Teacher attitude and ICT integration in the class room: Case of sri lankan schools

Abstract

Although Sri Lankan education authorities have taken many initiatives to enhance the ICT integration in schools, only minor improvements are seen in its use in the class room. With the view to addressing this issue in the long term, this research aims to review the critical dimensions influencing the usage of ICT for teaching within the classroom. Based on past research, this research attempts to comprehensively examine three factors, namely, personal skills, personal factors and organizational factors. Data gathered through in depth interviews of fifteen school teachers representing twelve schools have been analyzed in this qualitative study. The results show that the teacher attitude happens to be the critical driver of ICT integration within the classroom, while ICT skills of teachers and organizational factors play only a supporting role. It is also seen that the emphasis of the education authorities have been placed mostly on the latter two factors and not much on the attitudinal improvement.