ICT in teacher training (SOEID 1999) proposes five
categories of skills and knowledge that students
should develop during their teacher training. In relation to the guidelines, there is now relevant literature
that recommends ways of ensuring that student teachers are prepared to teach using ICT. Several authors
(Simpson et al. 1999; Clift et al. 2001; Pritchard 2001;
Beyerbach et al. 2001) underline the importance of the
following aspects of training future teachers to use
ICT:
the modelling of ICT use by ITE tutors and teachers
observed during school placements;
opportunities at university to use ICT in their own
learning and to practice the use of ICT in teaching;
the existence of a community of users (mentors,
other students, teachers in school) that can offer
support and guidance if needed;
the provision of a compulsory element within the
ITE programme to promote use among reticent
students;
the provision of ideas and practical activities, with
direct relevance for the teaching of subjects.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 21, pp130–142


The rapid advance of technology means that the level
of ICT skills of many students on entry to higher
education is advanced (Simpson et al. 1999). In this
sense, many of the students in our study took on a
paradoxical role of the ‘expert novice’ when placed in
schools. While they lacked experience of classrooms
and learning, many possessed technical ICT skills that
far exceeded those of the teachers with whom they
were placed, and this gave them considerable kudos,
despite their ‘rookie’ status. Such a situation placed
many of them in a unique position to observe and
comment upon the ICT use they encountered on placement. Our study seeks to draw upon these reflections. We need to know more about the students’
conceptualisations of pedagogical uses of ICT and
about their understandings of the ways in which ICT
affects the processes of learning and teaching. This
approach would inform teacher educators about the
formative processes and stages that students go
through and would enable the identification of concrete ways of supporting their learning to teach with
ICT.
The design of the study

To examine the perspectives that student teachers
develop in relation to the use of ICT in schools and its
contribution to the processes of teaching of learning,
we explored the views expressed by 82 students in an
online discussion forum. The cohort comprised a
group of second year student teachers on a four-year
secondary ITE programme, with a variety of teaching
subjects. The cohort comprised both recent school
leavers and more mature students.
Based on the online discussion data, the study investigates the following research questions in relation
to this paper:
How do students understand the processes of
teaching and learning when ICT is involved in
teaching?
What are the factors that affect students’ perceptions of ICT use?

Data collection

The integration of ICT into routine teaching situations
was first systematically observed by students during an

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observational placement in primary schools. Students
were subsequently asked to participate in two online
forum discussions during the academic year, their
participation being facilitated by tutors. Each forum
lasted about 2 weeks. The study is based on the data
generated as part of the programme, through the
contributions made online. Students were asked to
reflect on professional practice in using ICT based on
their own experiences and observations in schools and
to evaluate critically the lessons observed.
The use of the online discussion contrasts with the
more traditional methods of student inquiry adopted in
other courses on the programme. Students were required to attend several lectures, and had a list of set
readings, but face-to-face seminars were replaced by
the online discussions. To protect the anonymity of the
participants, the forum is now closed and students are
not named in the present paper. Consent forms were
obtained from the individuals whose contributions are
quoted in this paper.
Students were divided arbitrarily into four discussion forums organised and moderated by the course
tutors. Each forum was ‘public’ to all students, who
were encouraged to read contributions made by their
colleagues in other forums, while they could post
messages only in the specific forum to which they
were allocated. Students posted between one and
twenty messages each, the average number of postings
being 5.5 messages per student. They knew that there
was a compulsory dimension to the discussion, as they
all had to make ‘at least one meaningful contribution’
based on their observations on schools in order to pass
the unit. Contributions had to address the topic of ICT,
be supported by ideas from readings and build on issues raised by the other participants. The focus of the
discussions was initially identified by the tutors (e.g.
use of ICT to promote learning, factors that hinder the
use of ICT in schools, issues of safety online), but then
students were able to bring into discussion their own
ideas or interests. Across the discussion forums, several topics were considered, such as funding for
computers in schools, gender divisions in using technology among teachers and children, professional
development of teachers in schools in relation to ICT
training, funding for ICT in schools, other ICT uses in
schools apart from computers, social class distinctions
perpetuated by differentiated access to technology and
moral aspects of internet use by children.


