Abstract

Teachers are forefront of students’ educational experiences that provide students guidance and technical skills they need to become productive. In the advent of technology, teachers must have to deliver classroom instruction incorporating the use of technology available in their community to help students learn. This study examined the technology used by teachers and their perceptions on the effectiveness of using them in the classroom. Questionnaire were developed and administered to eighteen (18) grade 10 mathematics teachers of the Department of Education specifically in the municipality of Lebak and Kalamansig of Sultan Kudarat. The researchers used a modified questionnaire and the collected data was analyzed using frequency, percentage and the mean. Based on the findings, most mathematics teachers are not knowledgeable on technological know-hows but have a positive perception towards technology integration in their mathematics classroom. The results also indicate that teachers strongly agree that technology integration is the important tool in enhancing teaching and learning process. Most teachers in this study strongly agreed that their students learn more effectively with the use of technology as lessons designed more engaging and interesting. It is also found that teachers have a positive perception towards the effectiveness of technology integration in a mathematics classroom. Further researches may focus on actual use of technology in classroom, the factors hindering teachers from incorporating technology in instructions, as well as the support given by the government and other stakeholders to teachers in trying to integrate technology in the teaching and learning process.

1. Introduction

A teacher is a highly valued personality in a society and teaching is considered to be the most sacred and distinctive profession ¹. In a classroom setting, teacher is the main actor in the access of technology use and integration ². He added that technology cannot stand alone without the involvement of teachers. In this 21st century, technology integration has gone through innovations and totally changed and reshaped the way people think, work and live ^{3, 4}. Because of this, schools and educational institutions need to consider the use of technology in their curriculum ⁵.

The integration of technology in education has been assumed as a potential of the new technological tools to revolutionize an outmoded educational system ⁶. Stated in the study, that the introduction of technology will be modified from the conventional way of teaching and learning to enormous use of technology in the field of education ⁷. It was added, that teachers should understand the dynamic and mechanism of educational technology and provide the best education to the students by using new technologies.

There is also a lot of emphasis on integrating technology in the classroom through innovative teaching strategies that focus on enabling students to achieve the desired learning objectives ⁸. A number of researches have been carried out that focused on teachers’ perceptions of technology use in education. Research of ⁹ in the United States on lecturer use of instructional technology and their perception found out that instructors perceived technology had beneficial impacts on the instructional setting. Research about technology use in the classroom, it was said that teachers with less professional development or trainings in the use of technology will never appreciate the benefit of its usage in their teaching and learning process ¹⁰. It is also found that if teachers trying to set up classroom technology in teaching, the more they will use that technology for instruction ¹¹. That is why need for teachers to receive technology skill training.

It is also found that by the use of technologies, students become more motivated to learn, to explore, remain interested and that is why their learning performance becomes effective and better ¹². In other words, dealing effectively with technology relates not only to knowledge of capability, applications and implications of technology, but also to students’ attitude and perceptions towards technological tools ¹³. However, most of the teachers in the grade 10 public school teachers at Sultan Kudarat don’t have the technical skills, lack of knowledge and trainings to make full use of these technological resources in their instruction especially traditional teachers still patronizing the conventional instructions ¹⁴.

This implies that teachers who have positive attitudes towards technology and perceive it to be useful in promoting learning will evidently integrate technology in their classroom more easily than others ^{15, 16}. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct a survey on technology used by grade 10 public school teachers at Sultan Kudarat and its perceived effectiveness.

2. Methodology

This research is a combination of quantitative and qualitative type conducted through a survey method. The questionnaire is composed of three parts. The first part dealt with the technology use in the classroom; second part was on perception of technology use in the classroom and the third part was on the perceived effectiveness of technology. The 5-point and 4-point likert scale were used in the second and third part respectively. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage and the mean.

3. Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows the technology use by grade 10 mathematics teachers and how often they used them. The data indicate that 100% of teachers never use Desmos, GeoGebra, and Edmodo. This implies that teachers in this study are not familiar with these applications/ technologies in teaching for the reason that they don’t have the training on how to integrate these technologies in teaching mathematics. Further, the data shows that 94.4% of teachers tried to use the google and flipped classroom however they applied it rarely. In addition, 38.9% of teachers sometimes use Educational technology in general like computers, Tv, tablets, smartphones and projector in their teaching to present their lesson easily and conserve their time in writing lessons on the board. It also revealed that 88.9% of the teachers always use the traditional way teaching which is the chalk and board. The result supports the claimed of ⁸ that traditional teachers still patronizing the conventional instructions and ^{15, 16} that teachers who have positive attitudes towards technology and perceive it to be useful in promoting learning will evidently integrate technology in their classroom more easily than others. It is also conformed the claimed of ¹⁷ who reported that the success of technology integration into classroom teaching depends on the teachers’ instinct about the technology.

Table 2 shows that 100 % of the teachers strongly agree that they feel confident learning new computer skills, aware of the great opportunities that technology offers for effective teaching and thinking that the use of technology improves the quality of teaching. Further, 85.18 % of the respondents agree that it is easier to teach using technology, technology supported teaching makes learning more effective, the use of technology help teachers improve teaching with more updated materials, the use of technology helps to prepare teaching resources and materials and have more time to cater the students’ need if technology is use in teaching. On the other hand, 79.6 % of the respondents agree that they have an effective teaching without the use of technology. They think the use of technology in teaching is a waste of time. Also, they are confident that their students learn best without the help of technology. In addition, 83.3% disagree that the classroom management is out of control if technology is used in the classroom, while 100% strongly disagree that students pay less attention when technology is used in teaching and students’ makes no effort for their lesson if technology is being used in teaching. The result is congruent to the study of ⁴ where teachers view the use of technology as something positive to ensure the effectiveness of both teaching and learning process and ¹⁸ who reported that teachers believe that technology is a tool that could help in learning and teaching process. It also supports the study of ¹⁹ who claimed that although teachers have a positive perception towards using technology in the classroom, they feel it is still crucial for them to undergo training in this aspect.

Table 3 shows that 100% of the teachers perceived and strongly agree that the use of technology increases students’ confidence to participate actively in the class. There are also 94.4% of the teachers who reported that technology allows students’ to be more creative and imaginative, it encourages them to communicate more with their classmates, helps to broaden their knowledge paradigm, and promotes active and engaging lesson for students’ best learning experience. It is also observed that 84.4% of teachers also agreed that the use of technology helps students to find related knowledge and information for learning, students learn more effectively with the use of technology, it helps to improve students’ ability specifically in problem solving, students are more behaved and under control with the use of technology, and it enables students to express their ideas and thoughts better. The results are in line with the research findings by ²⁰ that using technology in teaching would improve students’ learning. Similarly, most of teachers in this study strongly agreed that their students learn more effectively with the use of technology as lesson designed are more engaging and interesting. Furthermore, the findings of the study corroborate on that teachers agreed that technology helps better thinking and learning process of their learners.

4. Conclusion and Recommendation

Base on the findings, researchers concluded that mathematics teachers in the municipalities of Lebak and Kalamansig of Sultan Kudarat have limited knowledge with the kind of technology available that can be used and on how to use them for classroom instruction. However, they have a positive perception towards technology integration in their mathematics classroom and believe that technology is an effective tool in fostering effective teaching and learning among students. Therefore, researchers recommend a training for teachers on how to use the technology effectively in teaching mathematics.

Acknowledgements

The researcher would like to express her gratitude to the following persons who in one way or another, have helped in making this research possible: To Dr. Janneth Q. Rodina, her dissertation adviser, for her tireless support, guidance, encouraging comments and patience in reviewing and editing the work. To the School Principals of the Department of Education of the municipalities of Lebak and Kalamansig for allowing the researcher to conduct the study; to Dr. Ruth Estacio, Former Schools Division Superintendent of DepEd 12, for the approval to conduct a training workshop for secondary teachers; to the grade 10 mathematics teachers of Lebak and Kalamansig with their respective students, for a positive responses and cooperations for the whole duration of the study; likewise, to the commission on Higher Education for awarding a scholarship to the researcher; most of all, to the University President of Sultan Kudarat State University, Dr. Rolando F. Hechanova, for the untiring support to the researcher and giving the opportunity to develop professionally.

References