Investigating Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Use and Perceptions about ICT Integration in Mathematics Education

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which pre-service teachers of colleges of education (CoEs) in Ghana perceive ICT integration as a useful instructional strategy in teaching concepts in primary school mathematics curriculum. The study also explores the impact of college-based education programs on pre-service teachers’ ability and preparedness to integrate ICT, and their overall perception about ICT integration in teaching mathematics. The study also assessed the availability of ICT tools in the Ghanaian primary schools in terms of the types of ICT tools available for use by practicing teachers. The study employed the cross-sectional survey design in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 326 final year pre-service elementary teachers from four public colleges of education in Ghana. The quantitative data obtained from questionnaires admin-istered was analysed using descriptive statistics while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings showed that pre-service elementary teachers perceive ICT integration as a useful in-structional strategy in mathematics education. The findings also showed that pre-service elementary teachers are not in strong agreement about how the courses they took, in ICT integration at the college level, shaped them to effectively and efficiently to integrate ICT in their future mathematics lessons. Nonetheless, most pre-service elementary teachers intend to integrate ICT into their future mathematics lessons. The implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed.