Abstract:

Computers have become a common part of our everyday life. It has become obvious that individual success in the global information society will depend on the ability to obtain, analyze and utilise information rather then on the amount of actual factual encyclopaedic knowledge. School as an integral part of the society should reflect current requirements of the society and prepare individuals in the framework of the information society which is being formed. ICT implementation into educational reality is not an isolated process equivalent to providing schools with computers. Technology should not be the aim but a didactic tool and educational environment encouraging change. Educational implementation of ICT tools is a long-term innovative process. The changes as well as implementation of new technologies can be successful only on condition that the innovation process will be adopted by a majority of teachers without commands, based on their own ideas and opportunities especially.

The contribution deals with preliminary results of Attitudes towards Computer Assistant Teaching (abbr. as ”ATCAT”) research into the issue of educational implementation of ICT tools in the primary school context. We concentrate on the personality of the primary school teacher with a focus on teaching primary mathematics in this paper. The model of primary teacher development with respect to the level of ICT implementation (the ACOT research) is given as a theoretical base of the presented classification of teachers according to their attitudes to utilising computers when teaching primary mathematics. This diffusion model was suggested in the framework of the American Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow research (abbr. as ”ACOT”) [1]. We used method of semantic differential and cluster analysis in our research in order to identify the basic types of teachers according to their attitudes to using computers in teaching primary mathematics. The results are presented in the paper.

References:
[1] Haymore, J. - Ringstaff C.: Apple Classroom for Tomorrow. ACOT, Report #10, 1990 [online]. Available from http://images.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/ /acot/pdf/rpt10.pdf [cited 2008-01-28]

Keywords:

ICT, Basic School, Mathematics, Teaching.