Teacher Training Approaches

Research indicates that ICT can change the way teachers teach and that it is especially useful in supporting more student-centered approaches to instruction and in developing the higher order skills and promoting collaborative activities (Haddad, 2003). Recognizing the importance of ICT in teaching and learning, a majority of the countries in the world have provided ICT teacher training in a variety of forms and degrees. Even though many teachers report that they have not had adequate training to prepare themselves to use technology effectively in teaching and learning, there seem to be several efforts around the world in which countries are effectively using technology to train teachers, and/or are training teachers to use technology as tools for enhancing teaching and learning.
ICT teacher training can take many forms. Teachers can be trained to learn HOW to use ICT or teachers can be trained VIA ICT. ICT can be used as a core or a complementary means to the teacher training process (Collis & Jung, 2003). This paper organizes various ICT teacher training efforts found in different countries into four categories using the framework of Figure 1.
Figure 1. Categories for ICT in teacher training (adapted from Collis & Jung, 2003, p.176)