Rather, S. A.

/ Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

A STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Showkat Ahmad Rather

Research Scholar, Department of Education AMU, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh ABSTRACT
The study set out to examine the Secondary school teachers attitudes towards information and communication technology in Jammu and Kashmir. A total of 130 secondary school teachers from district Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir State participated in this study. The data were collected through a 30-item self made questionnaire developed by the investigator for measuring secondary school teachers attitude towards ICT. The results of the study revealed that most of the secondary school teachers have positive attitude towards ICT. The findings also show that no gender differences exist on attitudes of secondary school teachers towards ICT in Jammu and Kashmir. However further analysis shows that there is no significant difference between the teachers attitude towards ICT with respect to experience. Keywords: Secondary school teacher, Attitude towards ICT, Information and communication technology

INTRODUCTION Todays society has undergone through several massive changes from the agrarian age to the industrial age and now the information age (Reigeluth1995). These drastic changes have certainly affect today's education systems at various levels (Goktas and Yildrim, 2003). The need to incorporate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into education is now inescapable (Goktas and Yildrim, 2003). The main reasons behind these changes are the increased amount of information and the reliance on Internet use (Aldojan, 2007; Kuo, 2005). The whole world tends to apply the new information and communication technology (ICT) into their schools as a movement to improve their educational systems (ONeil & Perez, 2002). Applying information and communication technology in schools will no doubt assist the delivery of highly qualified educational programs (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2000). New technology has eliminated some barriers that help educators communicating together much more than before (ONeil & Perez, 2002; Pasquerilla,
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2008), and has forced school leaders to adopt new technology into their school administration. Information and communication Technology plays an important role in teaching and learning processes. It is shaping the future of education. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning can enhance curriculum delivery, and concurrently improve the quality of education, provided that there is appropriate attention to pedagogy (Louw et al., 2008; Bytheway et al., 2010). However, in developing countries where the repercussions of poverty, unemployment, and a lack of resources are widespread, the large-scale and sustainable integration of ICTs in schools is yet to be realized, particularly in those institutions that are under-resourced. Research has indicated that, despite the provision of infrastructure, ICT adoption is not necessarily a viable outcome (Bytheway et al., 2010). Numerous factors influence the introduction of ICTs in educational environments: personal and professional cognition and efficacy, a lack of knowledge
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Rather, S. A. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

and skills, and unfavorable socio-economic dynamics (Fanni et al., 2010; Van Zyl & Rega, 2011). The role of educators is pivotal in the integration of ICT in education, as is the case with most educational innovation. (Demitriadis et al 2003). REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Rajasekar and Vaiyapuri (2007) investigated higher secondary school teachers computer knowledge and their attitude towards computer. It was found that teachers had relatively favorable attitude towards computer. There was no significant difference in attitude towards computer between male and female teachers. Chen and Chang (2006) indicate that attitudes, skills, and practice are interrelated variables. Their results also suggest that aspects of teacher technology competence vary according to number of teaching years, home computer access, and length of inservice training. Isman et al. (2012) investigated the Saudi Secondary school Teachers' Attitudes towards using Interactive Whiteboard in the classrooms. The results indicated that there was a positive attitude towards using Interactive Whiteboard. Myers & Halpin (2002), Yildirim (2000), and Teo (2008) believe that attitudes towards computers and trust in using them in education are two major predictors for teachers future use of technology in classrooms. (Sadik, 2006) investigated that more experienced teachers showed more positive attitudes towards computers. Cavas et al. (2010) investigated Turkish primary science teachers attitudes towards ICT in education and revealed that they have positive attitudes toward ICT; no gender differences have been traced in their attitudes towards ICT. According to Sutherland Rosamund, the use of ICT in schools was sporadic' and 'disappointing' in the UK and overseas. Many teachers feared that computers would interfere with 'genuine' or book-based learning,
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particularly in the humanities and creative subjects and use ICT only for administration and routine tasks. However the use and availability of computer in the average classroom has dramatically increased over the last thirty years or so. The main use of different tools of ICT like computer in the classroom is word-processing or a drill and practice method of instruction. Nowadays efforts are being made to use different tools of ICT for instructional practices in the modern classrooms and for professional development of teachers. The present study aims to find out secondary school teachers attitude towards ICT based on their gender and teaching experience. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The study has the following objectives: To study the attitude of Secondary school teachers towards ICT. To study the attitude of Secondary school teachers towards ICT in relation to their Gender. To study the attitude of Secondary school teachers towards ICT in relation to their teaching experience. HYPOTHESES Secondary school teachers do not have positive attitude towards ICT. There is no significant difference in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards ICT in relation to their gender. There is no significant difference in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards ICT in relation to their experience. METHODOLOGY The investigator has used descriptive survey method in the present study. This method enables the investigator to obtain general results about the sample and to go to the real life situations for the collection of data from a small sample in a short period of time. Researchers suggest that it is convenient to
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Rather, S. A. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

carry out a survey study when the researcher has time and resource problems (Cohen et al. 2000). The description of the variables of the present study is as under; Independent variables; gender, teaching experience and Dependent variables; attitude towards information and communication technology. SAMPLE The investigator has used purposive sampling technique while selecting secondary schools. However, the researcher
Sex Male Female Total

has selected the teachers through randomly technique. The participants in this study are 130 secondary school teachers of district Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir state. According to gender variable, 58 (45%) male and 72 (55%) female teachers participated in this study. In terms of teaching experience variable, 29 teachers have less than 10 years (22.3%), 24 have more than 10 years (18.4%), 32 have more than 15 years (24.6%), and 45 have more than 20 years (34.6%).

