Work

Grappling with technology: A case of supporting Malaysian Smart School teachers' professional development

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: This paper discusses the challenges faced by a group of Smart School teachers in a partnership model designed to help them develop professionally through the use of online tools. This model known as e-CPDelT: Model 2020 is loosely based on the successful, UK basedImproving the Quality of Education For All (IQEA) project (Hopkins et al., 1996). The model was piloted on 20 teachers of English, mathematics and science from 5 Smart Schools around Kuala Lumpur. It features collaboration between these teachers in the hope that it would lead to the development of viable communities of practice. Teacher collaboration in this pilot was in the form of (a) sharing text based narratives of perceived good lessons through blogs and (b) sharing of video clips of good lessons through the ViP (Virtual interactive Platform) and (c) forum discussions of lessons. Data were obtained from teacher interviews and mentor reflections. Brinkerhoff's (2006) framework on technology adoption was used to identify the challenges faced by these teachers. The findings revealed that teachers faced resource, institutional, informational and attitudinal problems. The paper concludes with discussion of suggested measures to improve technology adoption by teachers.

Source: Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

DOI: 10.14742/ajet.1083

Authors: Siew Ming Thang, Puvaneswary Murugaiah, Kean Wah Lee, Hazita Azman, Lay Yean Tan, Yit Sim Lee

Institutions: Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti of Malaysia Sabah, National University of Malaysia

Language: English

Topic: Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia