THE INFLUENCE OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF A TEACHER IN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN THE USE OF ICT.pdf

8/10/2019 THE INFLUENCE OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF A TEACHER IN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN THE USE OF ICT.pdf

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THE INFLUENCE OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF A TEACHER IN A COMMUNITY OFPRACTICE IN THE USE OF ICT

Lourdes Manzanedo Snchez

Seminar on introduction to research on ICT and E-LearningTutored by:

Margarida Romero Velasco

Master Degree in Education and ICT (E-learning)Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

June 1, 2013

Key Words: Education, community of practice, ICT Training, participation, use of IC.


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THE INFLUENCE OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF A TEACHER IN A COMMUNITY OFPRACTICE IN THE USE OF ICT

Abstract

Teachers have a central role in the development of new models of learning in schools. Thispaper describes a study that explored the use and knowledge in the use of Information Technology andCommunication (ICT) that teachers of natural sciences in the secondary school of Baix Llobregat,have in relation to the participation in Communities of Practice.

The purpose of this study is mainly to check that the participation into a community ofpractice used as a methodology, based on the experiences of the teachers themselves can change thereservations they have about the process of teaching and learning in the classroom.With the intention of obtaining information is to launch an investigation following a descriptiveapproach. The exploratory study will be provided information about participants in the form of

descriptive data, correlational statistics and qualitative data.

The results revelled that the use of ICT for teaching and learning purposes, represents achange in teaching practices before to their introduction and requires that teachers have a certainability and knowledge to use them. This knowledge may have been acquired by the self-taughtmethods or by a participation in a wide range of educational contents, methods and organizationalarrangements. Community of practice does not seem sufficient to characterize the educational use ofICT by teachers of science because it shows that there is no relevant factor related to the pedagogicaluse of ICT.

Findings from this study may be interesting and necessary to know about the training states ofsecondary science teachers have regarding ICT and capture their opinions and evaluations, in order tofind out what skills and training needs with respect to the present technological means and providesthe framework for collective dimension which allows new approaches and experience to develop acommunity of practice.


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For my father,who would have been very proud that I arrived at this destination.


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Acknowledgements

Throughout this journey, I had a community of supporters who provided me encouragementand good humour. The following individuals deserve special thanks.

I extend heartfelt appreciation to the communities Teacher Training Network eduCAT2.0 and

their liaisons and members who participated in this study. I wish them well as they continue to evolveand positively impact the use of ICT.

Dr. Margarida Romero guided my research at each step and challenged me to carefully thinkthrough my research in a thoughtful, intelligent way. She encouraged me in our first conversation toconduct the research. Her ability to conceptualize the possibilities helped me expand my perspectiveand strengthen my research. Her patience and availability were instrumental to my accomplishment.

Yolanda Diaz and Miquel Lleonart were invaluable resources during the analysis of data.They gave their time to react to my findings. Their perspectives and insights helped to fine-tune mythinking and were greatly appreciated.

I am also grateful to Sara Roig who used her eagle eye to revise the documentgrammatically and orthographically.

My mother, Dolores Sanchez, the most enthusiastic advocate of education throughout my life,provided relief on the home front at the most crucial times.

Finally, an extraordinary debt of gratitude is owed to my husband, Antonio Joyera, who waspatient and supportive throughout my final project.


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Tables of Contents

List of Tables and Illustrations .................................................................................................................71. Introduction and need for study ............................................................................................................82. Review of literature ..............................................................................................................................9

2.1 Characteristics of the Community of practice ................................................................................9

2.2. ICT use in education ....................................................................................................................10 2.3 Study purpose ...............................................................................................................................102.4 Research questions .......................................................................................................................11

3. Method ................................................................................................................................................12 3.1 Methodological approach. ............................................................................................................123.2 Study design .................................................................................................................................12

Phase I: Preparatory phase. .............................................................................................................12Phase II: Fieldwork. ........................................................................................................................14Phase III: Analysis of results. .........................................................................................................14Phase IV: Conclusions of the results and prospects. ......................................................................14

3.3. The study population ...................................................................................................................153.4 Techniques and tools for data collection ......................................................................................16 3.5 The questionnaire .........................................................................................................................163.6 Testing phase ................................................................................................................................173.7 Data collection procedures ...........................................................................................................18 3.8 Data analysis techniques ...............................................................................................................18

Quantitative data analysis ...............................................................................................................18Qualitative data analysis .................................................................................................................20

3.9 Validity and reliability ..................................................................................................................21 4. Results ................................................................................................................................................21

4.1 Description of the population .......................................................................................................21Questionnaires answers .................................................................................................................22 Description of the demographic variables of the study population ................................................22

4.2 Level of participation ...................................................................................................................244.3 Experience in Community of practice ..........................................................................................25 Qualitative analysis ........................................................................................................................28

4.4. Level of knowledge in ICT ..........................................................................................................294.5 Use of ICT. ...................................................................................................................................30

Qualitative analysis ........................................................................................................................325. Discussion ...........................................................................................................................................33

5.1 Conclusions and interpretations ...................................................................................................33 5.2 Practical implications ...................................................................................................................34 5.3 Study limitations ...........................................................................................................................345.4 Recommendations for further research ........................................................................................35

6.References ...........................................................................................................................................36

Appendix A ............................................................................................................................................39Scale assessment survey .....................................................................................................................39

Appendix B .............................................................................................................................................40Initial e-mail inviting participation .....................................................................................................40

Appendix C .............................................................................................................................................41Review added inviting participation through the science natures forum of Teacher Training

Network eduCAT2.0. .........................................................................................................................41Appendix D ............................................................................................................................................42

Reminder Email inviting participation ...............................................................................................42 Appendix E .............................................................................................................................................43

Survey instrument ...............................................................................................................................43


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List of Tables and Illustrations

Table 1: Value and percentage of faculty research by municipalities ....................................................15 Table 2: Operationalization of variables ................................................................................................17 Table 3: Level of relationship between variables ..................................................................................19

Table 4: Variables coded as numerical variables ...................................................................................19 Table 5: Coding qualitative data. Note: Code abbreviations are designated in parentheses ..................21 Table 6: Sample size calculation ............................................................................................................22Illustration 1: Age of the population sample ..........................................................................................22 Illustration 2: Teaching Experience ........................................................................................................23Illustration 3: Years of teaching in the current centre ............................................................................23 Table 7: Educational level of teaching ...................................................................................................24 Illustration 4 Participation in training program and Innovation in Science Seminar .............................24 Illustration 5: Level of participation in training program .......................................................................25 Illustration 6 Member of a community of practice by gender ................................................................25 Illustration 7: Member of community of practice by Teaching Experience ..........................................25 Illustration 8: Member of community of practice by years of teaching in the current centre ................26

Table 8 Multiple Regression Results for member of Community and Demographics ..........................26 Illustration 9 Experience in a community of practice ............................................................................27 Illustration 10: Reasons to share knowledge in a community of practice ..............................................27 Illustration 11: The main benefit for members of the community .........................................................28 Illustration 12: Acquisition of ICT knowledge ......................................................................................29 Illustration 13: Level of knowledge of tools at the user level ................................................................29 Illustration 14: Use of ICT tools .............................................................................................................30Illustration 15: Use of ITC tools with students ......................................................................................30Table 9: Way of teaching .......................................................................................................................31Table 10: Multiple Regression Results for use of ICT and Demographics ............................................32


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1. Introduction and need for study

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, developed country societies live in the so-calledinformation society or knowledge society. This is a society based on the intensive use of informationtechnologies and communication from their citizens. Every day is more evident the influence of thistechnology produces a social, cultural, economic and technological transformation, and of course

schools are not exempt. As pointed by Area (1998) ICTs have been slowly making headway ineducational institutions and universities, producing changes in education that, although not to the samerate that promote social change, demanded a protagonist, which very slowly finding answers.The experiences of incorporating technology in teaching, partly the result of political pressure, socialand economic incorporate it (Sigals, 2004) have not always been successful. The introduction of ICTin compulsory schools in our country, presents new situations and challenges that invite us to reflecton how to deal, from education to the cultural changes produced in our society as consequence of thedevelopment of new technologies. Also, as explained Adell (1997) in this new context oftechnological classrooms, where the use of technology tools allow students to apply computer andtechnology skills to learning and problem-solving, teachers and students must take importantchallenges, both technical mastery of the tools and especially its pedagogical use.