Table I Demographics of the Sample Number 58 72 130 Table II Years of Teaching Experience Frequency 29 24 32 45 130

Percentage 44.61 55.38 100.0

Teaching experience 1-10 yrs 11-15 yrs 16-20 yrs 20+ yrs Total

Percentage 22.3 18.4 24.6 34.6 100.0

TOOL The investigator has used a self made questionnaire for the collection of data in the present study. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part provides information about the respondents demographic background like gender and teaching experience. The second part of the questionnaire is designed to assess the attitude of secondary school teachers towards information and communication technology (ICT). The questionnaire consisted of 30 statements. The respondents in the present were secondary school teachers. The investigator has visited different secondary schools personally while gathering the information from the respondents. The teachers were required to select their level of agreement for each statement to indicate how they feel towards
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ICT on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by using Cronbachs alpha. The Cronbachs alpha reliability coefficient for the scale was = 0.80. DATA ANALYSIS The respondents in the present study were secondary school teachers of district Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir state. The responses of the respondents to the questionnaire were statistically analyzed according to gender and teaching experience variables. In the present study the investigator had used both descriptive and inferential statics. The mean (x) and standard division (SD) scores were computed. Some parametric techniques like t-test; one-way ANOVA were used in the present study. These tests were used to test the significance of the differences at 0.5
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Rather, S. A. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

levels. SPSS software was used for different statistical techniques that were employed in the present study. FINDINGS Results of the study showed that all the respondents responded to all the items of the
Attitude towards ICT

scale and there is no missing data were found in the research tool. The mean score of 15.46 was obtained. This mean score suggests that the respondents had positive attitude towards ICT.
SD 5.51

Table III Mean Scores and Standard Deviations N Mean 130 31.73

In order to determine any gender differences in the attitude scores among secondary school teachers, an independent t-test was
Scale Attitude towards ICT Gender Male Female

conducted. The scores of independent t-test can be seen in Table IV.

df 128 128 t 0.694

Table IV Gender Differences in Computer Attitudes N Mean SD 58 32.03 5.871 72 31.32 5.079

The independent t-test scores show no significant gender differences at .05 levels of significance. This clearly indicates that there is no significant gender difference among the secondary school teachers in their attitude towards ICT. Based on scores, male teachers have a relatively higher (32.03) attitude towards ICT than females (31.32). To investigate the relationship between teachers attitude towards ICT and years of teaching experience, scores for years of

teaching experience were categorized into four levels: from 1 to 10 , from 11 to 15, from 16 -19, and from 20+ years of teaching experience. The ANOVA tests were used to analyze the differences among the four groups and their computer attitude. The findings showed that teachers attitude towards ICT were affected by their teaching experience. It can be concluded that in terms of teaching experience, there is no significant difference between the teachers attitude towards ICT.
From 20+ Years N=45 Mean SD 32.42 5.62

Attitude towards ICT

Table V Descriptive Statistics on Teaching Experience From 1 to 10 Years From 11 to 15 Years From 16 to 19 Years N=29 N= 24 N= 32 Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD 32.25 6.32 31.51 4.77 30.62 5.42

Attitude towards ICT

Source Between group Within group Total

Table VI Summary of One-way ANOVA Sum of square df Mean square 41.614 3 13.871 3520.590 3562.203 126 129 27.941

F .496 not sig.

DISCUSSION From the results of the study it is clear that secondary school teachers showed a positive
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attitude towards ICT. This study found no significant differences in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards ICT with
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Rather, S. A. / Educationia Confab

ISSN: 2320-009X

respect to their gender. This finding does not support past research which suggested significant differences in computer attitudes by gender (e.g. Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Markauskaite, 2006). Next finding of this study revealed that on the bases of teaching experience there is no significant difference between the teachers attitude towards ICT. The study points out to the fact that almost all of the secondary school teachers were willing to use different tools of ICT in their practices efficiently and effectively as understood by their positive attitude towards ICT. Having a positive attitude towards ICT is a good thing for any institution and would be helpful in attaining effective implementation of ICT in the institutions. LIMITATIONS As only 130 secondary school teachers of district Pulwama of J&K were involved in the study, the findings could not be generalized to the overall population of secondary school teachers in the state of J&K. Further, the study was restricted to the use of ICT at secondary school level, and had not taken into consideration differences encountered at different levels of schooling like elementary level etc. Hence the perception about the attitude of secondary school teachers towards ICT in one state might not be the same as that of another state in the same country. So the investigator suggests more and more research on attitude of secondary school teachers towards ICT by taking different aspects under consideration. CONCLUSION Innovative educational and instructional technologies are now replacing traditional methods of teaching. These new technologies are doing much more than simply delivering regular lectures. Taking a discipline based approach; this study investigated the secondary school teachers attitude towards ICT. The results reveal that
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almost all the participants hold positive attitudes towards ICT. The study has provided data on secondary school teachers use of ICT in teaching and learning, related to their gender, years of teaching experience. The results also showed that male teachers have access to computers more than the female teachers. However, the study revealed that there was no difference in the innovative use of ICT between female teachers and male teachers. The present study acts as a clear evidence for the government that teachers held a positive attitude towards ICT and the need of the hour is to frame policies, schemes and initiatives are to be taken for the successful integration of ICT in school education. REFERENCES
[1] Aldojan, M.(2007). An exploratory study about internet use among education faculty members in Jordanian public universities (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=ohiou1176 926973 [2] A. Isman et.al.,Saudi Secondary School Teachers Attitudes Towards Using Interactive Whiteboard In Classrooms. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology July 2012, volume 11 Issue 3. [3] Beal, M. (2000). Teaching with Technology: Constructivism at Work. In L. Lloyd (Ed.), Teaching with Technology: Rethinking Tradition (pp. 127132). Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc. [4] Bytheway, A., Sadeck, O., Dumas, C., Chigona, W., Chigona, A., Mooketsi, B., Rega, I. & Fanni, F. (2010) Integrating ICTs into the classroom: Assisting teachers in disadvantaged primary schools. Proc 2010 eSkills Summit, Cape Town. Cape Town. [5] Cavas, B., Cavas, P., Karaoglan, B. & Kisla, T. (2010). A study on science teachers' attitude toward information and communication technologies in education. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 8(2), 20-32. [6] Chen, J. & Chang, C. (2006). Using computers in early childhood classrooms: Teachers' attitudes, skills and practices. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 4(2), 169-188. [7] Cope, C., & Ward, P. (2002). Integrating Learning Technology Into Classrooms: The Importance of Teachers' Perceptions. Educational Technology & Society, 5(1), 67-74.

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[8] Dahiya.S (2005) Educational Technology Towards Better Teacher performance, Shipra publication,Delhi. [9] Demitriadis, S., Barbas, A., Molohides, A., Palaigeorgious, G., Psillos, P., Vlahavas, I.,Tsoukalas, I. & Pombortsis, A. (2003) Cultures in Negotiation: Teachers Acceptance/resistances attitudes considering the infusion of technology into Schools. Computers & Education, 41 (1), pp.1937.Ascona, Switzerland. [10] Goktas, Y. and Yildrim, Z. (2003) A comparative analysis of the EU countries' and Turkey's regarding the integration of ICT in primary education curricula and teacher education programs. Retrieved from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003490. htm [11] Jagtap H. N (2004) Advanced Educational Technology and ICT, Nutan publication, Pune. [12] Kuo, C. (2005). Wireless technology in higher education: The perceptions of faculty and students concerning the use of wireless laptops. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=ohiou1125 521504 [13] Margolis, J., and Fisher, A. (2002). Unlocking the clubhouse: Women in computing. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. [14] Markauskaite,e L., Reimann, P., Reid, D. & Goodwin, N. (2006). Exploring the fit of an information technology course to the ICT literacy of trainee teachers. Paper presented at the society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, SITE 2006, 17th International Confrence, Orland, Florida, 24-20 March. [15] ONeil, H.F., & Perez, R.S. (2002). Technology applications in education: A learning view. Mahawah, NJ: Lawrence Elbaum. [16] Myers, J. M. & Halpin, R. (2002). Teachers attitudes and use of multimedia technology in the classroom: Constructivist-based professional development training for school districts. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 18(4), 133-140. [17] Parasnis. N.R (1993) Advanced Educational Technology, Nutan publication, Pune. [18] Prasad, J & Kulkarni, V(1997) Advanced Educational Technology , Kanishka publication,New Delhi. [19] Rajasekar, S.&vaiyapuri Raja P.(2007). Higher secondary teachers computer knowledge and their attitude .Journal of All India Association for Educational Reseasrch,19(1&2), 8-69. [20] Reigeluth, C.M. (1995). Educational systems development and its relationship to ISD. In. G. Anglin (Ed.), Instructional Technology: Past, Present,

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and Future (2nd ed.). Englewood , CO : Libraries Unlimited. [21] Sadik, A. (2006). Factors influencing teachers attitudes toward personal use and school use of science teaching. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 418 869). [22] Teo, T. (2008). Assessing the computer attitudes of students: an Asian perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(4), 16341642. [23] Yewale.S.M (2004) Educational Technology and ICT, Nutan publication, Pune. [24] Yildirim, S. (2000). Effect of an Educational Computing Course on Pre-Service and Inservice Teachers: A Discussion and Analysis of Attitudes and Use. Journal of Research on Computing in Education. 32(4), 479-495.

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