Teachers’ readiness to implement ICT for teaching and learning of science in Public Secondary Schools in West Pokot County, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated science teachers’ readiness to implement or adopt (utilize) ICT for teaching and learning science in pubic secondary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya. It is argued that if teachers are willing and show a positive disposition towards readiness, this might lead towards greater implementation, utilization and integration of ICT for teaching and learning. Research on the readiness of Kenyan science teachers in public secondary schools in West Pokot County has not been conducted and hence this study aims to fill this gap and as such the research could be valuable for the government, as it provides an overview of the current status related to ICT readiness for implementation. The hypothesis of the research study formulated was: H 01 There is no statistical significant relationship between the attitude towards use of ICT and the integration of ICT in the teaching of sciences in public secondary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya; H 02 There is no statistical significant relationship between motivation to use ICT and the integration of ICT in the teaching of science in public secondary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya; H 03 There is no statistical significant relationship between facilitating conditions and the integration of ICT in the teaching of science in public secondary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya and; H 04 There is no statistical significant relationship between behavioural intention to use of ICT and the integration of ICT in the teaching of science in public secondary schools in West Pokot County, Kenya. The study is underpinned by the positivistic paradigm and utilized a survey (questionnaire) in order to collect quantitative data. The sample size was 250 science teachers from one hundred public secondary schools with a response rate of 233 or 93.2%. The dependant variable was ICT integration (implementation, adoption and usage) while the independent variables were attitude, motivation, behavioural intention and facilitating conditions. The adapted questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study showed that attitude towards the use of ICT was (p=.000, ρ<0.05), motivation to use ICT was (p=.086, ρ>0.05), facilitating condition was (p=.000, ρ<0.05) and behavioural intention was (p=.122, ρ>0.05). Furthermore, two hypotheses were rejected (H 01 & H 03 ) while two were accepted (H 02 & H 04 ). Both attitudes towards integration and motivation to use ICT for assimilation had a negative correlation relationship with ICT integration while both behavioural intention and facilitating conditions had a very strong positive correlation. It is thus clear that there is a great need for interventions by stakeholders such as the Kenyan government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), business community, schools and parents to come up with meaningful strategies that could positively enhance the lower variables from negative or moderate to a strongly positive correlation with statistical power 0.05 inversely related. It is also vital to provide the necessary facilitating conditions. There is thus a great need for teachers to be enabled by means of teacher development programmes related to ‘how to’ utilize and plan for the implementation of ICTs by creating a context in which the enablers that have been identified can be implemented in order to facilitate the use of ICT for the teaching and learning of science.