In spite of the differences in the use of technology among students (native digital)1(Prensky,2004) and teachers, mostly of them with training needs, they effort to continue with the changeadaptation. The application of ICT in educational contexts need some skills by teachers and a positiveattitude towards pedagogical benefits they bring, as the practice of teaching these methods are limited

by the level of training and handling these tools, and what teachers think about the educationalpotential of these. Clearly, however, these new requirements that arise in faculty cannot meetspontaneously nor teachers should be allowed to charge self-taught with these new skills. You must

bring knowledge and practice in the application of ICT in the classroom gradually, but surely. Theknowledge required for teachers to achieve successful integration of ICT in teaching should includethree dimensions: discipline, proper matter taught, the pedagogical and technology, taking the namingmethodology T-Pack. (Harris, Mishra and Koehler, 2009). That is why a clear forecast and plannedinclusion of ICT in the academic curriculum and a support teacher professionalization process in use

must accompany the reality of the classroom. From my experience as a trainer and coordinator of ICTin different schools, I understand the need for a thorough debate about the education and training toteachers who enter and develop tools that offer lots of support teachers work in two areas: supportingcommunication and support content (resources for the classroom).Lately new formats are emerging training for teachers, tailored to the needs of individual andcollective cloisters schools: exchange of experiences in and out of schools, the creation of platformsand adequate space to take them out; seminars that help recognize and display good teaching practices;formations centre, development of personal learning environments and groups and so on. As explainedStephen (2006) the experiences of teaching knowledge if we can draw conclusions from reflective

practice, analysing what we do, how we do it and why we do it and then sharing those positiveexperiences with the rest of the educational community.

From this research proposal will be interesting to see how the experiences of teachers,attitudes towards the use of ICT can change. This study is based on survey and design of thequestionnaire used as an instrument, using a complementary methodology with results that indicatethrough a descriptive analysis of teacher training, coordination and teaching cooperation that theyhave with adequate resources and materials, and a commitment of time and effort the teachers are veryimportant factors that favour the use of ICT in education. This research focuses specifically check theattitude and concept that keep teachers regarding ICT, if verifying reflective practice can provide animprovement in the attitude of teachers regarding ICT. Thus, thanks to the reflection that come withthe cooperation and collaboration resistance to change could be substantially reduced. The fact

1Digital natives refers to people who for almost every activity in their lives, they are inventing new forms of online

activity happening each, based on new technologies at their disposal. That is, this online life has become a strategy of how tolive, survive and thrive, and where cyberspace is part of everyday life.


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investigate the opinions, concepts, and skills that teachers make use of ICT is to consider that the roleof the teacher undergoes a change when applying new technologies as on teachers the responsibility toapply these new methodologies and technologies related tasks, linked also with the change andeducational innovation. The study aims to explore and try to collect perspectives, opinions andattitudes of the teachers towards the use and integration of technology in classrooms specifically inhigh schools because education is conditioned by the technologies that think teachers and theexpectations that they maintain to use these tools.

2. Review of literature

2.1 Characteristics of the Community of practice

The concept of practice is about doing, but "doing in a historical and social context that givesstructure and sense to what we do" (Wenger, 1998, p.47). Thus practice, which has been developedover time by a community of persons, is not property of the individual but of the community, a

community of practice. In this context, the individuals membership constitutes also his identitythrough the forms of competence that it entails.

Wenger (2002, p.4) defines communities of practice as groups of people who share aconcern, a set of problem, or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as theyinteract regularly.The culture of sharing and discussing teaching practices is best nurtured in an environment, whichfosters a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Lave and Wenger (1991) note thatcommunities of practice happen when people who share a common concern or a desire to do or learnsomething or want to do something better, interact with each other on a regular basis to find possiblesolutions to their needs or better ways of doing things. Members of a community of practice do notnecessarily work together on a daily basis, they may be teachers located in different schools, even

different countries. What makes them belong to a community of practice is their desire to share anddiscuss regularly issues of common concern about their shared domain. (Fox, Law and Allan, 2007).These communities focus on people and on social structures that enable them to learn with and fromeach other over a period of time and that learning with and from each other occurs through interested

participation with other learners and does not necessarily have an end but can be on-going; memberscan continue to learn from each other ad infinitum (Rogoff, Turkanis & Bartlett, 2001).To participate in a community of practice means to have an experience and to display specificcompetences unique to this community, even if the subjects membership does not carry any explicitlabel. (Wenger, 1998).Communities of practice usually involve different levels of participation. (Wenger, 2012)

Core group: a relatively small group of people whose passion and engagement energize andnurture the community.

Active participants: members who are recognized as practitioners and define the community(though they may not be of one mind as to what the community is about).

Occasional participants: members who only participate when the topic is of special interest,when they have some specific to contribute, or when they are involved in a project related tothe domain of the community.

Peripheral participants: people who have a sustained connection to the community, but withless engagement and authority, either because they are still newcomers or because they do nothave as much personal commitment to the practice. These people may be active elsewhere andcarry the learning to these places. They may experience the community as a network.

Transactional participants: outsiders who interact with the community occasionally without

being members themselves, to receive or provide a service or to gain access to artefactsproduced by the community, such as its publications, its website, or its tools


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Research conducted on the use of the SITES M2 case studies (Law, 2004) identified a keystrategy to establish a culture of on-going professional sharing and collaboration was to provide acommon environment where teachers can disseminate and share good practices to promote the use ofITC in learning and teaching and to gain feedback from users to improve and consolidate their

practices as well as to build up a community of interested practitioners.

2.2. ICT use in education

According to the results of The IEA Second Information Technology in Education Study(SITES) 20062(an international comparative study of pedagogy and information and communicationtechnology) a fundamental parameter for evaluating the impact of ICT education is to quantify theiruse in teaching activities and learning of the class group. As this use allows many gradations andshades, ranging from sporadic and occasional uses to uses systematic and widespread, it is importantto set whether teachers use ICTs regardless of frequency or mode of use, who use ICTs once a week ormore and if teachers make extensive the use of ICT in a limited course (e.g. in a project or theme). (1= never, 2 =almost never, 3 =rarely, 4 =often, 5= usually)

Furthermore, to characterize teachers considered users of ICT educational purposes, in otherwords, they believe that computers are part of their teaching repertoire and toolset student work, anindispensable information is how ICT is used in order to educational resources purposes as anequipment and work materials (e.g.: Laboratory equipment, musical instruments, art materials,overhead projectors slides, electronic calculators), software tutorial, office software (e.g.: word

processing, database, spread sheet, presentation software), multimedia production tools (e.g.:equipment for capturing and editing digital drawing programs, web production tools and multimedia),data capture tools, modelling and simulation software based on the process of modelling a real

phenomenon with a set of mathematical formulas (e.g.: electronics simulators ) , digital educationalgames designed with educational purposes ( e.g.: skill-and-action, strategy, adventure, puzzle, or drill-and-

practice games) , software communication (e.g.: email, discussion forum), digital resources (e.g..:portal, dictionaries, encyclopaedias), mobile devices (e.g.: assistant personal digital assistant (PDA),

cell phone), interactive whiteboard or learning management system (e.g.: Web learning environments).

