Abstract
As other countries did, the South African department of education also made prevision for the
integration of ICT in schools by providing appropriate resources for learning and teaching.
However, South African teachers still find themselves with one foot in the past and the other
in the future. While the department’s aims are clear, there is still a disparity between the
government’s aims and practices of teachers. Many teachers still lack the appropriate
knowledge, skills and training required to ensure effective integration of ICT in their specific
subjects. The group training that is sometimes provided by district office personnel, national
department of education or Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) for efficient use of
training leaves many behind as they attend them. They mostly are at different levels of
competencies in term of ICT skills, access, and local(internal) or limited external support. The
other extreme is when there is no ICT resources nor ICT training as it was exposed by the
COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns that needed emergency ICT-facilitated teaching learning in
that gap. In this regard, the research aimed to investigate the effective use of Intra-School
Professional Development (ISPD) approach to facilitate ICT training to teach Natural Sciences
subject in a South African public school. Furthermore, the research aimed to investigate factors
impeding the integration of ICT in subject teaching practice and whether schools can develop
their own ISPD model in ICT training programmes that can encourage the integration of ICT
tools and apps in teaching and learning in the South African schools. The study employed a
participatory action research approach with a focus on qualitative descriptive, case study
research. One grade 6 Natural teacher was selected for the study. The findings from the
research showed that implementing the ISPD model can maximize the integration of ICT in
teaching Natural Science with immediate support from the level of the participant without
waiting or delaying others. The single participant could determine the pace of her growth to
independent exploration of the ICT tools in the teaching and learning classroom preparation
and practice.
Keywords: ICT integration, intra-school professional development, teaching and learning,
teaching practice, teacher training.