The current use of ICT by novice female teachers in Saudi
primary schools and their perceived training needs
Ensaf Al Mulhim
School of Education, University of Plymouth
e_almulhim@hotmail.com
The overall focus of this study is ICT in primary schools in Saudi Arabia, in particular the use
made of ICT by novice female primary school teachers. This represents the first phase of a study
that aims to discover whether a tailored training program might help teachers to widen and
improve their use of ICT, and thus to improve their students’ results. A questionnaire and semistructured interviews were used in this phase to collect data. The findings revealed that the
participants do suffer from a great gap in their knowledge and in even the basic technical and
pedagogical skills of using technology in teaching. It was also found that their current use of
technology is very low. The reasons behind this could include lack of access to technology, lack
of training, and lack of time. The paper also presents some features of the participants’ desired
training program.
Keywords: Teacher training, primary school, ICT, technology, in-service training.
Introduction
Before designing in-service ICT training for teachers, it was considered necessary to explore their knowledge
and skill levels, and how they currently use ICT in their primary school classrooms. The focus of this paper is
therefore on teachers who trained in the past five years, and their own descriptions of ways in which they use
ICT in their teaching, together with an exploration of factors that influence their practice, and the kind of
training that they themselves would prefer. This study will develop the following arguments: 1) There is a lack
of ICT training for all primary school teachers in Saudi Arabia; 2) There is a need to design and evaluate ICT
training for primary school teachers that meets the needs of teachers and is informed by research and relevant
pedagogy.
Despite the efforts made by educational bodies to offer in-service training in using modern technology, most of
these courses have not had the desired influence. The reasons for this lack of success are varied. Firstly, the
training has been delivered as “one-size fits all”, and has not been related to the trainees’ specific needs. For
example, Edmondson (2003) believes that in the teacher training field, teachers’ needs should be identified prior
to designing the training package. Aldhahi (2011) confirms that training programs in Saudi Arabia do not meet
the quality standards that they should, and do not achieve their objectives because they have not been designed
according to teachers’ needs. The other factor that decreases the usefulness of the ICT training programs is that
the training focuses solely on technological skills. According to Jones (2004), inappropriate training styles that
lack pedagogical aspects are likely to be unsuccessful, and cannot guarantee high levels of ICT use by teachers.
In contrast however, Preston, Cox & Cox (2000) assert the need for training in some specific ICT skills,
especially those needed to solve technical problems and to understand the basic workings of the technology:
they provide evidence that the breakdown of technology equipment deters teachers from using ICT.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has shown a great interest in improving the whole educational system, especially
in terms of using ICT (Ministry of Economy and Planning, 2010). Although this interest has been translated into
30th ascilite Conference 2013 Proceedings
Page 597
many projects and initiatives, most of the efforts and focus have been allocated to the secondary sector, while
the primary stage has been largely ignored. More surprisingly, primary teachers are still required to integrate
technology into their teaching despite the fact that they have not been prepared for their new roles in such a
technology rich environment.
Many of the Saudi studies of teachers’ use of technology, that typically focus on intermediate and secondary
teachers, reveal a low degree of ICT usage and a lack of training in the field. For example, Alsahli (2012)
conducted a study to investigate the educational technology training needs of female geography teachers in
Saudi Arabian secondary schools in Jeddah. More specifically, she examined the teachers’ training needs in
terms of ‘Knowledge’, ‘Usage’ and ‘Production’ of educational technology. She concludes that there is a gap in
knowledge and use of technology, which mirrors a lack of training for female geography teachers on both the
technical and the pedagogical use of educational technology. The investigation by Alkanani (2012), on the
reality of and the barriers to using educational technology in teaching social subjects in the intermediate stage in
boys’ schools in Al-Qunfoda province, Saudi Arabia, shows that the participants’ usage of multimedia
technology, Interactive Whiteboard, and distance learning is very low. He also identified the lack of training as
one of the most important barriers that inhibit them from using educational technology.
