5 Attitudes, skills and training

5.1 Attitudes

Despite the reported benefits, teachers' attitudes towards ICT vary and most have mixed feelings. While the majority of teachers (92% primary and 92% secondary) are interested in developing their ICT skills and knowledge, many non-computing teachers feel overwhelmed by developments. They worry about the pace of developments, feel they cannot cope with the jargon associated with computers, and generally worry about their own lack of skills and knowledge compared to that of their own pupils.

I need to keep up with developments. It's a fast growing aspect of education. You are kind of running just to stand still." (Secondary)

It is interesting that negative attitudes amongst primary teachers are more usually associated with awareness of the difficulties they have to overcome in order to be able to use ICT effectively. They are not questioning the potential value of ICT to any great extent. As one primary teacher said:

It's early days yet to be honest. I think everybody is aware of the potential but they are also a bit wary about using it, or nervous about using it" (Primary)

Secondary teachers seem more comfortable with ICT and are more inclined to find it helpful in a variety of planning and management tasks. On the other hand, they are less convinced than primary teachers about the benefits to pupils.

Some teachers who are committed and interested in developing the use of ICT are aware that, even if they are coping, many of their colleagues are not:

I think it's just the scare factor again. Because we have had classes running within the school, for people who are afraid or wary of the computer, and they go along to that, and they take on board what is said and they come back and maybe try it out once or twice, but they are not using it often enough to consolidate what they are learning." (Primary)

One secondary teacher thinks that the problem is that:

teachers get so caught up in the complexities, or what they perceive to be the complexities, they lose sight of what it is that they are trying to do". (Secondary)

Despite the fact that an overwhelming percentage of teachers in the survey were interested in developing their skills and knowledge, some teachers think that some of their colleagues are caught up in a kind of "technophobia" and a resistence to learning about computers because they perceive it to be too difficult.

Some are quite happy to say that 'I've never used it and I don't want to use it, I'm quite happy with paper and pen and that's it'" (Secondary)

Another acknowledged that teachers who had experienced ICT in their own Initial Teacher Education, as she had, were more likely to be able to cope and continue to develop:

....we all sat within a lecture theatre or computer room and [were taught] 'this is the plug that goes in here'. That was years ago. Some of these members of staff haven't had that, and they got to grips with the Spectrum and the tape recorder breaking down and then we got the BBC and its limitations, and you hear something else different now, looking at the PC and the Internet. It's just too much for some people to take on board." (Primary)

Teachers' attitudes towards ICT were investigated in the survey by means of a series of statements to which teachers indicated their agreement or disagreement. They were grouped according to whether their attitudinal score was relatively low (negative attitude) or high (positive attitude). As might be expected, there is a significant correlation between levels of use of ICT and teachers' attitudes. Those who are more inclined to identify with the positive benefits to themselves (e.g. making their work easier, saving time, improving communication with colleagues, finding more information or managing information more effectively) and their pupils (e.g. encouraging pupils to work collaboratively, helping them acquire new knowledge, motivating them to learn) also tend to use ICT more. Those for whom the problems and worries they encounter appear to outweigh the potential benefits, tend to use ICT less often.

There is no clear relationship between attitude and length of time in teaching, teaching status, number of schools taught in, location or size of schools. Although there are proportionately fewer men in the low (more negative) attitude group than women, the relationship between attitude and gender is unclear.

There are, however, differences in attitude amongst secondary teachers across different subject groups (excluding computing subjects) as shown in Table 6. Mathematics teachers tend to have a more negative attitude while teachers of business and management subjects tend to be more positive.

Table 6 Attitudes towards ICT across different subject groups

While there is also a relationship between levels of ICT use across the different subjects (Table 1) it can be seen that the relationship between ICT use and attitude is not a clear one. For example languages teachers are relatively over-represented in the high attitude score group but under-represented in the high use group. The opposite is true for those who teach aesthetic subjects. However, taking attitude and use together, it is clear that the subject teachers who tend to display more negative attitudes and lower use of ICT are those in mathematics and science, closely followed by languages teachers. Of the non-computing subjects, teachers of business and management subjects tend to have a more positive attitude and make more use of ICT than other groups.

