EVALUATION OF THE TEACHER FACTORS ON THE INTEGRATION OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INTO TEACHING AND LEARNING IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

nformation Communication Technology (ICT) is perceived as a catalyst for change in teaching styles, learning approaches and accessing information in the world. It can be used to analyze, present information in the classroom, to facilitate delivery of instructions and learning process. ICT enables access to ideas and experience from a wide range of people, communities and cultures. It is for this reason that most countries have integrated ICT into their teaching in elementary schools. Kenya has made the education system an avenue of equipping the learners with ICT skills through provision of ICT facilities and equipment’s in schools. The government in 2018 issued ICT tablets in primary schools all over Kenya and every school was expected to have integrated ICT into teaching. However, most schools were still using traditional methodology in teaching. This prompted the study to evaluate on the effect of teacher factor on the integration of ICT in teaching and learning. The study aimed at evaluating the effect of teacher factors on the integration of ICT in primary schools in Kenya. The study specifically evaluated on Teachers’ pedagogical skills, Teachers’ competence in ICT, Teachers’ attitude and Teacher’s gender effect on ICT integration in teaching. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design to collect the data. The researcher used Interview schedule and questionnaires as research instruments. The sample was selected using stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques. The population of the study was 1772. This included both teachers and head teachers in Nairobi County; the study applied 30% of the total population of 1772 to obtain a sample size of 532 respondents which was the sample size of the study. The study was guided by Innovation Diffusion theory by Rodgers 2003 which explains on how ideas diffuse into a given population. For head teachers and analysed.as follows, Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of SPSS version 21. Qualitative data from interviews were organized into narratives and analysis revolve around the data reduction, organization and matching. The study found that majority of respondents had neither accessed computers nor internet in their respective schools. Teachers demonstrated deficiency in understanding of ICT operations and concepts and from the respondents, it was noted that there was low number of females integrating ICT in teaching. The study concludes that, Pedagogical Skills, Attitude, Competency and Gender influenced the Integration of ICT into teaching and established that teacher’s factors had a negative influence in the integration of ICT into teaching. Therefore, the study recommends that as there was need for more training in pedagogical skills in the integration of ICT, need to encourage both gender to integrate ICT into teaching and for motivation for teachers to improve their attitude towards integration of ICT into teaching. Based on the findings the study recommends adequate ICT training to improve the teachers’ competency, attitude, and skills in integrating ICT into teaching.