Mathematics Teachers and ICT: Factors Affecting Pre-service use in School Placements

Abstract

This study examines the factors influencing student teachers’ use of information and communication technology (ICT) to teach mathematics. Data collection involved questionnaire surveys and individual follow-up semi-structured interviews of student teachers concerning the factors that they felt had hindered or promoted their development in the use of ICT. This study shows that this particular group of student teachers is committed to using ICT in their teaching; they are mostly confident and mostly believe in the value of ICT in mathematics teaching. However, findings indicate that the barriers inhibiting the student teachers’ use relate to poor access to facilities, limited encouragement from mentors and the other teachers in mathematics department and irregular use of ICT of existing teachers in teaching, lack of links in the scheme of work, and time constraint.