There is no clear attitudinal difference across age groups amongst secondary teachers. However, amongst primary teachers it appears that rather more of the older respondents have a relatively negative attitude towards ICT. In their responses to a range of statements reflecting positive (high score) and negative (low score) attitudes towards ICT, only 8% of the age group 20-30 were in the low scoring category compared with 32% of the 41-50 age group and 20% of the sample as a whole. It appears that far fewer younger primary teachers have a negative attitude towards ICT, an indication perhaps of the impact of ICT on their own learning experience in school and/or ITE.

While there is a relationship between home use of computers and frequency of use (see Table 4), the relationship between home use and attitude towards ICT is not clear. There does appear to be some relationship between home use of computers and attitude towards ICT amongst primary teachers. Those who use computers at home have a more positive attitude towards ICT. However this is not so clear for secondary teachers where there is a smaller difference in attitudinal scores between the two groups.

It may be the case that providing teachers with computers for use at home will allow those who are already motivated to develop their skills further, and will provide them with the time and opportunity to build ICT into their curriculum activities. While having access to a computer for home use seems unlikely to change attitudes amongst those who are less motivated in the secondary sector, it may help enthuse more teachers in the primary sector, who are generally more convinced of the potential benefit to their pupils but also tend to have less ready access to equipment at school.

5.2 Skills and competence

Turning to teachers' perceptions of their own abilities, levels of ICT competence amongst teachers are not high. Table 7 shows primary teachers' perceptions of their ICT competence in each of the four contexts – classroom practice; professional development; personal use and administration.

Table 7 Perceived levels of competence of primary teachers, per cent of respondents, n=352

While 66% of primary teachers say that they feel competent or very competent with ICT in classroom practice, much smaller proportions feel at least competent in using ICT for professional development (39%), personal use (53%) or for administration (29%). Very few describe themselves as very competent in any of these categories. Indeed, it is relatively common to find teachers worrying that they may be unable to cope if things go wrong, or feeling vulnerable if their own pupils begin to move ahead of them.

For example, one primary teacher gave the example of a child wanting to save a picture she had just drawn on the computer:

"...I'm thinking oh gosh, this is a new problem. I don't really know how to save...I wasn't meant to save [files] that day but the child had just drawn such a good picture I thought no I can't waste this opportunity." (Primary)

It also has to be remembered that the general use of ICT is low amongst primary teachers and while many may feel competent it is in a very narrow range of ICT.

Secondary school non-computing teachers' feelings about their own levels of competence are shown in Table 8.

Table 8 Perceived levels of competence of secondary (non-computing) teachers, per cent of respondents, n=283

More secondary school teachers feel themselves to be very competent and competent than do primary school teachers and they feel most competent in personal use and administration. It would appear that, across both sectors, teachers feel they have a basic competence, albeit over a relatively narrow range of ICT. However, given the worries they express about their ability to cope with ICT in the classroom it would appear that they do not generally consider themselves to be competent enough to teach effectively with ICT.

As would be expected, there is a significant correlation between perceived level of competence and level of use of ICT.

There is no relationship between perceived levels of competence and either gender or subject taught by secondary teachers (excluding computing teachers) although these factors have been found to be related to levels of use of ICT.

As Table 9 shows, primary teachers feel they need to develop technical skills and knowledge in the contexts of classroom practice, professional development and personal use (Table 9). Secondary (non-computing) teachers (Table 10) relate their need for development of technical skills and knowledge to all four contexts (including administration).

Table 10 Secondary (non-computing) teachers' priorities for developing their skills and knowledge - per cent expressed priorities for development, n = 849 (283 x 3)

The need to learn more about ICT in relation to general management tasks is also relatively important to teachers across all four contexts.

