Integration of technology by novice mathematics teachers – what facilitates such integration and what makes it difficult?

Abstract

This research focuses on attitudes of novice mathematics teachers towards the use of technological tools in their teaching. The obtained results indicated that the novice teachers believed that integrating technology into their teaching facilitates their pupils’ learning and understanding. We found that our participants were open to technological innovations and have adopted different types of digital tools (including Information and Communication Technology - ICT) for teaching and learning in a conscious and intelligent manner. Besides the benefits of using technology in teaching, we analysed also the difficulties the participants faced when doing so. The difficulties they indicated relate to effective lesson management and lack of technical support from school authorities. When comparing these results with those obtained from the same participants during their training, we observe that most of the barriers they had experienced as students-teachers had decreased considerably, and after 3 years of teaching, they, as novice teachers, had gained much self-confident in their ability to teach mathematics while integrating technological tools. However, their classroom management problems, especially dealing with pupil diversity, remained and had even increased. The current study raises the issue of school management support as a key factor for successful integration of up-to-date technology.