The study by Althubiani (2008), on the reality of contemporary technology usage by Saudi intermediate
mathematics teachers, shows that the teachers’ use of several technologies including the Internet, Intranet, and
interactive video is very low. Alotaibi (2011) conducted a study to determine the extent of the use of educational
technology by female science teachers in Haiel city, Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that the participants
rarely use educational technology. The research evidence shows that Saudi teachers from all stages, including
secondary teachers, who are the priority for the Ministry of Education (MoE), lack most of the basic skills of
using ICT in teaching. The evidence also shows that their use of ICT in their teaching is very low. This would
consequently lead to the suggestion that primary teachers, whom the MoE ignores, are especially likely to be in
need of more assistance. In particular the importance of opportunities to be trained is highlighted by the
research.
The present study argues that there is a crucial need to develop an in-service training program in ICT for
primary teachers that uses the most popular theories in the field as well as meeting the teachers’ training needs.
To gain the most from the proposed program, it will be necessary to implement it and evaluate its effectiveness.
The study goes on to propose the design, implementation and evaluation of a training program in ICT skills and
related pedagogies. The study is the first to be conducted using this approach in Saudi Arabia in general and in
Al Ahsa city in particular. The study may also provide a model for training program designers around the world.
The study applies the theory to real practice in order to assess its effectiveness and suitability to the Saudi
Arabian educational context.
Research questions
This paper aims to provide answers to the following question: What are the ICT training needs of female novice
primary school teachers in Saudi Arabia? This question was broken down into the four sub-questions: What ICT
skills do teachers already have and what are the gaps in their skills and knowledge? How do teachers currently
use ICT in their classrooms and what factors influence this use? What are teachers’ prior ICT training
experiences? What are teachers’ ICT training preferences?
Population and participants
This study mainly focuses on female primary teachers in Saudi Arabia who have five or less years of teaching
experience no matter what stage(s) or subject(s) they teach. At the time of data collection, there were 5754
female teachers working in 1575 girls' primary schools who met the sampling criteria in the six cities in which
the data was collected namely Al Ahsa, Dammam, Riyadh, Qassim, Makkah and Jedah. Out of all these teachers
135 participated in the questionnaire and 20 in the interviews.
Data collection and analysis
The questionnaire was distributed by email and post. Approximately 163 questionnaire forms were returned;
only 135 were processed and analysed since the rest (n=28) were returned uncompleted with or without a notice
of refusal to participate. In total, 20 interviews were conducted: eight in Al Ahasa, four in Dammam, one in
Riyadh, two in Qassim, two in Makkah and three in Jeddah.
30th ascilite Conference 2013 Proceedings
Page 598
Since the majority of the questionnaire items were closed questions, they were analysed quantitatively using
SPSS software to calculate the frequencies and percentages. However, these numbers were interpreted
qualitatively. All the open-ended items from the questionnaire were analysed manually in tables. Similarly, the
semi-structured interviews were analysed manually in a template based on the most common themes.
Findings and discussion
1. ICT skills teachers already have and gaps in knowledge
The findings from the questionnaire and the interviews indicated a huge gap in even basic ICT knowledge and
skills. This gap is indicated by the low percentages with experience in using Word, PowerPoint, and the Internet
although more than half had some experience of using a computer (PC or laptop). Unfortunately, this lack of
technical skills is not surprising in the Saudi context. Many researchers have found similar results, such as
Aldhahi (2011), Alsahli (2012) and Alkanani (2012).
2. Teachers' current use of technology in the classroom and factors that influence this
The findings from the questionnaire and the interviews highlighted a low level of ICT usage by the participants.
There are several possible reasons for this low level of usage including lack of training, lack of time, and/or lack
of access to technology. Jones (2004) reports that lack of appropriate training and lack of time for preparation
and training are major barriers to ICT integration in education. A low level of use of ICT skills is common in
Saudi schools. This finding was confirmed by studies in a variety of Saudi contexts that involved different
school stages, different teaching subjects, in different cities and provinces, and as perceived by both teachers
and others (Alotaibi, 2011; Alsahli, 2012; Alkanani, 2012). The results also indicated that teachers’ current use
of technology is teacher-centred. They deal with the technology as a carrier of knowledge and a more interesting
method of presenting the lesson. The results suggested an urgent need to train teachers in the pedagogical
aspects of the use of ICT as well as the technical ones. Again lack of training in pedagogical aspects of ICT is
one of the main barriers reported in both international studies (Jones, 2004; Unal & Ozturk, 2012) and the Saudi
literature (Alamri, 2011; Alsahli, 2012).