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D. Sime M. Priestley

Discussion

Data analysis

When analysing the messages posted by the students
on the discussion forum, we had the following objectives:
to identify the variety of computer uses that students
observed as part of their training in schools and the
conditions that they perceived as facilitating the
effective use of ICT;
to discuss the advantages and disadvantages that
students perceived in relation to the use of computers in schools;
to investigate the ways in which these advantages
and disadvantages are linked to the issues of
teaching and learning;
to identify the potential formative effect of this type
of reflective action research on developing students’
attitudes and understanding towards the use of ICT
as a teaching tool.
Messages were analysed using a form of recursive
comparative analysis; this refers to a process by which
the findings that emerge from the data are constantly
tested and refined to take account of all the relevant
data. In total 456 messages were included in the
sample. In analysing, we followed the following steps:
Read messages from one of the lists. This included a
process of making notes on the strands of data,
looking for possible themes, labelling extracts, articulating concepts and themes, looking for examples of judgements and factors influencing these
judgements.
Identify points of similarity and/or difference
among various messages in relation to the research
questions. This was a process of labelling and relabelling and grouping together similar extracts to
strengthen the themes developed.
Generate possible theories/findings to reflect answers to the research questions. After a proportion
of the data was coded, we looked at categories to
make sense of the main ideas contained in the
messages.
Test the theory against a new set of messages from
another sample. This process allowed for ideas,
developed in relation to the themes and theories
identified, to be checked against other strands of
data; it also allowed a further development of some
themes and restructuring of others.
Repeat the above process until all data have been
examined and all theories were tested against the data.

A number of strands in student teachers’ understandings of the role that ICT plays in teaching and
learning could be identified from the data. These were:
awareness of the possibilities to transform teaching
and learning afforded by the uses of ICT;
understanding of the factors that condition the
successful use of ICT in the classroom;
ideas about strategies for planning and integrating
ICT tools in teaching certain subjects;
ideas about managing children and technology to
ensure successful teaching and learning;
thinking about the need to differentiate and consider
individual pupils’ needs, by taking into account
their competence with ICT, home access and interest in using ICT;
reflection on own practice and the role of observing
ICT use in schools in configuring one’s identity as a
teacher.
The messages analysed indicate that all student teachers had some understanding of the potential that ICT
has to enhance the processes of teaching and learning.
This understanding was evidenced in the online messages not only at a generic level, as informed by
reading and observed practice, but also at a level
specific to particular lessons taught or observed in
school placements. The discussion boards reflected
diverse, critical and sophisticated thinking about the
potential that ICT has to transform teachers’ practice,
a fact which surprised the tutors, considering the relatively early stage in the ITE programme.
The remainder of the paper draws upon an interpretive analysis of the first two strands identified
above; we summarise the ideas expressed by the students and illustrate some of these, before briefly discussing the potential of using this type of interaction
as a formative process of student teacher development.
How is ICT use transforming teaching and learning?

Students were divided in their attitudes towards the
potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning.
Some of them were unconditionally supportive and
perceived ICT as a successful tool at all times and in
all circumstances:
In a modern, digital age world, it is important that
children are exposed to ICT in school as much as



possible. After all, they may not be exposed to it at
home. ICT use is required in virtually every job or
business and without exposure to it, would we as teachers being doing our job properly (. . .)? I think not.

