In the governmental agreement of 2014 there was a special emphasis on the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) in primary education. Using ICT in the classroom would...Show moreIn the governmental agreement of 2014 there was a special emphasis on the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) in primary education. Using ICT in the classroom would increase the efficiency and rate of student’s learning. In order to successfully integrate the use of ICT in primary schools it’s important that teachers hold a positive attitude towards the use of ICT. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a relationship exists between personal factors and the educational use of ICT. Schools were contacted via e-mail to request their participation in the study. Using a self-administered questionnaire data was collected from 220 teachers. A total of 10 teachers were interviewed using a semistructured interview guide. The results show no significant difference between the ICT-use of younger and older teachers. The study supports the finding that male teachers use ICT more frequently than female teachers. Furthermore, attitudes towards ICT can be used to predict future educational ICT use. In particular, a positive attitude results in more educational ICT use. The average teacher holds a positive attitude towards ICT. Based on the findings, the advice for school boards is to look more into the ICT capabilities of teachers when hiring since the use of ICT can benefit the educational results of students. Because of the limitations in the research process more research is needed to confirm the findings in the present study.Show less
Abstract Education has the social task to prepare children for an increasingly digital society. Therefore, the use of ICT in primary education is becoming increasingly important. Within this study...Show moreAbstract Education has the social task to prepare children for an increasingly digital society. Therefore, the use of ICT in primary education is becoming increasingly important. Within this study we analyzed the differences in the attitude towards ICT and the differences in the use of ICT between anthroposophic schools and mainstream schools. The quantitative analysis was conducted on data obtained through a questionnaire of 213 respondents and interviews with 10 teachers. The results show that teachers of anthroposophic schools have a less positive attitude towards the use of ICT in the classroom than teachers in mainstream schools. In addition, it is shown that there is a connection between this attitude towards ICT and the level of school’s ICT facilities and the use thereof in the classroom. Teachers in anthroposophic schools have fewer ICT facilities available to them than teachers in regular schools. The study also shows that, on average, teachers in anthroposophic schools use ICT less frequent in their classroom and use ICT in a different way than teachers in mainstream schools.Show less
Although the use of ICT in primary schools has increased the last ten years, ICT is still not used by all teachers. Several studies have tried to discover which factors influence ICT-attitude and...Show moreAlthough the use of ICT in primary schools has increased the last ten years, ICT is still not used by all teachers. Several studies have tried to discover which factors influence ICT-attitude and ICT-use by primary school teachers. The aim of this study was to examine the role of age and gender in ICT-attitude and ICT-use by primary school teachers in the Netherlands. Surveys have been taken from 213 teachers (49 male and 164 female) of whom 31 also have been interviewed. Quantitative and qualitative analyses have been done to examine the data. A chi-square test revealed no significant connection between gender and ICT-attitude. An independent t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the ICT-use of male and female teachers. Male teachers appeared to use ICT more often in the classroom than female teachers. A simple regression analyses revealed that age was no significant predictor of ICT-use. The explorative qualitative analyses of ten interviews showed that teachers had a positive ICT-attitude and liked to use ICT in the classroom. They developed their ICT-skills mainly by themselves and by unofficial activities within the school. In the interviews was no difference in ICT-use between males and females. These findings did not correspond with the results of the quantitative analyses. In order to improve professional development activities and ICT-use in the classroom, more research should be done to discover the complete amount of factors that underlay the ICT-attitude and ICT-use of teachers in primary schools.Show less
The use of Information Technology (IT) is quickly growing in education. There are no legal agreements about the use of IT in primary schools in the Netherlands. Students deserve an equal chance in...Show moreThe use of Information Technology (IT) is quickly growing in education. There are no legal agreements about the use of IT in primary schools in the Netherlands. Students deserve an equal chance in society and therefore an equal chance in education. To gain insight on how IT is implemented in Dutch primary education research has been done on the differences with regards to IT-use and attitude between first and second year teachers (N = 54) and teachers years 3 to 8 (N = 149). A questionnaire was distributed to primary school teachers in the Netherlands. Ten teachers also participated in interviews. The constructs to probe the key question were: IT-use, IT-attitude and IT-media. By means of qualitative research the interviews were analysed. The quantitative methods which were used in the research are: Chi-square test, t-test and regression analysis. It was expected that first and second year teachers would use less IT than the other teachers. The results however seem to contradict this. It may be concluded that first and second year teachers use significantly less IT in their lessons, whilst on the other hand they do not have significantly less IT-media available. Another aspect of the research was how IT-use was influenced. It can significantly be concluded that a positive IT-attitude promotes the use of IT.Show less
