Teachers’ self-directed professional development: science and mathematics teachers’ adoption of ICT as a professional development strategy

This paper is part of a larger study that was carried out to investigate the use of information communication technology (ICT) in the self-directed professional development (SDPD) of mathematics and science teachers in Zimbabwe. The educational context provides an example of how teachers compensated for lack of structured government initiatives to support teachers' professional development. This paper focuses on the ways in which these teachers were using ICT resources to further their professional development. The study is based on 259 questionnaire responses from A-level Science and Mathematics teachers in Zimbabwe. Doyle and Ponder's "Practicality Ethic" and Loucks-Horsley et al.'s "Concerns-Based Adoption Model" provided the theoretical framework for analysing teachers' decision making and led to the development of a model for teacher empowerment with respect to the use of ICT. The study results showed that around 60% of teachers experienced difficulties in accessing ICT for their professional development. About half of the non-users did not access ICT even when it was available at their schools. Some of those who did access ICT used innovative methods to ensure access, including using their own resources, and pooling resources. The findings also show that teachers have three main drivers for using ICT for SDPD, including word processing for generating instructional materials; accessing and downloading web-based learning materials; and emailing for networking with peers and professional organisations. The results of this study demonstrate the great potential that ICT has for teachers' SDPD.

Extra URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10288457.2013.848540