2.3 Study purpose

To carry out the inclusion of ICT in the classroom is that teachers need to demonstrate apositive attitude towards its use. There's a rather large failure in the inclusion due to different factorsinvolved in this proposal is possible, such as: self-esteem, confidence, motivation, positive attitude,technical skills, an appropriate machinery, etc. In order to provide these factors is a necessary training/ trainer / a flexible, motivating and able to adapt to different levels of knowledge that teachers realizeand keep in mind that the contents worked are helpful in day to day work of teachers, of which thereare currently only a small part, making training courses present a quite remarkable failure.

The Department of Education Generalitat of Catalonias (2003) proposed the training program for theteaching of science in secondary education began with a team of science teachers, and participated in atraining seminar for Teaching Science and develop a series of group didactic sequences. During 2005we introduce the methodology of reflective practice and training is focused on offering a series ofseminars for Innovation in Science, comprising about 15 science teachers from several schools, flyingimprove and innovate in their teaching.The participants in each community of practice are regularly sharing problems, innovations andexperiences and test new strategies and resources that the group agrees with the advice of a trainer ortrainer. They are attended 10 meetings over the course of 2.5 hours (25 hours), plus about 15 hours ofclass work through a virtual learning environment and communication (Moodle). This platform

provides a flexible personal communication both bidirectional and multidirectional, allowing easymanagement of content and documentaries also facilitates monitoring by training teams of work done

by teachers who attend the course.

2SITES: M2 Results. http://www.iea.nl/sites-m2.html


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At the beginning are 3 sessions closer together to advance the realization of the goal ofimproving every teacher / want to take. Attempt to have common objectives in improving the work ofeach participant, which facilitates the sharing of strategies, analysis of results and counselling.Currently conducting these seminars Innovation Sciences is under the Training Zone plans.

The purpose of this study is mainly to check that the participation into a community ofpractice used as a methodology, based on the experiences of the teachers themselves can change the

reservations they have about the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. Then, with thischange of attitude, teachers began to make use of ICT in the classroom. So we can say that theinfluence of the community of practice with the training program for science education in secondaryschools can help science teachers change their attitude towards ICT? That is, we could extrapolate andsay that communities of practices encourage the use of ICT?

Its interesting and necessary to know about the training states of secondary science teachershave regarding ICT, capture their opinions and evaluations, in order to find out what skills andtraining needs with respect to the present technological means.

Its useful to take into account possible strange variables:

Age and gender/ the teachers because mostly affects the larger a person shows harder to use ICT. Characteristics: For years of teaching old centre, administrative status, position that develops,

qualifications The current economic climate that leads to a general lack of motivation of the teachers. Socio-economic and cultural centre where the teacher teaches (whether or not students have

computers in the classroom, the school is equipped with adequate machinery for learning ICT, theequipment in the classroom...). These factors affect the motivation of teachers introduce studentsto the tools you use daily or not.

2.4 Research questions

Knowing that communities of practice and their influence could be a method of training inwhich the main points of departure are the experiences of each teacher in their context and reflect ontheir practice (an educational tool based on the person and not the theoretical knowledge that takesinto account the personal and professional experience to update and improve the teaching) we can saythat community of practice can help teachers change their attitude towards ICT? But to answer thatquestion will also address the following questions:Are qualified secondary science teachers to use ICT in their teaching? What is the level of trainingthey have? Is the use of ICT as part of their routine (personal and professional)?

To answer these questions we set the following targets.

Identify training (technical and educational), in regards to ICT, for teachers of science and theorigin of this formation, and analyse whether the training varies depending on the professionalcategory, gender, age and teaching experience.

Understand the use of the science teachers made ICT based training achieved, and analysewhether these applications vary depending on the professional category, gender, age and teachingexperience.

Describe the role of teachers in their work in the teaching-learning process in order to analyse thequality and validity.

Identify and assess whether the factors involved in teacher training on ICT have an importantinfluence on the development of teaching in the classroom.

Verify that the participation into a community of practice can be a useful tool to reduce thepossible reluctance of teachers towards ICT


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Define training needs, technical and educational, this group compared to ICTs and to analysewhether this demand varies depending on the professional category, gender, age and teachingexperience.

The answer to these questions and to carry out these targets is the development of research, so it isnecessary to perform a methodological approach to the trend guide, description of the phases of theinvestigation, detailing the population and description of the data collection instruments.

3. Method

3.1 Methodological approach.

Having established the theoretical investigation based on the literature review, it will mark theway to study the reality in its natural context, as it happens, trying to make sense of or interpret

phenomena in accordance with the meaning it has for the people involved.To do so, with the intention of obtaining information about the involvement of a secondary science

teachers in a community of practice, is to launch an investigation following a descriptive approach, amethod that is part of the former type of research ex-post-facto ("after the fact") empirical-analyticorientation. That approach (which is based on the principles of objectivity and emphasizes theempirical evidence3and quantification4) to describe and explain the phenomenon to study education inthe natural context in which it occurs (Arnal, 1997). Provides an approximation to reality much morecontextualized within the parameters of normal and natural phenomenon without becoming artificial,as in other types of methodologies (Mateo, 1997).Thus, the study is in the form Descriptive Exploratory (Bisquerra, 1989) because it 's closerunderstanding of the phenomenon to be studied with the utmost respect to the nature of this situation,

because it modifies the context nor manipulated variables, experimental control without waiving itmeans that we apply models systematic action to ensure the scientificity of the process.In the classification of descriptive studies, can be distinguished evolutionary studies, survey, casestudies and observational (Arnal, 1992). Among all these possibilities, we chose to perform thisresearch study survey, supporting its implementation using the questionnaire, believing that is the bestway to determine the opinions, preferences and perceptions people of interest to the investigation inthis case high school science teachers (both those who have participated in seminars for Innovation inScience as they have not already).

This observation technique will allow for systematic measurements of the variables derivedfrom the problems of research that previously has been built, in this case referring to the involvementof teachers in secondary science communities of practice.Moreover, the way they make the instrument (questionnaire) regarding the types of questions that areformulated and further processing of the data form a kind of mixed methodology regarding the

treatment of these, using quantitative (statistical analysis) and qualitative (descriptive treatment). Sothis research is based on both quantitative and qualitative paradigms.

3.2 Study design

This research is divided into four main phases:

Phase I: Preparatory phase.

That includes all the work done before the fieldwork:

3The research will be guided by the evidence obtained directly or indirectly from the observation

4As a result of measurement, produces quantitative data analysis, which requires the use of statistics.


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a) Study of literature related to the topic under study.

