The use of computers to help secondary level pupils learn mathematics : An investigation of teachers' attitudes before and after their first year of teaching

Abstract

Research has shown that although computers have made a huge impact on societies and organisations, they made little headway in education. Numerous studies have attested that teachers encounter a number of barriers when they try to integrate computers in their lessons, but one of the main barriers and, perhaps, the most difficult to address was found to be teachers' own attitudes and beliefs towards the educational use of computers. In this longitudinal study, a group of 23 Maltese prospective secondary school mathematics teachers were followed for a period of one and a half years, starting from their final months as student teachers in an undergraduate initial teacher education course and ending one year after they had graduated and completed their first year of in-service teaching. The main focus of the study was the participants' attitudes towards computer use, especially towards its use in education in general and in mathematics teaching in particular. Both before and after their first year of teaching, the participants were found to hold generally positive attitudes towards the use of computers in everyday life, in education in general, and in mathematics education in particular. Significant positive correlations were found between these three sets of attitudes. In addition, gender differences favouring males were found. The participants' attitudes were almost identical in their responses to the Pre-Service and Post Service questionnaires which were separated by a period of not less than fourteen months. Significant positive correlations were found between Pre Service and Post-Service attitudes. In both stages of the study the participants' attitudes towards the use of computers in mathematics teaching and learning were significantly less positive than their attitudes towards computer daily use and general educational use. These results were probed by using in-depth semi structured interviews with all participants. The outcomes of these interviews generally substantiated those of the questionnaires.