Teacher professional development and ICT: an investigation of teachers studying a postgraduate award in ICT in education

The Schools IT2000 initiative, launched in 1997, was the first large-scale attempt to integrate ICT into teaching and learning in the Irish education system. Prior to its launch computer use in Irish schools was inhibited by the absence of a clearly defined policy. During the 1990s, in the absence of a national policy, schools began to develop IT skills type courses resulting in the dominance of the acquisition of basic IT skills at post-primary level ref? The sporadic use of ICT in post-primary schools was reflected in a number of studies conducted in the nineties, which found considerable differences in the level of exposure students received to ICT. These studies also found little use of ICT in teaching and learning (McKenna et al, 1993; Drury, 1995; Mulkeen, 1997). In response to the low levels of use across the curriculum a central aim of the Schools IT2000 initiative was to provide in-service to all teachers to enable them to develop the necessary skills to integrate ICT in teaching and learning. In order to achieve this aim a training continuum was developed with the objective of enabling teachers to progress from novice to expert users of information technology in education. Short-term in-service courses were initially offered to all post-primary teachers in the state. These courses introduced basic IT skills and to date have trained 59% of post-primary teachers in the basic use of ICT (NPADC, 2001). In order to extend the level and type of training available third-level institutions were invited to develop professional development programmes in the area of ICT in education. Date? This paper reports on the findings of a survey of teachers who had progressed along this training continuum and had opted to study for a postgraduate award in ICT in Education. The survey aimed to determine the general profile of teachers electing to study on the programme, their current use of ICT and the types of in-service in ICT they had previously been exposed to. While the survey was distributed shortly after the students had completed the course it also attempted to establish whether computer use by the participants had changed since commencement of the programme. This paper firstly places the research in context by examining the use of computers in Irish post-primary schools to date, following this review the provision of in-service in Ireland will be briefly examined before looking more specifically at IT in-service.