The time frame for study of literature began on March 18, 2013, and ended on March 31,2013. Review of books, articles, theses, research on teacher training and non-university teachertraining in ICT and community of practice and research documents that discuss the science teachertraining and a review of training plans of the Department of Education the Government of Cataloniaon this, the first reflections were made and established the first questions on the subject under study.The literature review also provide information on the variables considered in this research that will

help the survey instrument to collect data from this study, and the application of various techniques toperform the data analysis. The information collected is also used in the final report and findings of theresearch as reflection and / or claim arising from the same data.

b) Definition of the research design, specifying mainly the purpose, hypothesis, objectives of the

study and the methodology used.

Once the first steps of literature review are given it focuses the main objective of this research:a descriptive analysis of participation in a community of practice and the use of ICT in public schoolsscience teachers from the region of Baix Llobregat. Then specify the objectives of the study and themethodology used. The time frame for this section began on March 22, 2013, and ended on April 5,2013.

c) Definition and understanding of the population and sample selection.

The next step is the selection of the study population and decides which sample is used. In thiscase, consider working with the entire population, 160 teachers of science roundabout, because it may

be easier to reach, from a numerical point of view as geographical. It would create a database of thestudy population based on data obtained from the organizer of the training is relevant EducationService (in this case the SE. Baix Llobregat which are nine) and space accompanying Networkteaching and learning and eduCAT2.0 exactly the group of natural sciences. It took from April 3, 2013to April 12, 2013.

d) Preparation of data collection instruments: the online questionnaire

This questionnaire will seek to fulfil the task of assessing the use and attitudes of teachers

regarding ICT and participation in the community of practice in educational contexts, with specialemphasis on the importance opinions regarding the methodology used in the classroom and practicethat occurs in these approaches. Regarding the construction process of the questionnaire it must bemade based on the literature review, other research on the subject nearest and objectives outlined inthe research.

In order to find the right data collection instrument, it is reviewed existing questionnaires.The collection of information that the Department of Education of Catalonia does, with an annualfrequency from the 2006-2007 academic year is reviewed. The Statistics Society Information onschools in the 2011-2012 shows equipment in new technologies uses made of it and the level ofknowledge that teachers have to approximately 3,000 primary and / or secondary schools. Theinstruments used in this study is rejected because it is not reflected the variables.It is reviewed the Second Information Technology in Education Study: SITES 2006 Technical Report,

(Carstens & Pelgrum, 2009). SITES-M2 examines the kinds of ICT-related pedagogical practicesadopted by the participant countries and how these countries were using ICT. This study administeredthree questionnaires: for school principals, technology coordinators and teachers in mathematics andscience. Despite of Catalonia was included in this study and science teachers too it is rejected becauseit is not reflected the participation of teachers in communities of practice.The research Examining the Relationship between Communities of Practice and Climate of Innovationin the U.S. Federal Government Environment (Chindgren-Wagner, T., 2009) has the purpose ofdiscovering evidence for and explain the relationships between two of the dimensions of communitiesof practice (i.e., participation and connectivity) and a climate of innovation (e.g., vision, participativesafety, task orientation, and support for innovation). Data is collected to online questionnaireresponses from 384-community members practice the federal government of the United States. Thisquestionnaire has items related to communities of practice but the use of ICT is not contemplated.To examine the variables of participation and use of ICT, this study used items from theseaforementioned instruments and these items were consolidated into one online questionnaire.


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The time frame for preparation and structuring data collection instruments began on April 12, 2013,and ended on April 19, 2013.The following procedures section describes the process administering the questionnaire.

Phase II: Fieldwork.

That work includes data collection to obtain information through the application of thequestionnaire. Having previously established the study population: science teachers of Baix Llobregat,will proceed to make a database of teachers involved in the research: the number of teachers in schoolsthat are located, belonging to the town, phone number of the centre, etc. It took from April 19, 2013 toApril 25, 2013.The procedure to get the teachers can be diverse:

1) in centres where there is / teacher / a known / to be made through the contact that person, explainingthe purpose, aims and purposes of research, asking their assistance partnership and so explaining howto access and deliver the online questionnaire.

2) in those centres where you know no one will be a phone call or by e-mail addressed to the previousHead of Department in the area of science telling, as in the previous case, what is the purpose,objectives and research purposes, and ask for collaboration, then send the questionnaire to the centre.

3) a third way teachers approach may be through the group of natural sciences of space andaccompanying Teacher Training Network eduCAT2.0 confluence teachers in this field.The time frame for collecting data began on May 5, 2013, and ended on May 18, 2013.

Phase III: Analysis of results.

Analysis and interpretation of the data and the results obtained by the researchers: dataprocessing and analysis and description of the results. Once the questionnaire was used to treatspecific software information gathered with the intention of making descriptive exploratory study andsubsequent analysis of the relationship between variables.The time frame for analysis of results began on May 5, 2013, and ended on May 29, 2013.

Phase IV: Conclusions of the results and prospects.

This phase sets out the conclusions from the study and presented the results obtained in theprevious phase, and considers future lines or guidelines for training science teachers based on them.The last phase began on May 29, 2013, and ended on June 1, 2013.

Figure 1: Graphical representation of the phases of the investigation

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3.3. The study population

Data collection for this study was directed toward the group of secondary school teachers,particularly science teachers in secondary public schools in the Baix Llobregat.Initially, data were obtained from the staff of the 2012-2013 academic year teachers provided by theDepartment of Education Office of Baix Llobregat. The population to which the study was intendedcomprises 162 teachers of Natural Sciences distributed in 60 schools of the 26 major cities thatcomprise the Baix Llobregat. (Table 1)

City Number of Teachers Percentage

Abrera 4 2,47%

Begues 1 0,62%

Castelldefels 12 7,41%Cervell 1 0,62%

Collbat 2 1,23%

Corbera de Llobregat 6 3,70%

Cornell de Llobregat 16 9,88%El Prat de Llobregat 15 9,26%

Esparreguera 7 4,32%

Esplugues de Llobregat 9 5,56%

Gav 5 3,09%

Martorell 7 4,32%

Molins de Rei 6 3,70%

Olesa de Montserrat 4 2,47%

Pallej 3 1,85%

Sant Andreu de la Barca 7 4,32%

Sant Boi de Llobregat 15 9,26%Sant Esteve Sesrovires 2 1,23%

Sant Feliu de Llobregat 6 3,70%

Sant Joan Desp 6 3,70%

Sant Just Desvern 4 2,47%

Sant Vicen dels Horts 7 4,32%Santa Coloma de Cervell 0 0,00%

Torrelles de Llobregat 1 0,62%

Vallirana 4 2,47%

Viladecans 12 7,41%

TOTAL 162 100,00%Table 1: Value and percentage of faculty research by municipalities

In order to contact with the sciences teachers, it was sent an invitation to participate in thestudy. This invitation it was sent by email to the head of science department, who was the responsiblefor getting the researchs instrument to sciences teachers.Moreover, the invitation is also sent through the science natures forum of Teacher Training NetworkeduCAT2.0

The purposes of this virtual network of support are:

Provide educational and pedagogical support and guidance for teachers involved in the project 2.0.


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Provide relevant information regarding aspects of teaching and classroom management with ICTtools and digital resources.

Share and disseminate knowledge and experiences among the participating teachers. Create a community of practice focused on peer learning.

As a result, the exact number of teachers contacted is not known because some of them weremember of the network eduCAT1x1 and professor who was addressed the e-mail at the same time.However, it likely exceeds 200. The number of responses in this research was twenty. One of themwas rejected because it was incomplete.

