=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3402/short04
|storemode=property
|title=How do Albanian Biology Student-Teachers make use of ICT during their master studies?
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3402/short04.pdf
|volume=Vol-3402
|authors=Eliana Ibrahimi,Jona Saliaj,Sara Berberi,Enejda Damzi
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/rtacsit/IbrahimiSBD23
}}
==How do Albanian Biology Student-Teachers make use of ICT during their master studies?==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3402/short04.pdf
How Do Albanian Biology Student-Teachers Make Use of ICT
During Their Master Studies?
Eliana Ibrahimi1, Jona Saliaj1, Sara Berberi1, Enejda Damzi1
1
Department of Biology, University of Tirana, Bulv Zogu I, 25/1, Tirana, Albania
Abstract
With the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the
increasing of online teaching materials, ICT is becoming an essential aspect of teachers’
education and competencies. This paper aims to investigate how and why Albanian biology
student-teachers use ICT during their master studies. The study method involved a survey (n =
56) of second-year biology student-teachers studying at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in two
consecutive academic years, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The survey explored several topics,
including general characteristics (age, gender, academic performance), access to digital
equipment, digital competence, and the use of ICTs during studies. Our results show that
students have low access to digital equipment. Students with high and average academic
performance spent more time using ICT for study purposes than those with low academic
performance (p<0.05). More than 90% of students emphasize that access to digital equipment
and training is crucial to help them integrate ICT in their classes as teachers.
Keywords
Student-teachers, ICT, Computer-assisted learning, Digital competence
1. Introduction
Technology was an important development of To properly implement ICTs in their classes,
the 19th century, which brought substantial teachers have to own some primary competencies;
change in education and society. Technology and one of them is digital competence.
biology are considered a “fantastic duo” because In Albania, technology reached the peak of its
both brought different perceptions, new use during the COVID-19 pandemic. During
developments in science, education, and isolation, lessons needed to take place online with
innovation in learning methodology. different programs. Technical problems are
Technology offers many options to make a always present during online teaching, and
lesson attractive and friendly for students. So the teachers should be able to deal with them to
teachers don't have to be limited to traditional implement ICT properly in their classes [3]. In
teaching, and they may create engaging lectures to this case, it is essential to train teachers and future
facilitate students' learning process [1]. It is also teachers to own digital competence, including
essential that teachers use various tools during the information, collaboration, communication with
learning process. In this way, they stimulate active others, digital space, privacy security, and
learning, and students share their thoughts with problem solution.
others [2]. Student teachers face personal and
environmental challenges in developing their ICT
Proceedings of RTA-CSIT 2023, April 26–27, 2023 skills. Research has shown that students’
Tirana, Albania. perception of the importance of ICT in education
EMAIL: eliana.ibrahimi@fshn.edu.al (A. 1)
jona.saliaj@fshnstudent.info (A. 2)
and their confidence in using ICTs plays a vital
sara.berberi@fshnstudent.info (A. 3) role in the motivation of students to use ICT [4].
enejda.qama@fshnstudent.info (A. 4) Based on other studies, student-teachers have a
ORCID: 0000-0003-0956-215X (A. 1); 0000-0002-3464-9022 (A.
2); 0000-0001-5230-5058 (A. 3); 0000-0002-4969-8521 (A. 4) positive attitude toward the use of ICT in teaching
©️ 2020 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative
Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
and learning. They are generally motivated to
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org) implement it when they become teachers [5, 6, 7].
This paper aims to investigate how and why
Albanian biology student-teachers use ICT during
What kind of technical equipment is
their master studies in the teacher education
program. accessible for you as a student
teacher at the institution?
2. Methods
Projection system 32.1 48.2 17.9
This study took place at the Department of
Biology, University of Tirana, Albania. The Digital camera 55.4 39.3 5.4
cohort being evaluated were second-year biology
LMS 58.9 33.9 7.1
student-teachers (N=56) in two consecutive
academic years, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The Video-conferencing 53.6 33.9 10.7
student-teachers were invited via email to fill out
Personal computer 21.4 28.6 50
an online questionnaire composed of closed
questions (i.e., Likert scale and frequency of use) Interactive whiteboard 58.9 17.9 19.6
and one open question.
