Teaching For Tomorrow The Changing Role Of Teachers Education Essay

The above journal is a study conducted by Janet Jenkins. The study focuses on the ICT and its role in learning and how it changes teacher’s role in an educational setup. ICT is one of many feature motivating transformation in classrooms all over. It is distinguishing in its universal eminence and in its twin function as mutual grounds for change and a ways for attaining it.

With the invention of internet, the World Wide Web and also the video conferences, there has been wide scope of communications possibilities for school. A class connected to the internet, has made communication over distance simpler than what it was before. With ICT, the students get to study in a more inclusive environment. It always offers something different irrespective of their individual capacities.

ICT gives the students of this era gives the platform and resources to communicate and control what is being communicated. With technology integrated in the classrooms, the instructor no longer organize what is happening in class in terms of control over the information and looses their monopoly of authority they have over the class, students and most importantly on the flow of information. The teacher’s role with ICT changes into a manager, collaborator, assistor and assessor. But he/she still remains a subject specialist with that of a manager

For teachers, becoming facilitators of learning that is organizing teamwork, stabilizing inclusion, managing the classroom activity provides a different challenge. This also results in the fact that most of their time is seen spent supporting the students than having a whole class teaching.

ICT enhances learning in classrooms in different ways. The four ways in which it helps learning; they are learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be. (Janet, 2008)

With ICT the role of teachers changes in different ways, not just in terms of teaching. The changes includes transform in the relationship with pupils, alteration in the task to of the facilitators and executors who support learning in totality, Change in the content and scope of teaching, and finally Changing locus of control, from teacher to learner.

ICT has sparked findings that it has posed a threat to the teacher’s certified proficiency. Our teachers of tomorrow require a fresh advancement to their career and a innovative idea of what it means to teach and what it means to learn. The “new” teacher requires to adopt an approach that is fairly broad, to seek out ,to instigate, sustain and aid learning, and finally to create an atmosphere favorable to learning. The author states that , there needs to be an equilibrium between using the advanced technological tools in a class and conventional means of schooling and learning.

Efficient incorporation of the ICT in schools may thus, in the long run, entail the alteration of school ethnicity. ICT will possibly, in retrospect, be seen as the vehicle which inspired new ways of philosophy about schooling and learning, and finally opened the classroom to revolutionize.

Perceptions that may affect teachers intention to use technology in secondary mathematics classes.

The above study is conducted by Robyn Pierce & Linda ball.

Published online: 16 January 2009, Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009

Technology today is not just used in one particular class. It is used in many classes for different subjects to make learning interesting and simple. This study brings to light technology that is available and accessible in many mathematics classes. Adopting the new technologies and matching up to the expectation in order to support learning and teaching requires the teachers of today to modify their teaching practices. This is because teaching mathematics using technology requires a marked change in behavior for practicing mathematics teachers who have taught and have been taught in traditional means, which is through classrooms dominated by work culture of chalk and board and following to pen and paper

In using the outline, the researchers worry was mathematics teacher’s purpose to transform their teaching practice in order to incorporate the technology that they expected to use in the classrooms. The researcher wished to investigate the teachers attitude towards teaching mathematics with technology and also the perceived control over teaching mathematics with technology. .

The issue with usage of technology was related to the attitudes of teachers about the technology and their perception of the impact and change it could bring across in the form of threat to him/her. The negative attitude that they have , seem to have stemmed from the belief that technology would not enhance student learning. Their views and practices gradually changed as they observed positive impact on their students learning. The researcher also found that , with the teachers using computers in their mathematics classes, there was a shift in their perception of using computers and the value and significance of having them in their classrooms. These negatives attitudes that was instilled in them before would have acted as barrirs to their non acceptance and restriction of using technology in their classrooms. Thus resulting in intention to change their teaching practices due to their observation and personal experience that technology integration in classrooms can create positive change in a student’s academics.

Teachers who believe that students learn best by working with the pen and paper culture or believes that students should be demonstrated the understanding of mathematics without the aid of technology, may have a negative attitude towards technology. The researcher stated that pen and paper culture be implemented in the initial years of learning and then resort to technology as the level goes higher. This proves the researchers observation that teachers in the school do not use technology even though they are experts in using the advancements because they feel pen and paper method would help students develop more understanding of the mathematical concepts. Teachers are not only bothered about the students understanding of the concepts ,but also their attitudes, which is significant in determining the incorporation of technology in their classrooms.

Another reason of resorting to pen and paper culture as they did before resorting to technology was due to the fact that a teachers attitude towards technology usage can also relate to the perception of what changes may occur in their classroom practice. At the same time they perceived the effort that is involved in, learning technology and changing practice. The teachers felt the time required in learning technology was so long that they would have finished the course by then using their normal teaching and learning system. And also the learning will not be a burden but also distract the mathematically weak students as with technology there is no control of information and the teachers role change, also with the monopoly of control they have over them. To which some studies state that using technology will actually enable less able students to explore the study matter through the technology that is used in class