3.4 Techniques and tools for data collection

With datas collection of data, it is intended to reduce, deliberately and systematically, usinginstruments mediators, the fact that it is studied. It is, therefore, a structure or process that produced agreater or lesser extent certain objects, events, behaviours, phenomena....

As stated Ruiz (2003), the problem of how to approach a social situation is the problem ofhow to think and feel this, and how our own vision of things affects the data collection. What gives

value to the data collected is the attitude and behaviour of those who carried out the research process,while the techniques used are merely a reflection of his willingness and his performance in thatprocess.

There are different procedures and investigative techniques. Rodriguez and others (1996)classify as from which the researcher collects the information, according to the objectives andaccording to the degree of involvement of the researcher.Taking into account these classifications, it is chosen the instrument of data collection for research.

First, it is considered what perspective we wanted to collect information. In this case theinformation is collected from the participants response to the perspective of the researcher. Secondly,the method is adapted the objectives, and thirdly it is decided what is the specific level of involvement

desired.As a result of all these considerations, it has to decide the procedure and technique used in theinvestigation. It is considered as most appropriate instrument to gather the information needs ofscience teachers involved in the study, the questionnaire. This instrument allows the measurement anddescription, by these professionals for their participation in a community of practice and training inICT.

3.5 The questionnaire

The "ethnographic" method utilized by Lave and Wenger (1991) to assess the identity ofparticipation cannot be utilized to statistically test hypothesis about the relations between it and otherrelevant variables in use of ITC. Therefore, it has developed a questionnaire to determine which form

of participation has an individual in a specific community of practice.

At the time of preparing the self-report online questionnaire, (see appendix D), which begin byinforming the participant about the purpose of the study and give instructions, it has an account thedifferent dimensions of the survey. The dimensions identified are the four themes that structured andorganized this instrument: personal and professional information, participation in training seminars,experience in communities of practice and knowledge and use of ICT.For this reason, the questionnaire is composed by 46 questions, closed-ended and open-endedquestions, spread in 4 sections. It is used closed-ended questions such a multiple choice (used togather personal and professional information) and interval scale questions (whether it was a feeling,attitude, agreement level to be measured). However, open-ended question is used to gain more insightinto how the respondent felts.

Section 1 is used to obtain information that will define the population (gender, age, years ofteaching experience, the old centre, who works in educational levels, administrative status, a position


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that develops or academic qualifications, among others), and later observed possible relationshipsbetween these demographic variables and responses.

Sections 2 and 3 provide information about participation in training seminars, experience andattitudes in communities of practice.In the last section, subjects are requested to report their knowledge and use of ICT. The data collectedfrom this last section will help to develop an understanding about the personal and professional

experiences of participants and their beliefs about the factors that contribute to use ITC.

There is below the table of operationalization of the variables and value variable alignment tosurvey items. As it can be seen, it has been built in order to perform the operationalization ofvariables, and to take the variables from an abstract level to a more concrete and specific level toobserve, to measure and manipulate it.

Table 2: Operationalization of variablesNote. Items, the question type in parentheses. CE = Close-ended. OE = Open-ended.

The questionnaire was implemented using Google Form (from Google Drive). It allowscreating an online survey. In this implementation, ethics (Dillman & Bowker, 2001) and respondfriendly design questions (Dillman, Tortora & Bowker 2001) were taken into account to maintaincertain standards of quality, accessibility and usability.

3.6 Testing phase

With the intention of finding out the operation of the questionnaire, a testing phase was

Section Variable Item Scale

1. Personal and

professional

information

Strangevariables

Gender 1(CE) Nominal

Age 2(CE) Ordinal

Years of teaching 3(CE) OrdinalOld centre 4(CE) OrdinalSocio-economic andcultural centre

5,6,7(CE) Nominal

Educational level ofteaching

8-9(CE) Nominal

Administrative status, 10(CE) NominalPosition that develops 11(CE) NominalAcademic Degrees 12(CE) Nominal

2. Participation

in trainingseminars

Independentvariable

Participation in seminars 13-

18(CE)

Nominal

3. Experience in

communities of

practice

Independentvariable

Participation in acommunity of practice

19-22(CE)

Nominal

Reasons to participate in acommunity of practice

23 (OE) Nominal

Experience in a communityof practice

24-35(CE)

Nominal/Interval

Advantages to participate ina community of practice

36 (OE) Nominal

4. Practice and

knowledge anduse of ICT

Dependent

variable

Use of ITC 37-44(CE)

Interval/Nominal

Participation and use ofITC

45 (CE) Nominal46 (OE) Nominal


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conducted.The goal of this phase is to test the accuracy and clarity of the survey questions and the onlineimplementation of the survey instrument. Furthermore it can help to refine question wording andappropriateness of the survey instrument.

To carry out the testing phase, two participants were asked to complete the onlinequestionnaire. After that, they asked by email to provide feedback on all aspects of the survey,including recommendations on how it could be improved. (See Appendix A).The feedback contributed to identify incomprehensible questions and helped to refine the wording ofquestions to get the best type of data needed.

3.7 Data collection procedures

The time frame for collecting data began on May 5, 2013, and ended on May 18, 2013.An invitation to participate sent via e-mail on May 5, 2013 initiated the data collection (see AppendixB). At the same time it was added a review inviting participation through the science natures forum ofTeacher Training Network eduCAT2.0. (See Appendix C). Each invitation provided an overview of

the research, the access to the online survey and informed that participants would get the results of thestudy. A reminder invitation followed on May 10, 2013 (see Appendix D).

The self report online questionnaire was hosted at:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DkDHe8bjfJBoddjMIex7AdiaxClD9DhXtgWlmGqK0qA/viewform(see Appendix E). It began by informing the participant about the purpose of the study, included theinformed consent form and provided instructions to complete the questionnaire. The participant wasalso informed that the estimated time needed to complete the 46 questions was approximately 10 or 15minutes.

3.8 Data analysis techniques

This section shows the procedure for calculating the results.

Quantitative data analysis

To treat the information collected, it was used special software with the intention of carryingout the exploratory-descriptive study and subsequent analysis of the relationship between variables.

Descriptive statistics provide simple summaries about the sample and about the observationsthat have been made. These summaries may form the basis of the initial description of the data as partof a more extensive statistical analysis. (Vicns, 2005) To carry out the quantitative analysis, are usedthe Descriptive statistics for demographics variables (gender, age, years of teaching, old centre, socio-

economic and cultural centre, educational level of teaching, administrative status, position thatdevelops, academic degrees).Furthermore, descriptive statistics support other methods of statistical analysis that explore variablecomparisons and relationships (Greene, 2005). To examine the relationships between two variables, itis used a relationship test or test of significance or hypothesis. The relationship test depends on thetype of variables, which it is working. In this case, to analyse the relationships between two variablesthe Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (Pearson's r) determined the degree of therelationship while simple regression determined the form of the relationship. When it is determinedthat there is a relationship between two categorical variables, it could be calculated the strength of therelationship with the coefficient Contingency C. (Cosculluela, 2012).

