Internal factors

The following section contains the internal factors such as attitudes, efforts or opinions expressed by mentor teachers in two demonstration schools in Osijek and Rijeka.

Attitude towards ICT

What is the purpose of a computer in the classroom? To play games? They play enough aggressive games at home. To type on it? I don’t know…

55 This negative attitude that the classroom teacher in Rijeka expressed was in connection with the lack of computers. Since there was only one computer in the classroom without the Internet connection, without an overhead projector and with poor speakers, the teacher saw no purpose in using it. It was also the consequence of the lack of training in the computer use.

Therefore, the teacher had an opinion that there was no point in integrating ICT into curriculum, and that it was a good thing that the ministry did not insist on it. Obviously, this kind of environment and attitude could hardly stimulate the use o ICT among the student teachers during their practice.

In contrast, the mentor teacher in Osijek had a positive attitude towards ICT:

Kids nowadays are not satisfied with pen and paper only. I use a lot of different didactic tools but this [ICT] is their reality. They are growing up with it. We cannot ignore that. We have to adjust educational system to them because ICT offers extraordinary possibilities.

Throughout the interview the teacher talked enthusiastically how ICT is used in teaching practice in this school. This positive attitude was also visible from the individual effort to introduce ICT into the collective that then turned it into a joint project to enable ICT integration.

Attitude towards colleagues

When I asked the subject teacher in Rijeka about the biggest obstacle in the working environment I received a straightforward answer:

Computer illiteracy among my colleagues.

The subject teacher talked openly about the frustration caused by the amount of work needed to be done in order to help other teachers. Since most of them did not have basic knowledge on how to use computers for the administrative purposes this subject teacher spent a lot of time running these small errands. These included typing, creating various tables, printing, etc.

Again, this factor was a direct result of lack of finances for proper education of classroom teachers. Furthermore, it is a well known fact that teachers are overwhelmed with the amount of job to be done in schools. This extra job presented an obstacle by taking a lot of time that could have been spent on helping the student teachers to learn more about ICT in the school.

Instead, this mentor teacher was not even in touch with the student teachers.

56 The mentor teacher in Osijek was focused on own work and did not have any objections when it came to colleagues and their use of ICT.

4.2.2.3 Individual effort

The subject teacher in Rijeka talked about monthly workshops in the school that all classroom teachers attended to synchronize their lesson plans. Although it was not mandatory the subject teacher was present at those meetings.

I coordinate my lesson plans with theirs. The content that I teach is in close connection with the content they [pupils] learn with classroom teachers. I’m not obliged to do that but I do it anyway.

This was a one way initiative that partly served as an enabler to ICT integration. As I described earlier, the classroom teacher was not informed about the lesson plans and educational content created by the subject teacher. Since other the classroom teachers in the school did not show interest for the integration of ICT, the cooperation was not present. This in the end presented an obstacle to creation of an optimal learning environment for the student teachers and their efforts to include ICT in the practice.

When it came to Osijek, here is what the mentor teacher answered when I asked whose initiative was it to introduce computers in the classrooms:

Mine. I have been promoting computers in the classroom for several years. I’m trying now to set up a computer lab for the classroom teaching department. I received several older computers as a donation from the faculty and I’m trying to adjust them to our needs.

This classroom teacher also introduced “Informatics” as an extracurricular subject for the pupils from first to fourth grade. The class also had its own web page that the teacher created and its own Facebook profile where parents and pupils could communicate with the teacher.

In that way computers became natural part of the student teachers’ practice in this demonstration school, even before the computers in education were introduced at the faculty.

This is a great example of an internal enabler such as the personal effort used to overcome external obstacles like the lack of hardware.

57 Collective effort

As well as with the university teachers in Osijek this enabling factor appeared only during the semi-structured interview with the mentor teacher in Osijek and not in Rijeka. Its influence on other external factors like Technical support, Cooperation and Top-down management in this school is also visible. Here is what the teacher in Osijek said in conclusion at the end of our conversation:

This is one big process. I introduced it [ICT] and there were other colleagues who accepted it. We continued to cooperate together and managed to raise interest so that other teachers joined us too. And the management has to understand that we really work like that, that we need all that equipment in our work.

This collective effort that was a result of the cooperation helped creating opportunities for the student teachers to experience in what way ICT could be integrated into the teaching practice.