6.4 Inferential statistics
6.4.2 Online teacher-training use behaviour
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managements value OPD programmes. Therefore, fewer teachers will tend to participate in such programmes. Furthermore, 41.5% of the teachers agreed that time is being provided to access OPD at their workplace. Therefore, we must make time provision in their workload to enable teachers to take part in online professional development programmes. Findings from this study indicate that OPD can provide just-in-time assistant to teachers at their workplace and the content can be adapted to their context.
6.4.2 Online teacher-training use behaviour
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conclude, it seems obvious that teachers know that OPD provides opportunities for them to advance in their careers but still they are not using it.
6.4.2.2 Motivation
Online learners must be autonomous and interactive, self-motivated and self- disciplined, and the level of integrity must be high. Table 6.12 shows how the respondents rated these characteristics as regards online learners. Table 6.12 also shows that 80% of the teachers agreed (32.3% strongly agreed and 47.7% agreed) that for learners to benefit effectively from online professional development, they must have the above characteristics;
otherwise it will be difficult for the learner to engage in online learning.
Table 6.15: Crosstabulation – internet unfamiliarity and age group What is your age group?
20-29 30-39 40-49 50+
The
unfamiliarity with the internet convention (e.g how to download or upload a task) causes a refractive action towards online courses.
Strongly agree
Count 3 9 3 2
% of Total 4.6% 13.8% 4.6% 3.1%
Agree Count 6 15 5 2
% of Total 9.2% 23.1% 7.7% 3.1%
Neutral Count 2 9 0 1
% of Total 3.1% 13.8% 0.0% 1.5%
Disagree Count 1 2 2 0
% of Total 1.5% 3.1% 3.1% 0.0%
Strongly disagree
Count 2 1 0 0
% of Total
3.1% 1.5% 0.0% 0.0%
In Table 6.15, the respondents acknowledged that they would be more motivated to engage in online courses, if they were familiar with internet conventions. As 26.2% strongly agreed and 43.1% agreed that as they are unfamiliar with internet conventions, they are resistant towards online courses, so teacher-training courses must be integrated with ICT skills so that teachers become more familiar with internet conventions. Moreover, 36.9% of those who agreed (13.8% strongly agreed and 23.1% agreed) were in the age group of 30 to
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39 years old. The respondents who strongly disagreed were between 20 to 39 years old (4.6%) and those who disagreed were between 20 to 49 years old (7.7%).
Table 6.16: Crosstabulation – teaching experiences and private tutoring as a barrier Online professional development does not act as a barrier for teachers to offer private tuitions.
Strongly
agree Agree Neutral
Strongly disagree For how
long have you been teaching?
0-5 Count 4 7 7 1
% of Total 6.2% 10.8% 10.8% 1.5%
6-10 Count 5 2 5 1
% of Total 7.7% 3.1% 7.7% 1.5%
11-15 Count 8 7 7 0
% of Total 12.3% 10.8% 10.8% 0.0%
16-20 Count 1 1 0 0
% of Total 1.5% 1.5% 0.0% %
20+ Count 3 4 2 0
% of Total 4.6% 6.2% 3.1% 0.0%
Total Count 21 21 21 2
% of Total 32.3% 32.3% 32.3% 3.1%
Table 6.16 shows that 32.3% strongly agreed and 32.3% agreed that online professional development is not a barrier for teachers to offer private tutoring and that teachers who did so could engage in professional development programmes. While looking closely at Table 6.16, we see that 50.9% of the respondents who agreed have teaching experience of between 0 to 15 years. Moreover, 10.8% have teaching experience of more than 20 years. On the other hand, 29.3% of the respondents who have teaching experience between 0 and 15 years were neutral. Thus, teachers must have intrinsic motivation to engage in OPD.
166 6.4.2.3 Benefits of online teacher training
In Table 6.14 67.7% of the teachers who completed in the questionnaire agreed that they could share their practices and resources with their peers within and outside the school with online professional development and is one of the benefits of online teacher training.
As they can collaborate, the resources can be readily available to them. Only 3.1% of the respondents disagreed with the declaration. Therefore, teachers believed that they could benefit from online teacher training.
In Table 6.9, 60% of the teachers agreed and only 6.2% disagreed that the content of online professional development could be adapted to their school context, while 33.8% of the respondents were neutral. Therefore, teachers needed to have access to online professional development to further their learning. They also agreed (77%) that the content and activities of OPD helped them to improve their teaching and only 3.1% disagreed. On the other hand, 20% were neutral to this statement. Table 6.9 also shows that 56.9% the content of OPD is directly related to their work, while only 4.6% disagreed. But only 32.4%
of the teachers agreed that the content and activities were readily available at their workplace, while 36.9% disagreed.
