THE IMPACT OF ICT TRAINING
THROUGH WIKIS ON IN-SERVICE EFL TEACHERS:
CHANGE IN BELIEFS, ATTITUDES AND COMPETENCIES
Abstract
The development of information and
communication technology (ICT) invites teachers to abandon traditional roles
and act more as mentors, exploring the new media themselves as learners and
thus acting as role models for their students (Fitzpatrick & Davies, 2003).
For turning students into producers of online content and creating a
collaborative learning environment, wikis appear to help foreign language
teachers to infuse ICT in their classrooms (Kovacic, Bubas & Zlatovic,
2007). Within this context, results from an action research project carried out
in four
public schools suggest that beliefs, atttitudes, and competencies can be impacted
positively when working on the use of new technologies with in-service English
teachers.
Key words
Attitudes,
beliefs, competencies, English language teaching, information communication
technology.
Introduction
In the field of English language teaching, ICT in general and hypermedia
in particular can provide an authentic learning environment where language
learners can explore reference materials, participate in discussions, work in
teams on different projects, and create multimedia resources (Padurean &
Margan, 2009). Within this context, an action research project carried out by a
group of university teachers emerged as an opportunity to contribute to the training
of in-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers from public schools
in the use of ICT in their classes. This study
aimed at identifying the impact that training in new technologies can have on
EFL teacher’s beliefs, attitudes, and competencies. The following research
question guided this inquiry:
What is the impact that training in ICT can have on
the beliefs, attitudes and competencies of a group of English teachers from
public high schools in Bogota?
Consequently, this study had two objectives:
·
Identify
the beliefs, attitudes and competencies that this group of EFL teachers have
about ICT.
·
Determine
the impact that training in ICT had on these EFL teachers.
Literature review
Beliefs, attitudes, and competencies
There is no consensus about the concept of belief in current literature,
yet several authors have provided definitions that allow for understanding it
within the context of this study (Pajares, 1992; Woods, 1996, etc.). Most
authors accept the concept of belief that Dilts (1999) favors when he states
that beliefs are the judgments and evaluations that people make of themselves,
others and the world surrounding them. According to Hampton (1994), teacher’s
beliefs or “personal constructs” determine how they approach their teaching and
affect the materials and activities they choose for the classroom. Similarly,
Golombek (1998) affirms that ...
Just like beliefs, attitudes do not have a
single definition. One of the most significant definitions, however, is the one
Coll (1987) presents: a tendency to behave in a consistent and persistent way
before determined situations, objects, events, or people. With regard to
attitudes towards ICT, Watson (1998) maintains that the development of
teachers’ positive attitudes is a key factor both for enhancing computer
integration and avoiding teachers’ resistance to computer use. Similarly,
Kersaint, Horton, Stohl, and Garofalo (2003) maintain that teachers who have
positive attitudes towards technology are more inclined to use it and
incorporate it into their teaching. Teachers’ attitudes, maintains Sancho
(1994), range from technophilia to technophobia; technophilia refers to...
Competency, too, can be a difficult concept to define. However, Pivetta (2010) maintains that it is possible to identify two
unifying concepts, already mentioned by Leboyer (2003), in the different
definitions. The former relates to the “power to decide about something”; in
other words, competency is regarded as a set of actions or decisions that a
person can adopt. The latter refers to the fact of “having knowledge”. In
education, competencies are the continuous and autonomous performances of
individuals, requiring cognitive, attitudinal, and procedural knowledge to face
and solve concrete situations with the available resources and strategies
(Araujo, 2007). When discussing ICT competencies, UNESCO (2008) established
three approaches to education...
ICT and education
Toomey (2001) defines ICT as those technologies that are used for
accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting or communicating information.
To him, these technologies are characterized by the increasing convergence of
computer-based, multimedia and communications tools and the rapid rate of
change that distinguishes these tools and their use. Recently, Anderson (2010)
states that ICT is...
ICT and English language teaching
Not only do English teachers, explain Quin and Shuo (2011), need to
possess basic ICT skills in the use of word processor, PowerPoint, video editor
and access to the Internet, but also they need to be able to develop
pedagogical knowledge to efficiently integrate ICT into the English curriculum.
To them, the integration of ICT can lead to diversification not only in English
content, contexts and pedagogical methods, but also in teaching environments.
This diversification can ultimately help English teaching more interactive,
flexible and innovative. However, Skourtou and Kourtis-Kazoullis (2002) warn
that this improvement will not take place if...
Wikis and English language teaching
For turning students into
producers of online content, enabling peer-to-peer learning, and creating a
collaborative learning environment (Kovacic, Bubas & Zlatovic, 2007), the
authors of this study opted to use wikis in the training sessions with
in-service EFL teachers as a concrete tool and space to work with new
technologies in the foreign language classroom. In the field of English language teaching, several
authors have argued for the use of wikis. Leuf and Cunningham (2001) claim that
for being fully editable websites that users can visit, read, re-organize and
update, wikis appear to be excellent tools for language teaching and learning.
To Lund (2006), the production and appropriation of language in wikis go beyond
individualistic and mentalist approaches to language learning since they ...
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