The factors that influence teachers’ use of technology in the classroom could be either disablers or motivators.
The most important disablers that were highlighted by the questionnaire and the interviews included lack of
access to technology, lack of training in using technology, and lack of time. On the other hand, the most
important motivators revealed by the questionnaire and the interviews were teachers’ positive attitudes towards
technology, perceiving technology as interesting and enjoyable, the belief that technology improves pedagogy
and students’ attainments, and the perception that technology saves time and effort. These factors are found in
the ICT integration literature generally (Cunningham, Kerr, McEune, Smith & Harris, 2003; Unal & Ozturk,
2012; Khan, Hasan & Clement, 2012; Bakr, 2011; Serin, 2011) and the Saudi literature in particular (Oyaid,
2009; Alamri, 2011).
3. Teachers’ prior ICT training experiences
The data collected by the questionnaire and the interviews alike showed that the teachers have not experienced a
comprehensive training program that aims at both the technical and the pedagogical skills needed to enable the
educational use of ICT tools. The separation between the training in technical and pedagogical skills, or the
omission of training in the pedagogical aspects of utilising technology in teaching is argued to make the training
useless (Preston et al., 2000; Jones, 2004; Unal & Ozturk, 2012). Saudi researchers have also reached the same
conclusions (Oyaid, 2009; Bingimlas, 2010).
4. Teachers’ ICT training preferences
The participants’ preferences regarding future training in ICT were a mixture of technical and pedagogical for
the content; blended (face-to-face and online) for the delivery; between one and four weeks for the duration;
within school time for the time; collaboratively in small groups for the learning method; and rating themselves
regarding their confidence, skills and ability to use educational technology in the classroom for the assessment.
Conclusion
30th ascilite Conference 2013 Proceedings
Page 599
This paper has presented the findings of the first phase of a two-phase study. The focus of the study is to explore
the ICT training needs of novice female teachers in Saudi primary schools. The overall plan is to design, pilot
and evaluate a training program in ICT and related pedagogies, based on what teachers say they need. The first
phase is about investigating the teachers’ training needs and preferences in respect of ICT. The findings of this
phase indicated that the participants do suffer from a great gap in their knowledge and in the technical and
pedagogical skills of using technology in teaching. It was also found that their use of technology currently is
very low. This low level of usage could be due to one or more barriers including lack of access to technology,
lack of training, and lack of time. However, there are many motivators that encourage teachers to use
technology in their teaching including holding positive attitudes: technology is perceived as an enjoyable tool,
and technology could improve pedagogy and students’ attainments and save teachers’ time and effort. The
participants were interested in receiving a mixture of technical and pedagogical training and specified some
features of their desired training program.
The present study argues that there is a crucial need to develop an in-service training program in ICT for
primary teachers that uses the most popular theories in the field as well as meeting the teachers’ training needs.
Therefore, a program was designed based on training needs discovered in the first phase, which is described in
this paper, on research literature describing and discussing ICT training programs and on relevant learning
theory. However, the literature review of training needs reveals that ICT training programs are rarely
underpinned by learning theories. Social constructivism theory was selected to underpin the design of the
program because of the strong relationship between it and the use of ICT in learning (Jonassen, Peck & Wilson,
1999). Kolb’s experiential learning cycle also informed the program design as an example of a practical
application of constructivism. The study is the first to be conducted using such an approach in Saudi Arabia in
general and in Al Ahsa city in particular. The study may also provide a model for training program designers
around the world. The study applies theory to practice to assess its effectiveness and suitability for the Saudi
Arabian educational context.
References
Alamri, N. M. (2011). Impact of Globalisation and the Internet on English Language teaching in Saudi Arabia.
Master dissertation, De Montfort University.
