Teachers’ Use of Information and Communications Technology in Education: Cameroon Secondary Schools Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) offers innovative tools for restructuring teaching and learning processes in preparing students for the 21^st Century skills. However, there is no sufficient and reliable data concerning how the use of ICT fit in different school cultures in Cameroon, and how teachers with varying pedagogical and domain expertise and learning experiences are able to function with various network learning environments. This paper discusses teachers Use of ICT in Education on the basis of intensive case studies conducted in Cameroon secondary schools. A total of 320 teachers from 16 public, denominational and lay private schools from two regions in Cameroon participated in this study. The survey was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests and ANOVA were used to analyse the data. The results of this study indicate teachers’ perceived ICT usage, perceived access to ICT, perceived ICT competence and perceived ICT training support were low. Furthermore, the analysis showed that teachers in an urban area perceived the use of ICT and perceived access to ICT was higher than teachers in the rural area. Finally, this study discovered that there was no significant difference in public, private and denominational school teachers’ use of ICT, access to ICT, competencies and training support. The results provide insights into factors that teachers perceived as obstacles to the use of ICT in their teaching, particularly in developing nations.