After consulting the literature on this topic, the 0% 50% 100%
questionnaire is formulated and organized into %
three sections. The first section included questions No access Limited access Full access
on the students’ general characteristics, such as
age, gender, and academic performance. The
second part had questions covering access to Figure 1: Access of biology student-teachers to
digital infrastructure (equipment, internet technical equipment at the university.
connection). The third section asked students
about their digital competence and the use of ICTs performance spent more time using ICT for study
during their master studies. purposes than students with low academic
The data preprocessing and analysis are performance (p<0.05). No significant difference
performed in SPSS 28.0. The data exploration is is observed between students with high and
based on frequencies, descriptive statistics, and average academic performance (p>0.05), see
visualizations. The relationships between selected Figure 2. Also, there was no statistically
nominal variables in the questionnaire are tested significant difference between different levels of
using the Chi-square test for independence. We academic performance for the time spent using
used the Chi-square goodness-of-fit test to test ICT for other purposes (Kruskal-Wallis test
whether the cases in a single categorical variable X2(2)=5.33; p=0.07).
were equal across categories. To compare the About 32.8% of students state they were involved
level of numerical variables within groups, we in projects focusing on ICTs integration in
used the Kruskall-Wallis test. teaching processes by their professors during their
studies.
3. Results Half of the students use ICTs almost always for
Survey results on student-teacher access to communication and networking, their own
digital equipment show that only half have development and learning, work organization,
personal computers. More than half of the keeping records, and preparing projects and
students did not access interactive whiteboards lessons. More than 60% of the students use ICT to
and video conferencing during their studies. A find digital learning resources (Figure 3).
learning management system (LMS) was not Concerning the future integration of technology
accessed for practice by 58.9%, and a projection in their work as teachers, 66.10% of students state
system by 32.1% of respondents (Figure 1). that to be confident and very confident to use it to
Student-teachers use technology for study support the teaching of specific concepts or skills,
purposes 6.55 (±4.44) hours/week on average, 69.6 % to support various student learning styles
while the use of ICT for other purposes was 7.86 and to personalize learning, 64.3 % to enable
(±6.85) on average. Time spent using ICT for teaching pupils with disabilities, and 74.8 % to
study purposes was related to academic foster pupils’ ability to use technology in their
`performance (Kruskal-Wallis test X2(2)=14.7; education.
p<0.001). Based on pairwise comparison tests,
students with high and average academic
To what extent have you used the ICT
for the activities below during your
master studies?
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Figure 2: Mean (95% CI) of time (hours per 0
week) student-teachers spend using ICT for
studies and other purposes based on academic
performance.
More than 90% of students emphasize that
access to digital equipment is important to very
important to help them integrate ICT into their
future work as teachers (Table 1). Similar results
are observed for the importance of training and
courses to help in ICT integration.
Students think that including ICT in the Never Rarely
curriculum would impact ICT’s implementation
Less than half the time About half the time
in teaching processes. Time to practice is another
important factor that would help student-teachers More than half the time Almost always
to improve their skills and incorporate ICT in their
classes (Table 1).
Figure 3: Use of technology for specific study
Table 1 activities by biology student-teachers.
How significant are the following to help you as a
future teacher in integrating ICT into teaching?
4. Discussion
Not Somewhat Important Very The recent decade's teaching and learning
important important (%) important methods have changed how teachers and students
(%) (%) (%)
practice their study sessions. Nowadays, the
Access to education system does better combine classic
digital
learning with e-learning. The perception and
7.2 1.8 44.6 46.4 inclusion of technology by student-teachers can
equipment
be impacted by various factors, which according
to Ertmer et al. [8], were categorized into first and
Training 3.6 12.5 42.9 41.1 second-order barriers. Although this
categorization is outdated, the ideas still apply
ICT in the today, with instances of these obstacles being
5.4 8.9 48.2 37.5
curriculum referred to as school or teacher-related barriers,
respectively, as described in [9].
Time to Our study shows that the most frequent
1.8 16.1 50 32.1
practice drawback to technology integration is a need for
more digital equipment, which would constitute
an example of a first-order or school-related purposes state that to be confident enough to use
barrier. Hew & Brush [10] report that the use of technology to teach specific concepts and skills or
ICT in teaching practices depends on the integrate different learning styles. In the case of
availability and access to digital equipment, time ICT, younger student teachers will grow up with
constraints, and adequate technical support. Lack extended experience in using new technologies in
of access to personal computers could be a their daily lives [14].
problem regarding the student teacher’s ICT The results of this short study indicate that
literacy and the subsequent integration into student teachers’ engagement with ICT is worthy
teaching [11]. However, this effect should be of further critical investigation.
accounted for by guaranteeing appropriate
infrastructure such as interactive whiteboards,
projection systems, and video-conferencing, 5. Acknowledgments
among others, responsibility for which falls We are grateful to the students who
mainly on the institution. Low access rates to participated in the study.
technical equipment could be the direct
consequence of the scarcity of said equipment or
the poor organization of resources. The school
could possess the right amount of equipment but 6. References
has not yet ensured success for all its users. Time [1] Valtonen, T. Kukkonen, J. Kontkanen, S.
is also a factor that impedes the access and further Sormunen, K. Dillon, P. and Sointu, E.
use of ICT for teaching purposes. Student The impact of authentic learning
teachers, similarly to teachers, should be granted experiences with ICT on pre-service
enough time to not only access but also acquaint teachers' intentions to use ICT for
themselves with hardware and software to be able teaching and learning. Computers &
to work their way around equipment and fully Education 81 (2015) 49-58.
prepare materials for their lessons, particularly https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.
online and multimedia content, as this would be 09.008
much more engaging to students. [2] Reinholz, DL. Stone-Johnstone, A.