The majority of students, however, challenged an
unconditional acceptance of ICT in classes and reflected on the necessary conditions for making its integration useful. The following two messages illustrate
this:
ICT is a technological development that reflects the
new society and has its place within education. However, as with many new initiatives, ICT obviously has
its problems that over time will be addressed. Meantime, ICT should continue to be promoted to assist with
education and learning.
I will heartedly agree with anyone who states that ICT
is a valuable tool for both teaching and learning –
speaking as someone who got the last lessons plan for
my teaching from the Internet-but I can’t help feeling
that the emphasis on the use of ICT detracts from other
current ‘sexy’ education issue – socialisation. I believe
that developing teachers’ social and counselling techniques is a greater priority than their ICT skills.

Although having spent a limited amount of time in the
classroom (in most cases only the three weeks placement since leaving school), students were discerning
in their discussions of the potential of ICT for teaching
and learning, giving several examples of what they
considered as good practice. In particular, students
noted the instances when technology was integrated in
teaching and used as a tool in meaningful activities
rather than as an end in itself. One student noted that:
The school I attended for my placement used ICT in all
subjects. For example, they have a Scots evening
coming up and the pupils have all been typing up their
own poems to recite on the day. They used the Internet
to research for information on Scottish history. I also
found their Maths software amazing, the children were
very keen and seemed to enjoy their Maths lessons,
something I don’t recall doing in my years as a pupil.

Even student teachers who were more sceptical about
the potential of ICT to enhance learning or to support
teaching accepted that technology is nowadays an
important mediator of social interactions and teachers
need to integrate its use in their practice. They focused
on the potential that computers have in transforming
the teachers’ role and in improving the quality of

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teaching. Students made comparisons between situations in which teachers used more traditional, teachercentred methods of teaching and the situations in
which they adopted ICT and more participative
methods. They tended to reflect on the impact that ICT
had on reshaping classroom dynamics and ultimately
on the relationship between teachers and pupils.
In my school, ICT was used whenever the teachers felt
that they could enhance pupils’ learning (. . .) The
children used CD-ROMs and software packages in
groups of two or three and this further enhanced their
competence and confidence, as they were supporting
each other. Teachers were also seen as ‘help at hand’ if
needed and they thought that children did not mind as
much if the computer would tell them when they were
wrong. Children were very motivated and were often
learning without realising it.

Classes in which ICT was integrated effectively in
meaningful activities were perceived as being more
enjoyable for the learners and with a greater potential
to provide them with memorable learning experiences.
Learners were seen to be more engaged and involved
in the processes of learning when their exploration of
the ICT tools was framed by a coherent input from the
teacher and by constant guidance and assistance, if
required. When learners were seen to engage with the
task, bring to the class new ideas found through Internet searches and learn at their own pace, students
thought that ICT use was successful. In these terms,
they usually commented on the importance of differentiation and the transformation of the learning process at the individual rather than collective level,
reflecting on pupils’ individualised ICT competences
and learning needs.
The primary four class which I worked with used accompanying literacy world software. Each pupil had
their own site which they could go on to. The teacher
had put each pupil into his or her ability group and set
out the task they were to do. She would then support
individual learners with what they needed to make
progress in their own learning or with their ICT skills
and would check at the end everyone’s work.
My school had a PC in each classroom (. . .) which was
used quite lot by one boy who had extreme difficulty in
writing/copying things off the board. He was therefore
able to use the PC to write things up, print out his work
and stick it in his jotter. This seems to be a very simple
use of a PC, yet it made it possible for the pupil to keep
up with the rest of the class, rather than fall behind.


136


However, very few instances of responsive and personalised learning experiences were directly reported
by the students. There seemed to be an acceptance of
the fact that teachers have limited opportunities and
skills to provide children with personalised assistance
and that the use of computers in schools drags behind
children’s home use.
One of the interesting aspects that emerged from the
students’ messages was their ability to empathise with
both teachers and pupils. They were able to reflect on
the impact that technology and its use would have on
the pupils’ learning, by judging the task at hand and
identifying themselves with the pupils, often through
their own school experience or through observations
of their own children at home. When they were under
the impression that technology was used for its own
sake, and did not add value to learning in the class,
students did not hesitate to criticise:
Did anyone find they [the teachers] were just sort of
using the equipment because they had to, so that they
could say ‘yeah, we’ve used to computer for 30 mins
(sic) today, well done’, when there was no actual reason
for doing it? I think it should be embedded in the
classroom with other tools for learning and they should
show the kids how to use them to facilitate learning. In
my school, the things kids were doing on the computer
were really tedious and boring.

What factors affect the successful use of ICT in
schools?

Students identified a range of factors that they perceived as conditioning the successful use of ICT in the
classroom. These factors can be grouped into three
categories:
(a) Physical factors, i.e. that refer to the provision of
ICT resources in schools;
(b) Human factors, i.e. that refer to teachers’ perceived attitudes towards ICT use, their ICT competence and specialised training;
(c) Cultural factors, i.e. that refer to the more general
attitude promoted towards the use of ICT at school
level and at the community level.
In their first weeks of classroom observation, students
tended to emphasise the physical, resource-related
barriers that they perceived as affecting the use of ICT
in the schools that they visited. Discussions highlighted the difficulties encountered by teachers in

some schools, where the number of computers was
insufficient, the computers were old, difficult to operate and crashed frequently, generating constant disturbance during classes. The following three messages
are typical of the comments placed in the discussion
forums:
My primary placement was in a really small school and
they had difficulties with space. The computer suite was
in the library, but you could only have six or seven
pupils in at a time, once a week. This meant that it took
weeks before the whole class had completed a task.
The ICT suite was hardly ever used as it had only five
computers in it. This was a major problem, as the teacher was not allowed to send children in that room and
leave the class unsupervised. Therefore, the children
would use the two computers in the class between 30
pupils. What a terrible waste of resources!
In my school, the main hindering factors were simple
impracticalities like lack of permission slips to use the
internet, time (a major factor), some equipment took a
while to set up and that put the teacher off, as she felt
there was little time in her day already, so she had to
prioritise reading and writing.

Significantly, students started to identify themselves
with the teacher’s role and reflect critically on the
obstacles that teachers could not surmount in promoting the use of ICT. While some of them reacted by
criticising the lack of support that schools receive
from local authorities through lack of sufficient
funding, others started to think of ways through which
schools could change practice to adapt to the level of
existent resources. They considered better ways of
organising the computer suites, methods for integrating individual use of computers in the classroom, and
ways of getting parents and local communities involved in improving the provision of ICT in the
school.
However, on the whole students believed that most
placement schools had a satisfactory level of resources. These schools had either sophisticated computer suites with Internet access and efficient intranets,
or computers placed directly in classrooms. When the
provision of resources was seen as satisfactory, but the
integration of ICT in classes was limited, students
tended to reflect on the teachers’ personal attributes as
representing the main barrier to innovative ICT use.
Such attributes include teachers’ attitudes towards the



137

role of ICT in schools and their own skills and confidence in using ICT as a tool for teaching. Students
often related teachers’ attitudes to their own experience of using ICT. Some students expressed the view
that they would be reluctant to risk a lesson by using a
tool with which they were not familiar. Others were
less sympathetic, believing that failure to use ICT in
class deprives children of an important skill for life.
The following comments concern the effects that
teachers’ negative attitudes and lack of skills can have
on ICT use:

limited and access to computer suites was problematic, students thought that the individual teachers’
attitude was the vital factor in determining ICT use.
One of the students said about the teacher she worked
with:

In my placement, all the teachers had completed the
ECDL, but many still felt ill at ease at trying any ICT
use outwith a timetabled computing lesson. In-service
training run by the deputy head tried to make them
more confident, but in reality the teachers I spoke with
feared the lesson going belly-up because of technical
difficulties that the teacher could not fix. I would
question then the usefulness of teacher training that
cannot add any value to their teaching.

