Teaching styles of teacher educators and their use of ICT

Abstract

Two main types of teaching styles can be distinguished: a traditional teacher-centred style focussing on transfer of knowledge by teachers, and a more student-centred and innovative teaching style aiming at construction of knowledge by students. The main emphasis on the use of ICT in secondary education is on transfer of knowledge. Some authors point at teacher training not being able to sufficiently prepare future teachers for them to incorporate ICT in their teaching. In the present study, teaching styles of teacher educators, both without and with the use of ICT, have been studied by means of a web survey. Participants were 262 teacher educators from 12 teacher training institutes in the Netherlands. The study showed that, when using ICT, there is more emphasis on knowledge construction, as compared to knowledge transfer. Several variables have been identified that are linked to the teacher educators’ teaching styles, including teacher educators’ views on modelling learning environments and on their students’ abilities at autonomous and co-operative learning, the self-assessment of their competencies in using ICT as a pedagogical aid, subject area, and the encouragement by management to use ICT in education.