Assessing Basic School Teachers’ Competence in the Application of Information and Communications Technology in Teaching: Implications for the New Ghanaian Curriculum
Keywords:
Competence, Information and Communications Technology, Basic School Teachers, Curriculum, Technological Pedagogical and Content KnowledgeAbstract
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provides access to information through telecommunication technologies to interact in the digital world and continues to evolve to bring remarkable changes in the educational system. ICT integration in teaching is quite complicated and challenging because teachers need to be equipped with the right competencies for teaching practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess basic school teachers’ competence in the application of Information and Communications Technology in teaching. The study used descriptive survey design by which simple random sample was used to select 285 teachers from Tano South municipality of Ahafo Region, Ghana. Data collection was done using closed-ended questionnaire. Data analysis was done with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25). The study results revealed that teachers are instruments of change in educational establishments. They play significant roles in the implementation of ICT in education. Teachers’ competence in integration of ICT in the classroom would bring new, stimulating and fulfilling learning experiences to policy makers, educators and learners. Based on these findings, it was recommended that teachers should be provided with administrative support to enable them integrate ICT into classroom activities in order to promote student learning. Teachers should be given regular-based ICT training workshops to possess the requisite knowledge and skills so that they can effectively support their students’ ICT usage in classrooms. Also, provision of ICT infrastructure and resources in schools should be given maximum premium since access is a necessary condition to the integration of ICT in education.
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