Several students commented on teachers’ general attitudes towards the use of ICT. They thought that
many teachers were negative towards the potential of
ICT to support their teaching and saw its use as an
‘extra chore’. Their opinions seemed to be informed
by a perception that ICT seemed to be a bolt-on activity, and that the use of computers took place in
isolation from the topics taught. In many cases, children were observed to gain access to the computer
suites as a ‘reward’ for work completed elsewhere in
the curriculum. When discussing the lack of integration of ICT in teaching, most students tended to
identify the teachers’ lack of training and ICT skills as
the main problems. Individual teachers were also
perceived as having the power to model children’s
attitudes towards ICT and their attitude in this sense
was considered as crucial. When teachers were enthusiastic and dedicated to finding ways of using ICT
in teaching, and gave pupils meaningful tasks on the
computer, pupils were thought to be more involved in
their learning with ICT.
The third set of factors discussed by students in
relation to the observed use of ICT in the schools
concerned the culture of promoting ICT at the school
and local community level. Many students considered
that the ways in which the school organised the use of
ICT influenced its micro-use at the class level. Some
schools were thought to promote ICT use through
strategies such as encouraging teachers’ computer use,
providing teachers with organised opportunities for
training, giving them opportunities to exchange ideas
about integrated ICT use and providing a support
teacher or technician. Students thought that, in this
kind of environment, even the most reluctant teachers
were more likely to attempt to learn to use ICT.
Several messages reflected such an experience:

I found ICT to be greatly underused as many others
have found in their school visits. The problems that I
came across were like in many other schools, lack of
teacher knowledge and experience, loss of teacher
confidence through using ICT, lack of adequate training
and support. The school had a high-tech computer suite,
of which few could take advantage. I thought that the
school hastily took the ICT route without preparing
their way.
My first week was with a P31 class and the teacher saw
ICT more like a chore than a tool. My other two weeks
were in the P6 class, where children were always
working on computers. I think the use of ICT in each
class depended on the competency and confidence of
the two teachers. Teachers with appropriate training are
confident to do various tasks with children on the
computer, teachers without training will try and avoid
ICT whenever possible.

What should be emphasised from these comments is
the significant difference that a teacher’s confidence
and ICT expertise can play in configuring the type of
teaching and learning that takes place in a class. Students tended to perceive the teacher as the main catalyst in implementing and promoting the purposeful
use of ICT in their classes. Even when resources were
1

In Scotland the prefix ‘P’ precedes the school year for primary school
pupils (P1 to P7), and the prefix ‘S’ is used to denote the year in secondary schools (S1 to S6).

I observed a primary school teacher who said to me that
she did not feel the need for children to be getting
taught ICT as it was taking valuable teaching time from
Math and Languages. How can ICT be promoted by
teachers who have this kind of attitude?


138


The teachers in my placement were all just newly
qualified and very good at getting children involved in
using ICT. They were still to receive more training in
using ‘class in a box’ laptops, but still encouraged the
children to use them. They were however constantly
encouraged by the head teacher, who saw the advantages of ICT.
While the school I was in had an ICT co-ordinator, the
teachers were all quite comfortable with their ICT
skills. They had even run an in-school training by the
more qualified staff to assist those who wanted to learn
more. They also opted for ICT courses as part of their
CPD. One teacher said that even the most technophobe
teachers were won over due to the supportive atmosphere between staff.

By contrast, teachers who were isolated ICT users in a
community of non-users were thought to be under
pressure to conform and return to more traditional,
non-technical based methods of teaching. Students
often talked in these circumstances about a ‘divide’
between the staff in terms of ICT skills, and they added other factors that were thought to contribute to
that divide, such as teachers’ age and attitudes:
My school consisted of a divide in teaching groups,
those who could use ICT and those who couldn’t!
The teachers who were a bit older and they would stay
clear of the computer rooms. I eventually asked one of
the teachers why this was and her response was that like
herself, the other teachers did not have the skills in
using the computers and an interest in finding out about
them.
At my school, the staff were all very experienced teachers, but mostly uncomfortable with using computers
themselves. I felt that they would have pushed for more
computer time for the pupils if they had felt more
comfortable with ICT and the school would have encouraged them more. ICT will never be encouraged by
someone who is not comfortable in using it themselves.

