ICT-FACILITATED TEACHER CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Jonathan Lee

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Education

Abstract

This study investigated whether information and communication technology (ICT) brought increased capacity to teacher autonomy in Continuous Professional Development (CPD), an important practice expected of teachers in schools worldwide. It took place in Hong Kong when political protests and a global pandemic made schools stop face-to-face lessons and ICT potentially offered a means to facilitate CPD and sociocultural and contextual influences on their practices and beliefs. A three-phase mixed-method research design was employed, generating qualitative and quantitative data. NVivo and SPSS were used to analyse the qualitative and quantitative data in all three phases, except for the qualitative data in Phase 1 where manual coding was used. All English language primary school teachers working in aided or government primary schools were invited to participate in Phase 1 through the Advisory Teaching Team network. Online questionnaires with closed and open-ended questions were used, 123 volunteer teachers completed them and replies were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. In Phase 2, 16 self-selected participants from the original sample were involved in semi-structured interviews, conducted using video conferencing software, investigating how teachers interacted with ICT during a global pandemic. From Phase 1 and Phase 2, a proposed CPD cycle was developed to structure professional development facilitated by ICT within a school - the Technology Integration CPD Cycle (TICPDC). An intervention then took place in one local primary school which volunteered to participate on a convenience sample basis. The researcher assumed the role of school innovator to support teachers in developing an English literature unit. In the final Phase 3, eight teachers involved in the intervention following the TICPDC framework completed an online questionnaire, analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics. This was followed by in-depth interviews with two senior management teachers who were part of the sample. The use of ICT was a universal practice of all the participants. The results showed that teachers saw value in using technology to create and sustain pedagogical innovations in the classroom and facilitate sharing, planning, and implementing learning and teaching. However, in all Phases, those who self-selected to participate in the study may have been more digitally competent, leading to bias in the findings. This study adds to the growing understanding of pedagogical practices in teacher CPD, especially within the Hong Kong context, but will have implications for teacher CPD in other countries.
Date of Award2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Dundee
SupervisorKeith Topping (Supervisor), Liz Lakin (Supervisor) & Aileen McGuigan (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Teacher education
  • CPD
  • Covid-19
  • EFL
  • in-service teaching
  • Technology
  • Teaching and learning

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