In-Service Mathematics Teachers' Integration of ICT as Innovative Practice

Abstract

The Professional Development School (PDS) can serve as a catalyst forthe professional development of mathematics pre-service as well as in-serviceteachers. In the present research, we describe lower-secondary in-servicemathematics teachers' development of ICT integration in their teaching. This isdone through the Innovation Diffusion Model of Rogers, which consists of fivestages: knowledge of an innovation, (2) forming an attitude toward theinnovation, (3) taking a decision to adopt or reject, (4) implementation of theinnovation, and (5) confirmation of the decision by affirming or rejecting it.In the present research, ICT integration in mathematics teaching is consideredas an innovation candidate for adoption by mathematics in-service teachers,where this adoption is facilitated by a community of inquiry consisting ofin-service teachers, pre-service teachers and researchers. Five in-servicemiddle school mathematics teachers participated in the present research. Weused two data collecting tools: observations and semi-structured interviews tocollect data about different issues related to the integration of ICT in thelessons of the participating in-service teachers. The categories of theinnovation diffusion model were used to analyze the participants' adoption ofICT for their teaching before and after our intervention through theimplementation of the PDS model for the period of one academic year. Theresearch findings indicate that the participating in-service mathematicsteachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding the benefits of ICT for mathematicsteaching were positive at the beginning of the experiment as well as at itsend. At the same time, teachers' knowledge and experience of using ICT tools inmathematics teaching improved, which contributed positively to the confirmationof their decision to adopt these tools for their classrooms. Specifically, theresearch results indicate that the PDS can support the in-service mathematicsteachers in their adoption of new innovations, specifically when thisinnovation is practiced by the pre-service teachers in the training school.