The analysis of the level of relationship between variables will be based on the amount of

Guilfords adapted correlation scale adapted that has the following gradation:


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Coefficient values Analysis of the number of

coefficient

Analysis of the relationship

between

Between 0 and 0.20 Null Objectionable

Between 0 and 0.20 Low Small but significantBetween 0.40 and 0.60 Regular Considerable

Between 0.60 and 0.80 High Intense

Between 0.80 and 1 Very high Very intenseTable 3: Level of relationship between variables

The hypotheses are:H0: No significant differences between the variablesH1: Significant differences between the variablesVariable scores were treated, in advance, to be used in statistical analysis with SPSS5, a free softwareapplication. In order to use this application, all variables were coded as numerical variables as followson the next table:

Gender: Female = 0, Male = 1Age 20 to 29 = 25, 30 to 39 = 35, 40 to 49 = 45, 50 to59 = 55, 60 or above = 65

Years of teaching experience: From 0 to 6 years = 1, from 14 to 20 years = 2,from 7 to 13 years = 3, more than 20 years = 4

Years of teaching in the current centre From 0 to 6 years = 1, from 14 to 20 years = 2,from 7 to 13 years = 3, more than 20 years = 4

Type of centre Public = 1, private concerted= 2, private= 3Level of education in which teaches: 1st Cycle ESO = 1, 2nd Cycle ESO= 2, Bachelor

= 3, Intermediate Vocational Training=4, HigherLevel Training Cycles=5

Administrative situation Professor = 1, Ultimate Owner = 2, Services

Commission = 3, Owner Expectation = 4,Practice Owner = 5, Temporary / Substitute = 6Position that develops: Tutor = 1, Member Management Team = 2,

Coordination Computer= 3, Head of Department/ Science Seminar = 4, Extracurricular ActivitiesCoordination= 5, Coordination of Secondary = 6,Coordination ESO= 7, does not occupy any

position = 8, other=9Academic qualifications Master = 1, Diploma = 2, Degree = 3, PhD = 4,

Another =5Participation in seminars Yes=0, No=1

Level of participation in a community ofpractice

Very low=1, Low=2, Moderate=3, High=4, Veryhigh=5

Experience in a community of practice

Likert scale items were coded as

Strongly disagree = 1, Disagree = 2, SlightlyAgree = 3, Agree = 4, Strongly Agree =5

Level of knowledge in the Use of ITC Very low=1, Low=2, Moderate=3, High=4, Veryhigh=5

Participation and use of ITC Never=1,Almost never=2,Rarely=3,Often=4,Usually=5Yes=0, No=1

Table 4: Variables coded as numerical variables

5SPSS Statistics Desktop: Trial download for version 21.0.0http://www14.software.ibm.com/download/data/web/en_US/trialprograms/W110742E06714B29.html


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To estimate the influence of the involvement of a teacher in a community of practice in the useof ICT, four variables were used: level of participation in training seminars, experience in acommunity of practice, level of knowledge in ICT and use of ICT.Each value variable was examined separately as a dependent variable with demographics asindependent variables using multiple regression analysis to determine if any relationships werepresent.

Qualitative data analysis

Apart from quantitative data analysis, it was studied qualitative data in the form of open-ended response questions and written comments on the questionnaire (see Table 2 as OE). Theymay generate narrative data as single words, brief phrases, and full paragraphs of text that requireanalysis. (Taylor, 2003)This qualitative data was gathered with the purpose of confirming closed-ended question choices (seeTable 2 as CE). Furthermore, open-ended questions and comments were used to collect descriptiveresponses: reasons to participate in a community of practice, advantages to participate in a communityof practice and participation and use of ITC.Once it was narrative data collected, the process of analysis and interpretation followed different steps:

Step 1 Get to know the data.

Read and re-read through all responses of OE to get an overall sense of the data and highlight relevantwords or phrases in light of the question posed. Step 2 Focus the analysis.

Identify the key questions to be answered by analysing. Step 3 Categorize information.

Coding is needed for categorizing the data. Due to code it, categories and subcategories wereidentified. It was used two ways to categorize: using preset and emergent categories (Taylor, 2003). Atwo-column table is created for listing the categories and the code it was used for that category.

Question Categories and Subcategories

Responses to the question were sorted into:20. What do you understand by

Community of Practice?Interaction (Int)

Sharing experiences (Int-ShE)Sharing knowledge (Int-ShK)Exchanging experiences (Int-ExchE)

Communication (C)Keeping in touch (Int-KiT)

Results(R)Improving (R-Imp)Finding answers (R-FndA)Educational innovation (R-EI)

23. What are the reasons to participatein a Community of Practice?

Interaction (Int)Sharing resources (ShR)

Motivation (Mot)Encourage teamwork (Mot-EnTeam)Enrichment (Mot-Enr)

Results (R)Improving teaching (R-ITeach)Introducing new practices (R-Intro)Having the knowledge available R-Hav)Finding solutions to problems (R-Find)Learning (R-Le)

36.How a community of practice could

facilitate the exchange of knowledge?Interaction (Int)

Sharing experiences (Int-ShE)Communication (C)


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Forums (C-For)Keeping in touch (Int-KiT)

Resources (Res)ICT tools (C-tool)

Motivation (Mot)Experience (Exp)

46. How their community partnershipscontribute to the development of ICT in

the classroom?

Motivation (Mot)Results (R)

Application of learned (App)Table 5: Coding qualitative data. Note: Code abbreviations are designated in parentheses

This process of coding also helped to begin to see relationships between these categories and patternsof interaction. Step 4 Identify patterns and connections within and between categories.

It was wanted what the key ideas were expressed in each of the categories and what were thesimilarities and differences in the way people responded, including subtle variations.Such connections were important to look for, because they helped explain why something occurs. Step 5 Interpretation Bringing it all together

It was developed a summary of the results that was relatively short but complete enough to contain thedata that it was puzzled by. It was identified contradictions and surprises in the dataData were presented in descriptive numbers and percentages, summary narrative and examples.

3.9 Validity and reliability

Validity refers to how well a test measures what it is purported to measure (Moskal &Leydens, 2000). In this survey, it was taken into account that the goals and objectives were clearlydefined and operationalized and they matched with the assessment.

Reliability is the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent results.This means that it produces the same results when it is applied different times (Moskal & Leydens,2000). In order to obtain a measure of reliability in this survey, it was administered the same test twiceover a period of time to a group of individuals (test-retest reliability). The scores from time 1 and time2 could be correlated in order to evaluate the test for stability over time. As a result, measurementerrors were limited and the analysis of data confirmed the first findings from the pilot study.

4. Results

This chapter presents information gathered from the questionnaire to teachers who were partof the study.

So it describes the results obtained in the survey group of high school science teachers.The study of information obtained from the instrument must show personal and professionalcharacteristics of the group studied, the involvement of science teachers in communities of practice,and what these teachers believe and think about their knowledge and relation to different ITCresources.

4.1 Description of the population

The study population is defined from the answers to the questions as demographic variables,into the first section of the questionnaire. Among other features, the teachers are defined by age,gender, and variables related to the professional information.


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Questionnaires answers

The number of responses in this research was 21 of the 162 that made up the population. Thisis the 12,96% of the population.To extrapolate the results to the population represented by a sample it must be taken into account thetype of sample and the number of subjects. (Morales, 2012)The sample size depends on the margins of error in extrapolating from the sample to the population.

The sample, whatever its size, should be representative of the population they are to extrapolate theresults.In this research we try to collect some data from a sample to extrapolate the results to the population,and has to take into account the number of subjects.

