Prospective Mathematics Teachers Use of ICT During Teaching Practice

Abstract

The use of Information Technology (IT) as a means of providing students with information, knowledge and learning opportunities in mathematics is widely recognised as fundamental to emerging learning strategies. The potential advantages of using computer-based technologies for teaching, learning and assessment to facilitate a flexible provision within Mathematics has been apparent for many years.

The ways in which technology can be used to enhance the teaching of Mathematics in the classroom is infinite. The increasingly comprehensive access for students and teachers to the internet and software tools available for teaching and learning suggests that more traditional teaching, support and assessment mechanisms will be adapted in response to the increasing expectations of students and educational institutions.

The National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore is committed to exposing pre-service trainee teachers to a wide variety of learning experiences via the computer. In its pre-service teacher education programmes involving IT competencies, it is important that the trainee teachers learn and practise the use of IT in an educational context, in particular within their own teaching subjects. Hence, trainee teachers are exposed to various types of software and hardware as well as authentic assessment tools, which rely on technology to effectively capture student learning and how they can be integrated into teaching and learning in Singapore schools. However, in line with this, there is a growing recognition that IT applications in mathematics throw up a wide variety of challenging problems for teachers. The discussion on how IT can be integrated into the teaching of Mathematics can become increasingly prescriptive.

This study seeks to understand just how much of the use of IT and the accompanying skills demonstrated by Mathematics teachers are a direct translation of the skills and pedagogies learnt as part of their pre-service teacher training at NIE. The implications of this study serve to assist educators in understanding the transferability and practical issues involved in the teaching of IT skills and pedagogies for Mathematics in classrooms within teacher training programmes.