Curricula and the use of ICT in education: Two worlds apart?

In many countries, information and communication technology (ICT) has a clear impact on the development of educational curricula. In Flanders, the education government has identified and defined a framework of ICT competencies for expected outcomes, related to knowledge, skills and attitudes that pupils are expected to achieve at the end of primary school. However, it has never been examined whether teachers are using ICT in accordance with the competencies proposed by the Flemish government. In order to answer this question, a survey was conducted among 570 respondents in a stratified sample of 53 primary schools. Results show that teachers mainly focus on the development of technical ICT skills, whereas the ICT curriculum centres on the integrated use of ICT within the learning and teaching process. This indicates the existence of a gap between the proposed and the implemented curriculum for ICT. The paper concludes with the potential value of a school-based ICT curriculum that ‘translates’ the national ICT-related curriculum into an ICT plan as part of the overall school policy. Introduction Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an important role in society when we take into account the social, cultural and economic role of computers and the Internet. Considering that all youngsters move through compulsory education, school is the appropriate place to develop crucial ICT competencies. In order to cope with the demands of the knowledge society, a concrete list of ICT competencies has been put forward by the national educational authorities of Flanders (the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium). In contrast to countries such as the United Kingdom (Qualification and Curricula and the use of ICT in education 963 © 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. Curriculum Authority/Department for Education and Employment, 1999) and Canada (Alberta Learning, 2000), where ICT competencies have been included in the formal national curriculum, the ICT competencies have not yet been formally integrated into the Flemish national curriculum. They are merely presented as guidelines for schools to direct their educational innovation process while adopting the use of ICT (Ministry of the Flemish Community. Department of Education, 2004). The absence of a formal and established ICT curriculum leads to an ambiguous situation, because there is nevertheless an observable policy towards the adoption of ICT in schools. This policy fosters the integration of ICT in teaching and learning processes, but builds on the professional attitude and willingness of the individual teacher and school principal. The current situation of informal policy expectations cannot guarantee that all pupils will achieve, to a comparable extent, the ICT competencies set forward. The present study investigates how and to what extent schools in general and teachers in particular already implement the new expectations arising from the national authorities. In particular, it examines which ICT competencies teachers actually adopt (actual use) and which competencies they intend to adopt in the future (preferred use). Background International developments in educational ICT curricula National ICT policies have reached an established position in both developed and developing countries. A study funded by the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training revealed that most national ICT policies focus on the educational sector (Kearns & Grant, 2002). Education is put forward as the central actor to pursue and attain the objectives of the ICT policy; other sectors are expected to benefit indirectly from this approach. Educational ICT policies have been designed in a variety of ways, depending on the dominant rationales that drive curriculum development. As early as 15 years ago, Hawkridge (1990) discerned four different rationales that drive policies related to the integration of ICT and the use of computers in education: • an economic rationale: the development of ICT skills is necessary to meet the need for a skilled work force, as learning is related to future jobs and careers; • a social rationale: this builds on the belief that all pupils should know about and be familiar with computers in order to become responsible and well-informed citizens; • an educational rationale: ICT is seen as a supportive tool to improve teaching and learning; • a catalytic rationale: ICT is expected to accelerate educational innovations. Current curriculum developments mainly reflect an economic and social rationale. National policies identify ICT literacy as a set of competencies needed to participate in society (OECD/CERI, 2001). The eEurope 2002 objectives of the Lisbon Summit stipulate that all school-leavers must be digitally literate in order to be prepared for a knowledge-based economy (Commission of the European Communities, 2000). National documents such as the School Education Action plan for the Information Economy 964 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 38 No 6 2007 © 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. (EdNA School Advisory Group, 2001) and the National Educational Technology Plan (US Department of Education, 2004) take a similar approach. In the light of the socioeconomic rationale, many countries have introduced ICT as a separate school subject in order to teach pupils a number of technical ICT skills (Plomp, Anderson, Law & Quale, 2003). National ICT curricula and frameworks, eg, the Qualification and Curriculum Authority/Department for Education and Employment (1999) and Alberta Learning (2000) stress the educational rationale. This approach builds on the assumption that the use of ICT is beneficial for student learning. ICT literacy is—according to this rationale—a secondary effect of a content-related ICT use. The educational use of ICT should be embedded within subject-oriented competencies. Hawkridge (1990) also stresses the educational innovation potential of ICT use (catalytic rationale). ICT use helps to pursue higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. It is believed that learning to solve problems, developing research skills and studying problems of personal interest are the key to a successful education (Zuga, 1993). Other benefits derived from ICT usage are that it fosters collaborative learning and flexible learning opportunities—independent from time and place—and that it offers opportunities arising from cross-cultural use (van Braak, 2001). Though the distinction between of the four rationales discussed above is important, the OECD/CERI (2001) reports that there is a growing convergence between the economic, social and educational rationale. On the one hand, current policies convey the idea that ICT supports societal developments. On the other hand, policies state that ICT-based educational practices have to take a pedagogical position as a point of departure (Bryderup & Kowalski, 2002). A particular challenge for educational authorities resides in the need to address the economic, social, educational and catalytic rationales for the inclusion of ICT in education. ICT curriculum in the Flemish context Educational policies in Flanders are characterised by a high level of local school autonomy. Schools are autonomous and are accountable for organising the teaching and learning processes. They are also responsible for setting up their quality control policies in order to prove that they meet the attainment targets (standards) put forward by the government. These attainment targets are minimum objectives and should be achieved by the majority of the pupils at the end of primary education. In primary schools, a distinction is made between subject-specific and cross-curricular attainment targets. The latter refer to more generic goals such as social skills and metacognition. A first list of attainment targets was conceived during the mid-1990s. A screening of these attainment targets revealed that ICT competencies were not included in an explicit way in the formal curriculum. But some attainment targets can clearly be related to ICT use: • Pupils must be able to use information resources in a systematic way. • Pupils must be able to recognise examples of information processing technologies. • Pupils must be able to consult information resources. Curricula and the use of ICT in education 965 © 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. To respond adequately to the expectations of the knowledge society (economical and social rationale), the government has proposed a non-compulsory set of ICT attainment targets, formulated as ICT competencies (Ministry of the Flemish Community, Department of Education, 2004). This new set of targets is graphically presented in Figure 1. The Ministry of the Flemish Community, Department of Education (2004) does not suggest defining a new school subject in the primary school. Since their relevance for all subject areas, ICT competencies can be labelled as cross-curricular attainment targets. The central ICT competencies are expected to influence the learning process (educational rationale). The ICT competencies empower pupils to use ICT in a functional way. For this reason, a list of sub-competencies is identified and classified in such a way that they fit into the learning process: planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating. Next to learning related competencies, two additional clusters of competencies are identified. A first additional cluster includes technical competencies, such as being able to use the computer, peripheral equipment, the technical system and the software. A last cluster of ICT competencies comprises the social and ethical dimension of ICT use and refers to the development of attitudes to use ICT in a responsible and safe way. Besides the importance of competencies to direct or support teaching and learning, the Flemish government also emphasises the importance of ICT as catalyst to innovate teaching and learning approaches (catalytic rationale): ‘ICT can boost the creation of Figure 1: Framework for information and communication technology (ICT) competencies in Flemish primary education (Ministry of the Flemish Community, Department of Education, 2004) Social and ethical competencies 9. Using ICT in an adequate and a responsible way Operating skills 8. Using the equipment Competencies focusing on the learning process