If the sample size (n) is calculated using

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where,

k=1,96 (confidence level 95%)N: is the size of the population (total number of potential respondents).e: is the desired sampling error, as by one.

p = q = 0.5 (p = 1 - q)

The results of the sample size can be seen in the following table

k 1,96 1,96 1,96 1,96 1,96 1,96N 162 162 162 162 162 162p 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5

q 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5e 0,3 0,2 0,135 0,08 0,05 0,03

n 10 21 40 78 114 141Table 6: Sample size calculation

The number of responses (n) in this research was twenty-one. This sample size corresponds toa 20% sampling error. There is no stated minimum number of subjects required for a non-experimental exploratory study. As can be observed mortality (difference between the initial samplethat has been contacted and the numbers of responses) is very high in this survey.

Description of the demographic variables of the study population

GenderThe majority of teachers participating in this study were women, 13 (62%) of the total of 21 teachers,while only 8 (38%) were men.

Age

The chart below represents the age of the teachers asked.

Illustration 1: Age of the population sample

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Intermediate Vocational Training 0 0,00%Higher Level Training Cycles 0 0,00%

TOTAL 21 100%

Table 7: Educational level of teaching

Note that most teachers shared their teaching across levels. More specifically, 33,33% (f =7)

%), shared hours in first and second cycle.The major number of teachers is teaching secondary school (either first, second cycle or both) andhigh school together.There are only a few teachers teach only the first cycle (f = 2, 9,52%). They are usually teachers from

primary school.

Administrative status

Another aspect taken into account is the administrative situation. Regarding this issue it is observed a68% (f = 13) teacher occupies a place organically, that is, the centre is final, having a 32% (f = 6) whois from traveling form (functional space).Delving a little deeper into the data can be seen that there are teachers who are a ultimate owner47%( f= 9)

Position that develops

There are 20 teachers surveyed (99%) who held a position and only one (1%) who have none.

Academic Degrees

Teachers who participated in this study, 17 (71%) have a degree. Only one (4%) has a diploma.

4.2 Level of participation

If the participation is analysed, women (f = 10, 76.92%) participated in a training program and theyparticipated (f = 4, 30.76%) in innovation in science seminars. Men participated in a training program(f = 6, 75%) and they participation in innovation in science seminars was (f = 3, 37.5%).

Illustration 4 Participation in training program and Innovation in Science Seminar

Participation in seminars is very diverse. The teachers, in recent years, has been interested intraining on the use of the web Explorehealth, immunology course organized by the ICE Server,conferences upgrade high school biology teachers, seminars TAC (learning technology andknowledge), classroom Management, update the knowledge of secondary school teachers CSIC,treatment talented students, program and Science Teachers, course for computer coordinators,augmented reality, various seminars on science and management, introductory course in Moodle,seminar on Physics and Chemistry, training in science, technology and mathematics, inclusive school,introduction to Linux and Eduwikilab.

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Participation in these seminars is considered very high (f=4, 50%) and high (f=4, 50%)

Illustration 5: Level of participation in training program

The main reason to participate in any training activity or have any training in relation to ICT islack of time (f=2, 40%). Another reasons expressed are because although I'm interested in the

subject, I have other priorities and I prepare myself and I have already done other courses andmany more prefer to laboratory practice and not just theory so much with digital

4.3 Experience in Community of practice

It was examined separately as a dependent variable (member of a Community of Practice) withdemographics.

There were a 61,53% (n =8) of women who was a member of a community of practice, and a 37,5% (n= 3) of men.

Illustration 6 Member of a community of practice by gender

Teachers with more than 20 years of experience, the30% (n=3) of them does not belong tocommunities of practice against the 70% that it belongs. Teachers from 14 and 20 years of experiencehave 50% of members who belong and the other 50% do not. Teachers with less experience teachingall belong to a community of practice.

Illustration 7: Member of community of practice by Teaching Experience

It is observed that the 60% (n=3) of teachers with teaching in the current centre more than 20 yearsbelong to communities of practice against the 40% (n=2) that it no belongs to. Teachers from 14 and20 years in the current centre 83,3% (n=5) of members do not belong. The major of number ofteachers from 0 to 6 years of teaching in he current centre 66,6%(n=9) belong to a community of

practice.

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Illustration 8: Member of community of practice by years of teaching in the current centre

It was examined too as independent variables using multiple regressionanalysis to determine ifany relationships were present.

Average Standard deviation N

Gender , 38 , 498 21Years of teaching 3,14 1,014 21

Years of teaching in current centre 2,24 1,221 21

Member of Community of Practice , 24 , 436 21

Gender Years of

teaching

Years of

teaching

in

currentcentre

Member of

Community

of Practice

Gender PearsonCorrelation

1 , 184 , 172 , 022

Sig. (2-tailed) , 425 , 455 , 925N 21 21 21 21

Years ofteaching

PearsonCorrelation

, 184 1 , 698** , 371

Sig. (2-tailed) , 425 , 000 , 098N 21 21 21 21

Years ofteaching incurrent centre

PearsonCorrelation

, 172 , 698** 1 , 076

Sig. (2-tailed) , 455 , 000 ,743N 21 21 21 21

Member ofCommunity ofPractice

PearsonCorrelation

, 022 , 371 , 076 1

Sig. (2-tailed) , 925 , 098 , 743N 21 21 21 21

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).Table 8 Multiple Regression Results for member of Community and Demographics

The coefficients obtained are rejecting the null hypothesis (H0) and accept the alternativehypothesis (H1) (at the 0.01 significance level) of an intense relationship being years of teaching andyears of teaching in the current centre. The rest of variables have any relation between them.

The illustration 9 shows the thoughts and beliefs of teachers regarding their experience in communitypractice. It is important to note that the 61,9%( n=13) of teachers are in complete agreement that

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4.5 Use of ICT.

The main use of ICT by science teachers was searching tools as Google to find information (85,71%,n=18). The second tool used was a Social network in order to sympathize with students (28,57%, n=6).

Illustration 14: Use of ICT tools

It was observed that normally teachers did not use ITC tools with students. Only they get used to use asocial network to communicate with their students (61,90%, n=13).

Illustration 15: Use of ITC tools with students

In the table below is observed the responses to the question of how it had changed the way to do class.Teachers reckoned that they had changed their way of doing class and had made it necessary toincorporate ICT (33,33%) and whit the same percentage the fact that incorporated ICT has changedtheir way to do class. Noted that everybody an exception of one, admitted that they included ICT

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Sig. (2-

tailed)

,56

1,239 ,421 ,258 ,149 ,509 ,972 ,668

N 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21

wikis

Pearson

Correlation

,02

0-,074 ,330 -,084 ,326 1 ,325 ,682** ,184

Sig. (2-tailed))

,931

,748 ,144 ,717 ,149 ,150 ,001 ,425

N 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21

blogs

Pearson

Correlation

,01

1-,434* ,022 -,364 -,153 ,325 1 ,233 ,276

Sig. (2-

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3,049 ,924 ,105 ,509 ,150 ,310 ,225

N 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21

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Pearson

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,75

6,829 ,413 ,892 ,972 ,001 ,310 ,616

N 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21

Instant

messaging

Pearson

Correlation

,21

3-,358 -,261 -,385 ,100 ,184 ,276 ,116 1

Sig. (2-

tailed)

,35

5,111 ,253 ,084 ,668 ,425 ,225 ,616

N 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 10: Multiple Regression Results for use of ICT and Demographics

The coefficients obtained are rejecting the null hypothesis (H0) and accept the alternative hypothesis(H1) (at the 0.01 significance level) of an intense relationship between producing collaborativedocuments (using Google Drive or similar tools) and Wikis. The rest of variables have any relation

between them.