Teachers' priority for more technical skills and knowledge does not mean that they do not also feel that they need to know more about making effective use of ICT in the curriculum. Indeed, in interviews many teachers expressed a need for more knowledge in how best to apply ICT in the teaching and learning context.

It's the application rather than the actual technical aspects of how you use things." (Secondary)

However, it is also clear that even where teachers have firm ideas of how they would like to apply ICT in the classroom, they can be held back by lack of technical skills and knowledge. The ultimate goal may be the effective use of ICT in teaching and learning but there is a feeling amongst teachers that they first need to build up their basic skills and confidence.

This lack of knowledge or skills creates very real problems and barriers in teachers' day-to-day practice. Most of their concerns, as already indicated in Section 3, relate to worries about their inability to cope if things go wrong or break down. There is a strong feeling that many of them know just enough to do the basics but cannot cope if anything unexpected happens.

Another teacher feels that lack of knowledge means that ICT resources are underexploited:

"It's not exploited enough, partly because again I don't really know how the system works and I don't have the time to work it out." (Secondary)

However, despite teachers' strong views on the need for more basic ICT skills, it is not always lack of technical skills which is the problem. Lack of information skills can be a limiting factor. Teachers are aware of problems in coping with large volumes of information when using the Internet and the difficulty of finding relevant information. One secondary teacher considers the Internet a "gimmick"and "a waste of time" because:

all you get is a list of sites to get more information. Getting answers through the Internet is extremely time consuming" (Secondary)

While teachers may feel they need more basic skills and knowledge it will be important to balance this against the need to focus attention on ways of handling the content of ICT as well as the technology itself.

Head teachers tend towards similar views of the kind of training their teachers require. Most head teachers in the survey (86% primary heads and 74% secondary heads) say that teachers in their school are encouraged to go on ICT related staff development courses. In fact their responses indicate that they see training, and particularly technical skills and knowledge, as very important at the present time. Secondary head teachers were more specific than primary head teachers giving examples such as "Internet training"; "time to realise the potential and relevance of new technology" and "introduction of basic skills for staff". Having more computer hardware and software, or developing policies and strategies for integrating ICT within the curriculum are considered important but lesser priorities than training.

There is some variation amongst education authorities on the type of training needed but generally they are in agreement with teachers that there is still some need for more technical skills and knowledge. However, two authority representatives were clearly of the view that their teachers are ready to move on from the technical skills.

It would appear from these responses that there is a need for a dual focus in future training. Teachers still need to top up and extend their level of technical competence, to give themselves the confidence to use ICT with pupils. They also need and want to learn more about how to apply ICT effectively within a teaching and learning context.

If we marry these responses with the strongly expressed views that training is most effective when it is related to the ICT which teachers have access to in school, it would appear that priorities for immediate training for secondary teachers should be the development of awareness, skills and knowledge of the Internet, WWW and e-mail. At present these are underused technologies but, given appropriate training and support, teachers have the opportunity to begin to explore their application in their own classrooms. While access to these technologies is currently more limited in primary schools, recent moves to increase access will mean that primary teachers will also be ready to develop their skills and knowledge.

It is also clear that some teachers may need considerable advice before they are in a position to identify their own priorities for ICT development. While many teachers are able to express some view on their needs for continuing professional development (CPD), there are others who say honestly that:

"I don't know enough about ICT to know what I need" (Primary)

"I honestly can't identify anything at the minute because I am not aware of the areas that we are deficient in.........you need to be taken out and told this is what is happening, this is where you can go." (Secondary)

You really need someone to say right this is what is possible, identify your needs and help you fulfil them..." (Secondary)

The varied responses from teachers, from those who express specific ICT needs to those who do not know where to start, illustrate clearly the different stages they are at in their development. One secondary teacher summed this up when he said:

"The problem with it is that we have all got different starting points." (Secondary)

Future training approaches will have to be flexible enough to take account of these different starting points.