Abstract:

The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of ICT usage in classroom and to determine factors that may predict the use of ICT in teaching technical and vocational subjects. The study was conducted using a survey research approach. The target population of the study was all vocational and technical teachers who were teaching engineering related subjects in technical secondary schools in Malaysia (N1666 teachers). We randomly selected 450 teachers to participate in the study.

The finding showed that majority of vocational and technical education teachers had a moderate ICT related knowledge, moderate ICT related skills, but positive attitudes towards ICT. In terms of ICT usage, the authors classify teachers as heavy users of ICT in classroom teaching, moderate users of ICT in teaching, and low users of ICT in teaching. The finding showed that the majority of the respondents are categorized as heavy users of ICT in classroom teaching, one-third of the respondents are moderate users of ICT in classroom teaching, and approximately 22% are low users of ICT in classroom. It was also the intention of the present study to determine factors that may predict the use of ICT in teaching technical and vocational subjects.

To examine the characteristics best discriminate between the groups (low users, moderate users, and heavy users), all variables were simultaneously entered into the Discriminant Function Analysis. The overall Walks’ lambda for the discriminant function analysis, Ʌ =.88, χ2 (12) = 39.93, p = < .05. This indicates that the characteristics of the type of ICT users are different. However, the high value of Ʌ (0.88) tells us that there is less discrimination among the groups. Only 12% of the total variance in the groups can be accounted for by the variables being investigated.
Although the amount accounted for in the variance is only 12%, the overall goodness-of-fit for the model was significant and both functions were statistically significant. Skills demonstrate the strongest relationship with function 1 and teaching experience demonstrates the strongest relationship with function 2. Although there was a difference among the groups, there are only two variables that differentiate the groups. These are ICT attitudes and ICT skills. The three groups did not differ on other variables being investigated. It was found that teachers who were considered as a moderate users of ICT in classroom had a much better attitudes toward ICT compare to those who were low and heavy users of ICT. They also had much more ICT skills that the other two groups. For all three groups their knowledge about ICT is about the same even though teachers in all the three groups have attended ICT related training. Based in this findings it showed that ICT skills and attitudes are the two important variables that predict differences between groups of teachers in terms of using ICT in classroom teaching. It was also the intention of this study to predict group membership and the present study shows that 28.8% of the low user group, 47.9% of the moderate users group, and 65% of the heavy users group were predicted correctly. Of the total sample of 329 teachers, 168 cases (51.1%) were correctly classified.

Keywords:

ICT in classroom, TVET in Malaysia, TVET teachers, ICT integration.