Browsing by Subject "tvt-taidot"

The aim of this thesis was to study how home economics teachers´ perceived the usability of ICT in home economics. The focus of the thesis was the teachers' views on the pedagogical potential of ICT in home economics, and the factors influencing the fluent use of ICT in teaching. The research questions are: 1. What do the interviewed home economics teachers see as the pedagogical benefits of ICT in home economics teaching? 2. Which factors do home economics teachers see contributing to the fluency of ICT use in home economics teaching? Five home economics teachers from southern Finland were interviewed for this thesis. The data collection was carried out as semi-structured theme interviews in the spring 2018. This was a qualitative study, and the data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The home economics teachers felt ICT has versatile pedagogical potential for supporting learning and to achieving key skills. ICT was seen as a means to facilitate differentiation and student evaluation, and to enhance pupils´ motivation and active agency. The use of ICT was also seen freeing up teachers´ time from routines to pedagogical work. ICT was considered a key element in learning information processing skills and ICT skills, but also in promoting pupils´ responsibility for his/her own learning. Factors contributing to the fluency of ICT use in home economic teaching were indentified as operational culture in schools and technical infrastructure (external factors) and teachers´ attitudes towards ICT use and competence (internal factors). In detail, adequate equipments and broadband, general attitude and support in the workplace, access to suitable ICT-based educational material, and the lack of pedagogical ICT training were significant factors. Teachers attitudes towards ICT use in learning and ability to use ICT pedagogically were also seen determining the fluency of ICT use in the classroom. The home economics teachers felt strongly that ICT was just one teaching method among many, and teaching should always be planned a desired learning outcome in mind.