Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on CALL No.3 July 2016 Pp.23-35
Integration of Technology with Pedagogical Perspectives: an Evaluative Study
of in-house CALL Professional Development
Pir Suhail Sarhandi
School of Higher Education Studies
The University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Imran Farooq Khan
School of Higher Education Studies
The University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Majid Hussain Buledi
School of Higher Education Studies
The University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Jabreel Asghar
Department of Education
The University of Warwick, Coventry UK
Abstract:
This study examines the impact of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in-Action model based in-house professional development workshops on teachers’ practices of technology integration at a Saudi university. The study uses questionnaires to gather feedback on the participants’ pre and post training workshops, coupled by semi-structured interviews to highlight factors that determined the outcome of the training workshops. The findings show that despite the participants being qualified in pedagogy, they were unable to successfully use their expertise to beneficially incorporate technology in their teaching. The failure partly occurred due to apparent misunderstanding of confusing the knowledge of an application with the pedagogical skills of using the application, and partly due to the lack of concrete guidance by the administration on what and how to integrate technology in regular teaching. The study recommends to structure training workshops incorporating pedagogical handling of technology alongside technical training on how to use an application. The study also suggests that an institutional policy regarding the use of technology is inevitable to make such ventures successful. Such a policy needs to be devised and incorporated in regular syllabus, and should be clearly addressed in all training workshops on professional development.
Keywords: CALL, TPACK, Teacher development, Teacher training, Technology integration