The observation of cultures in which teachers were
reluctant to use ICT made several students reflect on
the ways in which these teachers’ beliefs could be
challenged and attitudes changed. Three mature students suggested strategies to change practice:
Regarding age and attitudes towards computers, there
did seem to be some correlation between these in my
school. Older teachers were far more reluctant to use it.
For those of us who are not comfortable with technol-

ogy, it is important to be eased in gently. ICT has to be
promoted to technophobes as positive as time saving. It
is also really important to have adequate support for
staff.
The younger teachers are more open-minded towards
the use of ICT. It reflects a fact that there is a need for
ICT to be promoted not only as benefiting learning, but
also by benefiting teaching.
If teachers were given clear examples of the advantages
of using ICT and opportunity to learn how to use it
constructively (without having to pay for it), there
would be a majority uptake. Most teachers strive to
make their lessons more interesting and up to date and
would welcome any support to reach that.

Not all students made such reflective comments on
possible ways of improving attitudes and practice with
ICT. However, most of them did indicate in their
postings a relatively well-developed understanding
that included thinking about both the objective and the
subjective factors that affect ICT use in schools. By
reflecting on their observations, students seem to develop their own practical theories about the best ways
of promoting the use of technology at macro-level and
many of them hold strong convictions that the school
as a culture has the power to influence individual
teachers’ practice and beliefs. Nevertheless, students
did not ignore the immediate, contextual factors, such
as the provision of resources, or the individualised
aspect of teaching with ICT, as mediated by each
teacher’s skills, confidence and attitudes.

Implications for student teacher learning

The students identified a range of experiences from
their practice in schools as having helped them to
contextualise their understanding of the uses of ICT in
teaching and, by implication, representing contexts for
the processes of becoming a teacher. Almost all students made links in their comments between the theory learnt in the university-based course, their
assignments and the experience of observing and
teaching with ICT. Students were reflective about the
processes that prompted the development of their understanding of teaching and learning using ICT, although they were just novices in seeing what was
happening in the complex world of the classrooms
they observed. The school experience seemed to pro-



vide an authentic environment for contextualising the
theory and making learning a more personal experience. Each individual student experienced a unique
school, with a particular culture of promoting (or not)
the use of ICT and these unique experiences appeared
to influence the students’ own attitudes about the role
of ICT in teaching. The online forum provided in this
sense a useful medium for validating these ideas and
sharing with the others personal experiences. By doing
this, participants transformed these experiences from
personal and often ephemeral knowledge into shared
and memorable events that came to constitute a body
of knowledge, evolved through group reflection and
co-construction.
As student teachers were taught in their course ways
of integrating ICT in teaching subjects, many of them
found themselves in between two cultures: the culture
of the teacher training course that underlines the importance of ICT as a teaching tool in all subjects, and
the culture of the schools where they had to work and
which still tends to perceive ICT as a separate subject.
Often students found themselves as influencing the
environment which they were supposed to observe, as
teachers in schools asked them to become involved
and make contributions or changes to the ways in
which ICT was used:
One teacher who had asked me on a number of occasions to aid them with their particular ICT difficulties
had asked me how would I deal with the problem of
introducing ICT to old fashioned teachers.
Very few teachers at my school placement were confident with ICT matters and felt determined that children knew more about iBooks2 than they did. They
welcomed me with open arms as I taught ICT lessons
every day, great experience for me, but I felt really bad
for teachers with so much knowledge in other areas that
had not been trained properly in ICT.

It is difficult to estimate the extent to which the type
and quantity of lessons observed influenced the students’ understanding of the effective use of ICT in
teaching and learning and impossible to predict the
influence that observed practice will have on the participants’ own teaching. It is however evident that
most students in the cohort had experienced both positive and negative situations of ICT use within their
2

‘iBooks’ are Apple Macintosh laptop computers.

