Abstract
M.Ed. (ICT in Education)
Information and Communication Technology has made its way into almost all fields of human interactions. The leading field, where ICT is most commonly practiced, is that of business and industry. In contrast, Mostert and Nthetha (2008) assert that the in the field of education, ICT is used minimally and mainly for administrative purposes. At present, the use of ICT is not common in the mathematics classroom and can be attributed to initial teacher training programmes that did not include the integration of ICTs into the curriculum until more recently. Pre-service student teachers, who have been exposed to ICT modules in preparation for using it in their practice, thus stand a better chance to utilise ICT resources because of their previous exposure. This dissertation aims to identify current pre-service mathematics student teachers acceptance of ICT`s in their classroom. The focus will be on mathematics teaching and learning as this is one of the subjects in which learners perform below expectation in the South African context.
The positive contribution of ICT in the mathematics classroom firstly relies on the individual teacher’s belief in the effectiveness of ICT and secondly on the teacher’s competence to utilise ICT tools and services. An imbalance in the equation will ultimately influence a teacher’s perception on ICT integration for pedagogy. Teachers, who have ICT competency skills but do not believe in its effectiveness, are bound to reject its integration in as much as teachers who believe in ICT but lack competency in using ICT resources. Therefore, teachers need to have a positive attitude and the technical knowhow on how to successfully integrate ICT in their teaching and learning of mathematics. This is the theoretical framework that underpins ICT integration in education ...