The integration of ICT by Mathematics teachers in the classroom

Abstract

This study investigated the factors that influence South African mathematics teachers’ integrating of ICTs into their classroom practices. Guided by three research questions namely: What ICTs are being implemented in mathematics teachers’ classrooms? How are the ICTs being implemented in the teaching and learning environment? Why are mathematics teachers’ implementing ICT in their classrooms? A quantitative post-positivist research design was used and 191 responses were captured. The top three ICTs available to participating teachers included: Personal Computer/Laptop, Microsoft Word and E-Mail. How participating teachers integrated ICT was broken up into two parts with the first part divided into three sub-categories. The top ten of each category was identified and noticeably all of them could be related back to educational functionality. In the second part a total of 278 ICTs were identified and were later categorised into twenty categories. The ICT perceived to have the biggest impact on the teaching and learning of mathematics was a data projector. Further investigation along the SAMR model indicated that the substitution category was by far the largest with 71.70% falling within this category. A further 23.90% were integrating ICTs at the Augmentation level, 1.89% at the modification level and 0% at the redefinition level. Why participating teachers integrate ICT was investigated using the four constructs (Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence and Facilitating Conditions, Behavioural Intention) of the UTAUT framework. The four constructs were hypothesised to influence teachers’ use of ICTs within the educational domain. Results from Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) indicated that three of the four constructs were statistically significant.