TEACHING COMPETENCE FOR THE USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN SECONDARY SCIENCE TEACHERS IN YUCATAN, MEXICO

In Mexico a secondary education reform has been implemented based on the National Education Program 2001-2006. The purpose of this reform is to transform educational practice to improve the learning opportunities for all students. To achieve this purpose is essential: to strengthen the continuity between basic educational levels, offering a national curriculum that enables the education of adolescents as democratic citizens, to fully develop teaching competences of teachers and promote processes for schools to work collegially and to become in learning communities.
One problem identified is that many secondary teachers need to move from one school to another in order to have as many hours as they can attend and thus increase their salary. It is estimated that in urban location more than 25% of secondary teachers working in more than one school so this situation dificults teachers to build a sense of institutional pertenence. Additionally, as part of their teaching practice, many secondary teachers use teaching strategies that do not promote student participation and also encourage more knowledge reproduction than competence development. Also, many secondary teachers do not use or use in a limited way ICT in their classrooms because they have low levels of development of this teaching competence.
Zabalza (2003), Cano (2005) and Perrenoud (2007) have developed teaching competence models. Their models coincide in the teaching competence in the use of ICT in the classroom. It means that secondary school teachers need to be competent in using ICT to provide better learning enviroment to their students.
The purpose of this paper is to make a dignosis of teaching competence in the use of ICT in secondary science teachers in Yucatan. The objectives are: Describe the results of the responses of those surveyed from the states of Yucatan and compare the answers of respondents in Yucatan according to the variables of sex, age, level of study, school system and school location.
The review of the literature shows that several studies regarding teaching competences have been developed. One of those studies called ICT standards for teachers was conducted by the UNESCO in 2008. In Mexico, Gras and Cano (2005) conducted a study about ICT influence in teaching science. They claim that the use of ICT can help teachers in two ways: using practical applications and designing applications.
A descriptive study will be conducted through the use of an opinion survey of secondary teachers regarding the competence for the use of ICT. The population consisted of all science teachers of 150 secondary schools in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. Data will be gathered using a modified version of the Teaching Technological Competence Questionnaire (TTCQ) developed by Cabero, Llorente and Marin (2010) to all science teachers from 108 secondary schools selected through stratified random procedure.