Aldhahi, A. S. A. (2011). A proposed conception for intermediate stage female science teachers training needs
in the field of using educational technologies in the light of modern educational trends. Master dissertation,
Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. [Arabic]
Alkanani, T. Y. (2012). The reality and the barriers of using educational technology in teaching social subjects
in intermediate stage in boys schools in Al-Qunfoda province. Master dissertation, Umm Al-Qura
University. [Arabic]
Alotaibi, W. S. A. (2011). The reality of the usage of educational technology in teaching science curricula in
teaching science curricula in secondary stage as perceived by female teachers in Haiel city. Master
dissertation, Umm Al-Qura University. [Arabic]
Alsahli, E. E. (2012). Educational technology training needs of geography teachers in secondary stage in
Jeddah city. Master dissertation, Umm Al-Qura University. [Arabic]
Althubiani, A. A. (2008). The reality of using contemporary technology by mathematics teachers in the
intermediate stage. Master dissertation, Umm Al-Qura University. [Arabic]
Bakr, S. (2011). Attitudes of Egyptian teachers towards computers. Contemporary Educational Technology,
2(4), 308-318.
Bingimlas, K. A. (2010). Evaluating the Quality of Science Teachers’ Practices in ICT-Supported Learning and
Teaching Environment in Saudi Primary Schools. PhD thesis, RMIT University.
Cunningham, M., Kerr, K., McEune, R., Smith, P. and Harris, S. (2003). Laptops for teachers: An evaluation of
the first year of the initiative. Becta for the Department for Education and Skills. ICT in Schools Research
and Evaluation Series. Report number: 19.
Edmondson, A. (2003). What Styles of Computer Training Enhance Teachers’ Competence and Confidence to
Use ICT?. Retrieved October 25, 2010, from
http://www.becta.org.uk/research/reports/docs/cpd_edmondson.pdf.
Jonassen, D. H., Peck, K. L. and Wilson, B. G. (1999) Learning with technology: A constructivist perspective,
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Jones, A. (2004). A review of the research literature on barriers to the uptake of ICT by teachers. British
Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta). [Verified 02 April 2010]
http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1603/1/becta_2004_barrierstouptake_litrev.pdf
30th ascilite Conference 2013 Proceedings
Page 600
Khan, M. S. H., Hasan, M., & Clement, C. K. (2012). Barriers to the introduction of ICT into education in
developing countries: The example of Bangladesh. International Journal of Instruction, 5(2), 61-80.
Retrieved May 31, 2013, from http://www.e-iji.net/dosyalar/iji_2012_2_4.pdf
Ministry of Economy and Planning (2010) The ninth development plan. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from
http://www.mep.gov.sa/index.jsp;jsessionid=CD2E650689A0912B3C3FD2350192EA16.alfa?event=Article
View&Article.ObjectID=79
Oyaid, A. (2009). Education Policy in Saudi Arabia and its Relation to Secondary School Teachers’ ICT Use,
Perceptions, and Views of the Future of ICT in Education. PhD thesis, The University of Exeter.
Preston, C., Cox, M. J., & Cox, K. M. J. (2000). Teachers as innovators: An evaluation of the motivation of
teachers to use information and communications technologies. Croydon: King’s College London and
Mirandanet.
Serin, O. (2011). The effects of the computer-based instruction on the achievement and problem solving skills of
the science and technology students. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(1), 183201.
Unal, S. & Ozturk, I. H. (2012). Barriers to ITC integration into teachers’ classroom practices: Lessons from a
case study on social studies teachers in Turkey. World Applied Sciences Journal, 18(7), 939-944.
Author contact details: Ensaf Al Mulhim, e_almulhim@hotmail.com
Please cite as: Al Mulhim, (2013). The current use of ICT by novice female teachers in Saudi primary schools
and their perceived training needs. In H. Carter, M. Gosper and J. Hedberg (Eds.), Electric Dreams.
Proceedings ascilite 2013 Sydney. (pp.597-601)
Copyright © 2013 Ensaf Al Mulhim.
The author(s) assign to ascilite and educational non-profit institutions, a non-exclusive licence to use this
document for personal use and in courses of instruction, provided that the article is used in full and this
copyright statement is reproduced. The author(s) also grant a non-exclusive licence to ascilite to publish this
document on the ascilite web site and in other formats for the Proceedings ascilite Sydney 2013. Any other use
is prohibited without the express permission of the author(s).
30th ascilite Conference 2013 Proceedings
Page 601
Purchase answer to see full
attachment