The use of ICT in teaching tertiary physics: Technology and pedagogy

Research Aim:

The aim of research is to investigate applications of ICTs and pedagogy underpinning these applications in teaching Physics at a tertiary level.

Research questions:

What ICT applications do the lecturers use in teaching Physics?
How often do they use ICTs in their teaching?
What is lecturers’ pedagogy of using ICTs in teaching Physics?

Sample

There were 45 Physics lecturers and 12 students from universities involved in the research. The universities were chosen in order to provide a spread across three criteria: universities’ size (the number of staff), years of establishment and the type of the university (public or private, funded by provinces government or ministry of education and training). Questionnaires were delivered to Physics departments of the universities. Physics lecturers were invited to answer the questionnaires. The lecturers who were interested in the research gave their feedback.

Students and lecturers were also encouraged to have interviews with researchers who managed to have interviewees from different age groups, gender, experience in teaching/ learning capability and year of study. 50% of lecturers who were interviewed were female. Their ages were from 23 to 58. 25% of interviewed lecturers had more than 10 year teaching experience; 12.5% had only one year experience. The majority had teaching experience from 3 to 9 years. 50% of interviewed students were female, agedbetween 19 and 22, and they represented a range of learning ability.

Data Collection Methods

Both qualitative and quantitative methods interviews and surveys) were employed in the research. A questionnaire was administered to 37 Physics lecturers from different universities. The questionnaire included 15 items (9 Likert Scale items and 6 open questions). The nine Likert scale items presented nine applications of ICTs in teaching:

Educational software as learning resources
Distributed resources via the internet as learning resources
Video resources as learning resources
Software and technology tools supporting face-to-face lectures
Course management system
Computer-based testing system
E-mail system
Websites offering communication options for the direct sending for e-mail and forms of structured communication
Software system for text-based chat

The items were classified into three groups: learning resources, instructional organisation of learning and communication. These Likert scale items inquired into the frequencies of use of the applications by the lecturers, requiring responses using five scales: one stands for not at all, two for less than once a month, three for once a month, four for twice a month and five for every week. Six open questions were to elaborate on the information gained from the Likert scale items. Frequencies and percentages of the answers were computed and analysed.

The lecturers and students from the universities were invited to have interviews with researchers in order to investigate which ICT applications were used by lecturers and the pedagogy underpinning the applications. Eight lecturers and twelve students accepted the invitations and were interviewed. The lecturer interviews included four main questions, and based on the answers further discussions were stimulated. There were five main questions for the student interviews which sought to understand the student perspectives of the use of ICT and the pedagogy underpinning its use.

Data from the students’ interviews triangulated the data from lecturers’ interviews and survey. In addition, data from lecturers’ interviews not only enriched but also triangulated the data from the survey with the lecturers.