Science Teachers’ Experiences in Integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into their Teaching Practices

In response to rapid social, economic and technological change, Canadian education authorities have recognized the importance of integrating ICT into teaching and learning. Despite the growing availability of technology in Canadian classrooms, there remain barriers to technology integration relating to teachers’ beliefs about technology and learning, aspects of pre-service training, professional development opportunities, accessibility of technology, and ongoing support. This research investigates two middle and secondary school science teachers’ experiences integrating technology into the classroom. Overall, technology was perceived as useful, although there were many barriers to its integration into the classroom, namely barriers relating to human, material, and time resources. Peer support was an important facilitator in understanding how to use different technologies. Finally, teachers’ increase in confidence occurred with increased familiarity with a new technology. Consistent with the literature, the findings from this study indicate that there exist key barriers and facilitators. Teachers’ experiences of these barriers and facilitators interact to shape their perceived usefulness of technology in teaching, and their comfort using it in their teaching practice. This research highlights the importance of content-based technology learning in order for transformative uses of technology to become more common among science teachers. The findings have implications for both professional development content, as well as pre-service training curricula