Choy, Doris

The purpose of the study is to investigate preservice teachers' perspectives in technology integration in Singapore. The preservice teachers participated in three surveys: 1) before taking the technology course, 2) after completing the course, and 3) after completing the ten-week teaching practicum. The first two questionnaires collected data related to their thoughts of using technology in their future teaching. The third questionnaire asked about their actual integration of technology during their ten-week teaching practicum. Qualitative data was also collected from ten purposefully selected participants to gather more in-depth information about how they planned to integrate technology and how they actually used technology in their teaching practicum. The findings from the quantitative survey data and the qualitative information were consistent and complemented each other. The results of the study provided a better understanding of preservice teachers' thoughts and actual practices in integrating technology into their teaching.

The focus of this paper is to present the major qualitative findings from a one year, mixed methods study that explores a cohort of preservice teachers’ process of learning to teach with information and communication technology (ICT) across their teacher preparation program in Singapore. This study suggests a variation in the preservice teachers’ technology competency, stances, decision making and actions in using ICT for classroom teaching and learning. The majority of the participants seemed to be unable to translate into teaching practice their increased technological competency and espoused constructivist orientation gained from the coursework. They tended to use ICT to improve and enhance teacher centred instruction on a regular basis during the teaching practicum. However, three focus participants were also able to use ICT to engage their students in student centred learning. They began to demonstrate their leadership potential in influencing others to use ICT for enhancing student learning. The findings suggest that preservice teachers may need more guidance, modelling and collaboration to develop a better understanding of technology based pedagogy from their own practice so that they can synthesise their constructivist orientation, student centred teaching approaches, and effective use of ICT.