So-called blended learning, which has White, I. Sianez, Jr LM. Shah, N. A
advantages in the execution of a lesson that may pandemic crash course: Learning to teach
be carried out electronically or in person, is one of equitably in synchronous online classes.
the lesson models that can be used for CBE—Life Sciences Education 19
technological advancement [12]. Therefore, (2020) ar60. Doi: 10.1187/cbe.20-06-
students can engage in learning and access 0126.
assigned lesson materials or assignments [13]. [3] Ames, K. Harris, L.R. Dargusch, J.
Using a wide range of scientific materials, diverse Bloomfield, C. So you can make it fast or
knowledge, and studying strategies offered online come up: K-12 teacher’s perspectives on
due to information and communication technology's affordances and constraints
technology can highly represent a more when supporting distance education
qualitative learning process for a better learning. Australian Educational
performance of students who know how to benefit Researcher, 48 (2021) 359-376.
from it. However, to learn how to use media, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-
students must be able to improve their 00395-8.
independence first. As our study shows, even [4] Hammond, M. Crosson, S. Fragkouli, E.
though students tend to use more online hours for Ingram, J. Johnston‐Wilder, P.
other purposes than for studying, they still Johnston‐Wilder, S. Kingston, Y. Pope,
manage to incorporate ICT for their development M. Wray, D. Why do some student
and learning, for keeping records or preparing teachers make very good use of ICT? An
projects and lessons, as well as for finding digital exploratory case study, Technology,
learning resources, regardless of the lack of Pedagogy and Education, 18 (2009) 59-
appropriate digital devices. As reflected in our 73, doi: 10.1080/14759390802704097
results, learning to use technology opportunities [5] Maaike, G. Michiel, V . Rube, V.
and self-build new skills greatly impacts a student Declercq, L. De Wever, B. A systematic
teacher’s academic progress [13]. Almost the review of teacher roles and competence
same amount of students who use ICT for learning for teaching synchronously online
through videoconferencing technology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-
Educational Research Review 37 (2022). 0043-4
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.10 [13] Sayaf, A.M. Alamri, M.M. Alqahtani,
0461 M.A. Alrahmi, W.M. Factors Influencing
[6] Timothy, T. Zhou, M. Explaining the University Students’ Adoption of Digital
intention to use technology among Learning Technology in Teaching and
university students: a structural equation Learning. Sustainability 14 (2022), 493.
modeling approach. Journal of https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010493
Computing in Higher Education 26 [14] Simpson, M. Payne, F. Munro, R.
(2014) 124-142. doi:10.1007/s12528- Hughes, S. Using Information and
014-9080-3 Communications Technology as a
[7] Alamri, M.M. Almaiah, M.A. Al-Rahmi, pedagogical tool: who educates the
W.M.Social Media Applications educators? Journal of Education for
Affecting Students’ Academic Teaching: International Research and
Performance: A Model Developed for Pedagogy 25 (1999) 247-262.
Sustainability in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607479919538
Sustainability 12 (2020), 6471.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166471
[8] Ertmer, P. A. Paul, A. Molly, L. Eva, R.
Denise, W. Examining Teachers’ Beliefs
About the Role of Technology in the
Elementary Classroom. Journal of
Research on Computing in Education, 1
(2009) 54–72.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08886504.1999.1
0782269
[9] Mulhim, E. A. The Barriers to the Use of
ICT in Teaching in Saudi Arabia: A
Review of Literature. Universal Journal
of Educational Research, 6 (2014) 487–
493.
https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2014.02060
6
[10] Hew, K. F. Brush, T. Integrating
technology into K-12 teaching and
learning: current knowledge gaps and
recommendations for future research.
Educational Technology Research and
Development, 3, (2006) 223–252.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-006-
9022-5
[11] Xhelili, P. Ibrahimi, E. Rruci, E. Sheme,
K. Adaptation and perception of online
learning during COVID-19 pandemic by
Albanian university students.
International Journal on Studies in
Education, 3(2), (2021) 103-111.
[12] Kintu, M.J. Zhu, C. Kagambe, E.
Blended learning effectiveness: the
relationship between student
characteristics, design features and
outcomes. International Journal of
Educational Technology in Higher
Education 14 (2017) 7.