The current state of technology competencies of teachers in Newfoundland and Labrador schools

• Main Author: King, Bruce N. G.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 1999
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/1410/; https://research.library.mun.ca/1410/1/King_BruceNG.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/1410/3/King_BruceNG.pdf

This study was designed to assess the current level of teachers' computer and information technology competencies, assess the attitude of teachers toward computer and information technologies, and relate the level of teacher competencies and attitudes toward computers to age, gender, school type and geographic location. -- A thorough review of the literature revealed two suitable instruments, the Technology Needs Assessment Instrument (Alliance of Connecticut Regional Education Service Center, 1997) and the Teacher Attitude Toward Technology Survey (Christensen and Knezek, 1996); which when combined, adequately addressed the research questions. Over 380 of the 540 employees (teachers) in 31 schools in School District #3 in Western Newfoundland returned the surveys. The respondents were inservice teachers ranging in age from 20 to over 50 years, with 2 to over 25 years of teaching experience, from a variety of school types, and were fairly evenly represented by gender and urban and rural location. -- The findings suggest that teachers in Newfoundland and Labrador require a significant amount of training to meet the International Society for Technology in Education foundation standards for all educators; there are significant differences in the view of males and females with regard to their technology competency; younger teachers tend to view themselves as more competent in the use of technology than older teachers; and elementary teachers appear to view themselves as having less technology competence than other teachers while high school teachers tend to view themselves as having more technology competence than other teachers. The attitude of Newfoundland and Labrador teachers toward computer technology is generally positive (with some attitudinal differences between males and females, younger and older teachers, and urban and rural teachers). A strong positive correlation was found between positive attitudes toward computers and teacher competency levels in computer and information technology. Overall, it was ...