139

placement schools, and during this experience their
ideas became grounded rather than being theorised in
academic input or papers. The participants’ ideas became more sophisticated in time. Reflection on personal practice, whether teaching or observation, seems
to promote learning more effectively than does decontextualised seminar discussion about the potential
of ICT to improve teaching and learning.
This type of online discussion seems to be a useful
tool for peer mentoring and professional development.
Several learners expressed the view that the online
discussions provided a medium for verifying their own
hypotheses about the role of ICT; they represent a
medium for the development and articulation of their
emerging professional understandings of theoretical
and practical issues related to the use of technology in
schools. These professional conversations proved to
be more than online seminars; they generated opportunities for individuals to validate ideas inspired by
observed practice. Students cooperated as a community in building a set of ideas that were developed
through collaborative negotiations and the forums
appeared thus to be influential in determining individual attitudes to ICT use. The data accumulated
over almost a year made it obvious that the student
teachers were actively developing their attitudes to the
use of ICT in teaching. They did not appear as passive
recipients of learning, but were seen to draw on a wide
range of sources to help with their professional development. The contexts in which they found themselves as learners, whether at university, in school
placements or accessing the online forum from home,
had at times constrained and at times enabled their
attitude formation in relation to the role of ICT in
teaching and learning and to their own identity as
future teachers. However, the fact that they were able
to reflect on the factors specific to each of these circumstances empowered them in the learning process
and made them active and reflective learners.
The evidence collected suggests that ITE programmes should take account of a range factors and
processes when encouraging students to become
competent and confident users of ICT in their teaching. It is important to note that not all the factors
identified will affect all individuals equally, and that
some factors (e.g. the quality of ICT provision in
placement schools) are largely outside the control of
programme organisers.


140


The first set of factors concern previous experience
and beliefs about ICT. It is reasonable to assume that
students who have more experience in using ICT in
their own learning and personal life will have a more
sophisticated understanding of the benefits of technology in the classroom. A sound foundation of generic IT
skills (i.e. training on basic and commonly used computing packages) is thus a useful addition to the early
stages of an ITE programme, and one that will facilitate
the development of a capacity to teach using ICT.
The second set of factors appears to be those related
to the ITE environment in which learning to teach with
ICT is promoted. These can be formal activities, such
as lectures about the benefits of ICT, or more informal
ones, such as help from a more experienced peer,
classroom observations or online discussions. In order
to be influential, these inputs need to be flexible enough to allow for individual reflection and provide
suitable scaffolding for learners. Students often talked
about the need to get the information from the lecturers and then needing time to make up their own
mind and reflect on what they were taught; similarly,
when observing a class, they were prompted to try out
in their own teaching ideas that emerged after reflecting on what went well or what was missing in
observed teaching with ICT.
The third set of factors that appear to influence the
students’ decisions to teach with ICT concerns the
specifics of the school environment and culture. There
are two aspects to this. First, negative experiences of
ICT in schools (e.g. difficulties with equipment) seem
to influence later decisions in terms of teaching with
ICT. Second, it is likely that when entering the
teaching profession, students, even with good ICT
skills, will hesitate to apply them in teaching if the
physical, human or cultural factors in the school are
not adequate for an efficient integration of ICT in
classes, especially if their experience of using ICT to
date has been blighted by problems. On their school
placements, many students expressed a desire to adapt
to the school environment, and fit in with the existing
ICT culture of the school. When they were asked to
use their advanced skills in supporting children and
staff, they were keen to do so, but in other circumstances, they rarely challenged routines and existing
practices. This is also likely to be the case when entering a new school environment as a newly qualified
professional; ultimately the degree to which new

practitioners use ICT in their career will probably
depend to some extent on the culture and environment
of the school in which they enter to practice.
Conclusions

