Identifier: TDX:693
Authors: Santandreu Pascual, M. Mercè
Abstract:
DOCTORAL THESISTraining the Mathematics Teaching Staff in Information and Comunication TecnhmologiesThe doctoral Thesis about Training the Mathematics Teaching Staff in Information and Comunication Technologies, based on the secondary education schools of the Tarragona regions, had, as its main aims, to do research into the knowledge, use and educational needs of the teaching staff who were consulted on the technological resources, in order to take out important elements which could be used as a guide for their future training.Taking this problem into account, it was chosen to do a descriptive research since it was the most suitable option -due to the exploratory aim of this research- in order to test, describe, contrast and interpret the teaching staff's view about their training in technological resources. We started on the development of this research through the method of the inquiry, based on the use of a questionnaire as a tool to collect data. The population who were inquired were formed by 254 mathematics teachers from the secondary education schools of the Tarragona regions.The thesis is arranged in nine chapters which are organized in two blocks. The first one (Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4) deals with the Theoretic Frame wich is a bibliographical research and the groundwork for the Empirical Work carried out in the second block (capters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9).The first block or Theoretic Frame deals with: chapter 1 is about the impacte on education of the evolution of the society of Information and knowledge caused by the technological advances. Mainly the impact of these changes on the mathematical education and the training of people, chiefly of the ones who have to teach, the teaching staff; in chapter 2 we approach the figure of the mathematics teacher, trying to give a complete view of this features and of the roles, duties and competences he has to know well, and his concern for the technological advances and their applications; capter 3 deals with the education of the teaching staff and their training in ICT, with special reference to the secondary education teaching staff of mathematics, and to all the elements that take part in this training process, showing the present situation and the educational needs of these teachers; since this research is focused on the Tarragona demarcation, we thought it was necessary to devote chapter 4 to analize the constant training of the teaching staff in Catalonia, going through the action line of the last fifteen years and insisting on the initietives promoted by the ICT teaching.Te second block deals with au Emperical Work which is focused on the problem of investigation and its objectives (chapter 5); the methodology (chapter 6); the presentation, interpretation and discussion of the results (chapter 7); in the conclusions and guiance for the design of a training plan (chapter 8); and in the possible future lines of investigation (chapter 9).The information aboot the training situation of those teachers who have been consulted stands for the most useful contribution of our research, since it has been on the first survey about this topic and because of the lack of information about the training of the mathematics teachers and specially about their training in ICT. The asessment of this research is more positive because the conclusions and results come from the opinion of more than 85% of mathematics teachers and because of the effectiveness of the questionnaire.As a general rule, we can state that although most of the teachers have good knowledge of the ICT, the fact of the matter is that their level of competence, both technical and didactic, is very poor. This fact proves that the training plans -with a strong technical and aesthetic base- have not been effective to help the teaching staff to make up the syllabus and their didactic resources. It is a fact that the mathematics teachers lack habits of integration and that they are very far from making up their habits in the syllabus of the subject. The use of technological resources on the part of teachers is limited -withoust benefiting from their advantages- they are only used for a few and basic functions related to the presentation and transmission of information, without bringing about changes in their way of teaching. At the same time those teachers who have been inquined bet on improving and increasing their knousledge about the ICT resources. For this reason a type of training in the school where they are working and a selftraining are the best options.Te results of this research show evidence oft he necessary change of the training model for the teaching staff. So, it is necessary to introduce a more suitable training approach that assesses the ICT potencialities in order to relate, create and spread the pedagogical knowledge. To this effect, we bat on restructuring the initial training system, setting up a first stage (common) and a second stage (specialized). We also propose important changes related to the methodological approaches of these training programs including the ICT in the processes, promoting collaborative projects and teaching how the future teachers have to teach. So, some changes in the way of training are necessary, specifically those changes related to the insertion of the ICT in all the subjects. In this way, the main aim is to create a context of E/A based on the use of these technological resources. To sum up, a training plan based on the ICT for the mathematics teaching staff would have to be created; a plan with specific training contents in agreement with all the needs, and different models and promoting the creation of several virtual settings of exchange and collaboration.
Repositori URV