In Table 6.9, 58.5% of the respondents agreed that the content of OPD is continuously updated while only 6.2% disagreed. Moreover, Table 6.9 shows that 63% of the teachers agreed that the content of OPD can be used again and again; 4.6% disagreed. Thus, teachers can get access to updated resources, moreover, they can review these resources any number of times. The resources are always available.
In online professional development courses, teachers have the possibility to reflect on their own practices. In Table 6.9, 73.8% of the respondents agreed that they learnt more through reflection and discussion about their own practices. On the other hand, 7.7%
disagreed. Thus, professional development programmes must provide opportunities for teachers to reflect on and discus their own practices.
Table 6.13 shows that 60% of the respondents agreed that being able to express freely in online professional development courses is a benefit of OPD. It also showed that only 3.1% disagreed with such statement. This may imply that teachers would prefer OPD where they could express themselves freely. The result tends to show that teachers want to express their views while engaging in professional development.
167 6.4.2.4 Facilitating conditions
Table 6.17: Cross tabulation of gender and technical support provided for OPD Technical support should be provided if I am engaging in an online professional development
program. Total
Strongly
agree Agree Neutral Disagree
Strongly disagree Gender
Male 11 8 9 5 2 35
Female 14 13 3 0 0 30
Females are more likely to believe that they will need technical support if they are to engage in online professional development course even though they may be digitally competent. As shown in the Table 6.17, 27 out of 30 females agree (14 strongly agree and 13 agree) that they will need technical support. Zero females disagree with the fact that they will need technical support to engage in OPD. But from Table 6.7, some of these females are part of the 44 participants who access the internet at least two times daily. But still, most of them requested for technical support if they are to engage in an online professional development course. This may result from a lack of confidence in their technical skills.
Furthermore, they might tend to believe that technology is for men as these areas were male dominated. Another reason could be the subject choice at school level which could has been an influencing factor, where few girls chose technological subjects previously as compared to now.
In Table 6.9, 67.7% of the respondents agreed that the tasks in online professional development courses can be tackled by teachers of all ages, while only 4.6% of the teachers disagreed with such statement. Therefore, OPD courses must be available to teachers so that they can have opportunities to extend their learning. They believe that if online PD was available to them, they would be able to accomplish the tasks.
Table 6.10 shows that 63.1% of the teachers agreed that they could access resources at their ease anywhere using OPD, but 18.5% of them disagreed with such statement. It also shows that 60% of the teachers agreed that they could access resources when they needed to.
On the other hand, 20% of the teachers disagreed with the point that they could access resources when needed in OPD. In Table 6.10, 63.1% of the teachers agreed that using OPD,
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they could access resources related to their needs. It also shows that 13.8% of them disagreed with the statement that teachers could access resources related to their needs using OPD.
Table 6.9 shows that 49.2% teachers could get access to their peers’ experiences using online professional development programmes. But 16.9% of the respondents disagreed that they could access others’ experiences using OPD. Table 6.9 also shows that 66.1% of the respondents agreed that they could get access to foreign experiences locally through online professional development programmes without having to travel abroad. But 12.3% of them disagreed with this statement.
In Table 6.10, only 41.5% of the teachers agreed that time was being provided for them to access professional development at their workplace, whereas 33.9% disagreed with this statement. School management should make an effort to provide time for such activities.
Thus, teachers would be encouraged to engage in professional development at their workplace. As a result, the whole school would benefit.
Table 6.10 also indicates that 69.2% of the respondents agreed that the ease of accomplishing basic tasks for the first time would encourage teachers to use online professional programmes. It also shows that only 3.1% of them disagreed with such statement. This tends to show that the teachers would use OPD if they felt confident in completing the tasks when they accessed OPD for the first time.
Moreover, Table 6.10 shows that 49.2% of the respondents agreed that specialised instructions were available while using online professional development. It also shows that 16.9% of the respondents disagreed that specialised instructions were available to them in online learning environment. The result shows that 33.8% were neutral towards the statement. This tends to imply that teachers believed that specialised instructions should be present in online professional development programmes to help all them.
In Table 6.10, 47.7% of the respondents agreed that they have the required resources to use online professional development programmes both at school and at home. But on the other hand, 26.1% disagreed and 26.2% were neutral as regards this statement. The results may imply that teachers need online professional programmes both at home and school. Thus, teachers need to have access to online resources as and when required, therefore the government needs to provide instant internet access.
169 6.4.3 Challenges of online teacher training