This study indicates that student teachers have various
ideas about the role of ICT in the classroom and about
its potential to influence teaching and learning. These
ideas tend to be shaped by a variety of factors, an
important one being the nature of practice observed in
schools. The school placements offer opportunities to
reflect on theory and contextualise it and also provide
an external stimulus for the development of pedagogic
thinking. Such opportunities need to be varied in the
case of each student to provide a variety of stimuli
throughout the training period and to allow development of pedagogical skills. Students also need opportunities to develop beliefs and practical theories
about the role of ICT, and the online discussion forum
provides a good opportunity for this.
These research findings suggest a number of points
that are worthy of consideration by those encouraging
student teachers to use ICT:
The study shows that student teachers are very active in developing their attitudes and ideas about
efficient uses of ICT in schools, a perspective that
has been under-emphasised by previous research in
this field. By providing opportunities to observe
practice and by encouraging reflection (through
mechanisms such as online forums), educators and
teachers can foster a medium in which students may
develop their practice and attitudes in a proactive
manner. Positive attitudes to the role of ICT in
teaching are crucial in influencing teachers’ decisions to use technologies in their teaching. The
development of such attitudes during the teacher
training programme appears to be a dynamic process, as students’ beliefs and hypotheses about the
uses of ICT are challenged on a regular basis by
tutors, the peer community and by classroom observations.
The potential of online discussion forums to function as efficient tools for professional development
of student teachers needs further investigation.
However, several advantages have been identified
by the current study. Online forums can provide an
interactive medium for verifying own hypotheses



about the use of ICT in classrooms and flexible
access to a community of support. The forum represents a mediator for the development of the sort
of community of practice identified by writers such
as Dawes; such a community potentially exerts
powerful influences in shaping individual attitudes
to the uses of ICT. Unlike the learning logs that
many student teachers currently use for reflection,
online forums provide quick validations of ideas,
feedback from a community and immediate support. The success of the forums may depend however on factors such as the participants’
commitment and ICT skills, tutors’ mediation skills
and the extent to which the forums are utilised by
the general student population.
Students, like teachers, often express their lack of
confidence in their ICT skills and this implicitly
affects their attitudes towards the use of ICT in their
teaching. Although many ITE programmes provide
appropriate support for students to develop their
skills, it is important that the development of ICT
pedagogies are underpinned by a reasonable level of
generic IT skills. Lack of such skills may generate
ICT-phobia and lead to negative ideas about the
relevance of ICT as a tool for learning. In line with
the conclusions of Zhao and Cziko (2001), our research suggests that confidence in ICT use is important, but that it is to some extent underpinned by
competence.
Programmes should contain opportunities to use
ICT in practical setting, either through school placement, microteaching3 or role playing scenarios.
These opportunities should enable further occasions
for reflection on solutions to obstacles to using ICT
in teaching and consideration of when it is appropriate to use ICT to support learning.
The study clearly highlights tensions between the
idealised world of ICT use reflected in policy documents and the aspirations of teacher educators and
students, and the harsher realities of schools, where
ICT use is often more embryonic. The challenge for
the new teachers is how to retain their enthusiasm for
ICT in the face of the ‘culture shock’ they are likely to
experience in many schools: schools that are still at the
3

‘Microteaching’ refers to small-scale lessons (e.g. simulated lessons to
peers, or lessons to small groups of children in a controlled environment).

141

initial stages of experimenting with using computers
in labs, with often limited integration in teaching and
learning. Our research suggests that this type of experience may be a barrier to the effective use of ICT
by enthusiastic new teachers; even where pedagogic
use of ICT is strongly congruent with the values of the
student teachers, a lack of instrumentality and potentially high professional and personal costs are clearly
issues facing them (Doyle Ponder 1977). Substantive discussion of this issue is clearly beyond the
scope of this paper, and further research is needed to
explore how new teachers adapt to the new school
culture and how schools capitalise on the knowledge
and skills that newly qualified teachers bring when
entering the profession.

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