Teachers, teams and technology: Investigating a team approach for supporting teachers\u27 uptake of ICT

Abstract

This study sought to explore the professional development of elementary school teachers who were keen to use Information and Communications (ICT) in their teaching and learning. The main object of the study was to investigate a model of professional development that would support teachers as they adopted ICT. At the same time a simple framework to help locate teachers on some typology of ICT uptake was desirable, on the grounds that such a typology could help teachers, professional development planners and schools in their use of and support for ICT and its associated professional development.A review of the literature suggests two factors were of particular significance to teachers in Western Australia. The first was collaboration, and the second was an outcomes orientation. Collaboration is shorthand for the myriad ways that teachers worked together and an outcomes orientation embodies, in short, a student-centred approach to learning. Outcomes orientation is a current major initiative of the WA Department of Education and of keen relevance to educators in Western Australian schools