Qualitative analysis

The participants (n=21) provided comments about how their community partnershipscontribute to the development of ICT in the classroom. Two categories emerged from their responses:(a) Motivation 14,28% (n=3) of mention. (b) Results: Application of learned 28,57% (n=6) ofmention.Three of them (14,24%) confessed that they didnt know about it. One of them commented that it isessential in the current day. Another one explained that his contributions had served a little bit,

because he really took advantage more than others did. He added that in the future he hoped otherscould take benefit from him, for instance working and testing by Moodle or deliver the jobs on thisway.


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5. Discussion

5.1 Conclusions and interpretations

The study purpose was mainly to check that the participation of science teachers into acommunity of practice encourages the use of ICT in the classroom.

The results are showed a high level of mortality (difference between the initial sample that has beencontacted and the numbers of responses) and the nonresponse was a serious source of potential error inthis study.

One of the reason to nonresponse, associated with posting a web questionnaire and invitingpeople to respond, is that response rates are likely to be very low and heavily influenced by interest inthe topic and/or the technology of responding (Vehovar, 2002)Another source of nonresponse may stem from problems experienced by individuals as they attempt tocomplete the questionnaire. Probably the lack of basic computer knowledge and the questionnairedesign lead to premature termination of the survey.

Finally the invitation email did not get to sample population, because mails were send to the

head master account and addressed to the department, and this mail didnt arrive to science teachers,breaking communication and the access to the questionnaire.

In any case, nonresponse has caused the no extrapolation of data and a poor statistic results.

Regarding the study population, it should be noted the fact that most participants are between 40and 50 years, with over 20 years of experience teaching and has not been rotating centre due to thestate final and the positions they occupy. These features provide stability to the centres wherecommunities of practice could be installed and where training seminars focused on expandingknowledge in ICT could be run. Note that the majority of teachers surveyed work in different cyclessimultaneously. One reason is the rotational movement that exists in many centres in changing everyyear the educational cycle in order

One of the important aspects of this study was to know the level of participation of teachers inseminars and innovation. In this sense we can say that there are genders differences regarding towomen being more assiduous training to enrol in seminars in a number of high-level participation.These results were expected, as in teaching gender is common slanted. There is a very high ratio offemale to male teachers in the most secondary schools.

Moreover, experience in communities of practice measured shows us that there is again adifference between genders in terms of membership in a community of practice. The reasons thatexplain this fact may be the same as participation in seminars. Now if you look at the teachers who

belong to a community of practice in his years of experience, we can see that there is no significantdifference between years of teaching, but instead the least participate in communities of practice areteachers over 20 years of experience. The reasons for this similarity may be in at the momentexplained by the fact that the methodology has changed as technology has allowed. This has made thedeployment by the Department of Education to train their workers in technological innovation toensure quality education and be in continuous contact with communities resolving doubts and creatingnew methodological proposals. This is why it is also evident that teachers with more years in schoolsare the ones that belong to communities of practice.

Regarding the relationship between variables, because the number of responses was not thedesired unable to verify whether there is any relation to a community of practice with the demographiccharacteristics of the study population. The only variables are presented obvious relationship are yearsworked over years at the current school, reasonable if teachers have been working for years and have

longer carries at the same centre.

Much more interesting was discovered that teachers fully agree that knowledge sharing canhelp the other members of the community of practice and sharing can help advance knowledge.


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Obviously, the main reason for wanting to share this knowledge it is the idea of sharing and receivinginformation obtaining as a favour in return: the members being constantly learning. This idea ofcontinuous learning is essential for a teacher who needs a constant recycling to make their teaching.

One of the important aspects of this study was to verify the level of knowledge and the use ofICT in teachers of science.In this sense the results were announced that teachers had a mostly self-taught to ICT. Currently the

introduction of new electronic devices in the classroom has sparked a teachers curiosity to make themgo on. Training in ICT has supported this self-taught.Regarding ICT tools frequently used by teachers, it should be noted the use of instant messaging,search engines and text editing tools and presentations, very useful and user-friendly explanations tohelp in the classroom. Use of other methodological tools and specific programs as video or audioediting and database, are not yet so popular among teachers of science.What I did not expect to find is that teachers are not using these tools with their students. Mostly useICT tools to prepare materials and design but not used in the classroom with students. They found thatthe most used with students are social networks that allow asynchronous communication.One of the surprises has been gratifying to get recognition from the teachers surveyed that they havechanged the way to do class and this made necessary to incorporate ICT and to incorporate ICT has

made their way to change classes.Regarding the analysis of correlations was observed that producing an intense relationship betweencollaborative documents and Wikis.

It has not been possible to identify any correlation between the variables and therefore cannotbe related to participation in a community of practice (which is a particularly important factor foreducational innovation, providing the framework for collective dimension group that allows newapproaches and experience them.) with the use of ICT. The community of practice does not seemsufficient to characterize the educational use of ICT by teachers in science.

5.2 Practical implications

The findings of this study can be interesting to learn about the formation of secondary schoolteachers, related to ICT. It is important to capture their opinions to find out what skills and trainingneeds in relation to current technological means, to provide the framework for the collectivedimension that provides new approaches and experience to develop a community practice.It is expected to guide and improve the planning of continuing training for teachers in the use of ICT.

5.3 Study limitations

Although this research was carefully prepared, there are limitations.First, because of the time limit, this research was conducted only on a small size of population (Baix

Llobregat).Second, the population used in the test phase is small, only two teachers, so it will not ensure thevalidity of the questionnaire.Third, since the questionnaire designed to measure the influence of the involvement of a teacher in acommunity of practice in the use of ICT might give useful information about the use of ICT byscience teachers and their participation in communities of practice; it seems not to provide enoughevidence of the relationship between the variables it has been studied.

In addition, the number of responses is very small, which prevents the extrapolation of datawith certain reliability.


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5.4 Recommendations for further research

After research and known processes, procedures and conclusions in relation to the studypurpose, there are possible researches derived from the results and conclusions of this study that canbe developed in the future.

The first line of research proposed goes in the direction of extending the current. This studyfocused on the Baix Llobregat, which makes it limited in this regard and not extrapolated to the rest ofCatalonia because it has not carried out any sampling population. Therefore it is believed desirablethat future research should continue to be extended to the remaining Catalan provinces.

Another line of research is concerned with the deepening of the issue of the use of ICT,initiating a research line on "Uses of ICT in secondary schools in the area of science" by teachersscience, involve more variables that it was evaluated in this study (organization, equipment, materialsfor instance, in order to focus on the centre, on the teacher and what is being done. In this way, takinginto account teachers who use technology and have shown to be formed, it is also consideredinteresting to investigate the technical and pedagogical features of the application of this technology inthe classroom, as well as the impact or their professional improvement.

Despite of the one important variable that is part of the training is the attitude of teacherstowards technology; in this study this aspect has been considered very superficially. Thus, it isconsidered for future studies to be taken into account understanding the attitudes of teachers towardsICT training, availability respect to ICT training, and the applicability of ICT in different curriculumareas, in this case science.

Documents

THE INFLUENCE OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF A TEACHER IN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN THE USE OF ICT.pdf