UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA

FACULTY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF ICT EDUCATION
COURSE TITLE

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS

COURSE CODE: ICTE 351

GROUP MEMBERS

MADAK LASIM
BRIGHT BOATEY B.
ABBEY NATHANAEL
AGBO XORNAM
AMONOO PHILIP M.
EUNICE ESI QUANSAH
AWAL DAWUDA
BENJAMIN AFRIYIE
MENSAH DZIDZORNU
ABIGAIL YEBOAH OTENG

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5141570099
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PROJECT TOPIC

Impact of ICT Integration in Basic Education

VARIABLES

Availability of the ICTs

Impact of the ICT integration in Basic Education
a) how positively will this contribute to teaching and learning
b) how negatively will this contribute to teaching and learning
c) does this have any impact at all?
Gender of the students
Teachers Technical know how.
Motivation level

SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the study
1.2
Statement of the problem
1.3
Purpose of the study
1.4
Research questions
1.5
Limitations
1.6
Delimitations
1.7
Significance of the study
1.8
Organization of the study

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The developments and exploitation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools in Ghana
has had an operational history that is just over a decade or two old.
Although at the beginning, there had been several efforts at developing ICT in schools, there had not been any
defined policy direction for ICT in education as to what specifically was needed to be achieved and the
strategy for it. In the process, several initiatives on ICT in education was started by different interest groups to
meet different needs. Towards the end of 2003, the tempo increased with the development of the national ICT
for Accelerated Development Policy
The development of ICT in education will result in the creation of new possibilities for learners and teachers to
engage in new ways of information acquisition and analysis. ICT however will enhance access to education
and improve the quality of education delivery on equitable basis. Hence the government commitment to a
comprehensive program of rapid development and utilization of ICT within the education sector to transform
the education system and hence improve the lives of people
It is the desire of government that through the development of ICT in our Educational Institutions, the culture
and practice of traditional memory based learning will be transformed to education that stimulates thinking
and creativity necessary to meet the challenges of the 21stCentury (National Policy on ICT in Schools
Education). Hence government collaboration with some Companies to give each pupil a laptop throughout the
country is a laudable idea.
Although this bold remarkable step which will contribute to knowledge production, communication and
information among teachers and students in schools have been taken, it is however worthy of note that the
policies and reforms have been besieged with some challenges which must properly be examined and worked
at. Some of the issues include;
Lack of adequate planning for implementation of ICT.
Inadequate teacher training.
Lack of information regarding the distribution of ICT facilities.
Low levels of literacy in general.
Lack of relevant content and technological applications to meet the needs of diverse societies.

High cost of infrastructure development.

High cost of acquisition of hardware and software.
It is however interesting to note that in Ghana, computers are found in some of the well-endowed educational
institutions, including the basic schools and senior high schools in the urban areas all over the country although
they will be writing the same final examination in ICT with their colleagues in less endowed schools. More so
these electronic devices are scarcely being used for teaching and learning purposes. This phenomenon is not
surprising as the whole technology of using the computer for teaching purposes is at its infant stage in the
country and Africa as a whole. Tchombe et al 2008 posited that it is not just acquiring the knowledge of ICT
that is important but also teachers need to understand how to use ICT pedagogically. They asserted that ICT if
used appropriately can stimulate the development of higher cognitive skills, deepen learning and contribute to
the acquisition of skills needed for learning all lifelong and for working in today's job market

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Despite the fact that ICT has become an imperative in all kinds of human activities and governments are
pushed to embrace ICT in order to conquer the highly demanding, modernized, competitive and fast moving
trends of the 21st century, little is known regarding the penetration of the ICT into basic education, especially
in Ghana. Yet, it is known that education is a key sector for any nation as it produces qualified manpower for
all other sectors. Hence, one would wonder the extent to which ICT has penetrated this sector and brought
about impact in a developing country such as Ghana that still strive to balance between national priorities, have
enough funding for emerging and existing needs while also trying to cope with national and international
visions. Factually, even in the developed western countries there are still gaps to bridge in ICT.
Hence, a study of this nature is very much inspiring.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of the study is to identify the extent to which ICT integration has impacted teaching and learning
in basic schools. The study would focus primarily on the availability of ICTs (computers, projectors, internet,
tablets, infrastructure etc), their impact on teaching and learning (positive, negative and neutral) and finally the
technical readiness of the teachers in their instructional deliveries.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions guided the study;
1.
2.
3.
4.

Are there available ICTs? Are they adequate?

How does government policies affect the integration of ICTs in basic education?
How does gender
Motivation are teachers in basic schools to integrate ICTs in the delivery of instructions?

LITERATURE REVIEW

In the course of this study, we read and considered almost every piece of literature gathered, whatever the
source. The documents that we consulted ranged from policy documents, professional journals, research
reports, reviews and digests to commercial publications much taken from the internet. We did not exclude
any research reports on the basis of criteria related to methodology or theoretical robustness, but rather focused
on relevance to the central theme of the study. The issues raised by Cox et al. (2003a) in reviewing the
literature on the relationship between ICT and attainment also apply here. The nature of the research is
important and findings are influenced by whether the use of ICT is studied in natural settings, looking at how
teachers use their existing ICT resources, or whether the focus is on a new initiative or intervention designed to
change practice. Intervention studies can potentially cause greater disruption to existing practice, affecting the
settings in which ICT is used and teachers pedagogical practices as well as challenging teachers attitudes,
beliefs and existing practices.
These can, in turn, affect the research findings and influence the implications that follow. This has been borne
in mind in compiling this report.
The range of literature gathered was extensive, from large-scale national surveys to case studies of single
classes or schools. The former provided broad generalisations from quantitative measures, while the latter
illuminated the issues through the more immediate experiences of pupils and teachers working to implement
the new technologies. Taken together, the hard data from the larger, quantitative studies (often based on
national samples of pupils and practitioners and using standardised tests or similar) and the softer, qualitative
evidence from small-scale research and evaluation reports (including the growing number of practitioner case
studies from the ICT Test Bed Project), provide an overview of what has been learned about the impact of the
new technologies on schools, pupils and teachers across the United Kingdom. As a result, reports on smallscale studies (with limited generalisability) and commercial documents (potentially biased), have been used
judiciously and primarily as illustrations of specific strategies within limited contexts.
The evidence uncovered was patchy in terms of technologies and strategies for their use in schools. Some
aspects have been well researched, such as interactive whiteboards, while others have come to the attention of
researchers more recently, such as online resources and learning platforms. In addition, what appeared initially
to be several different studies into a specific technology often turned out to be multiple outputs from the same
study, and this was compounded by the number of reviews and summaries of the literature compiled by
different bodies and presented in different formats. As a result, making a clear judgement on the weight of
evidence for any one innovation or initiative is not straightforward. In addition, some documents have not
appeared in this report as they duplicated or summarised findings from other sources.
Section 2 of this report considers the context in which learning and teaching happens and those factors which
influence the extent to which ICT The extent to which schools are in a position to implement and take
advantage of ICT in learning and teaching depends on development across a number of dimensions relating to
infrastructure including: school policy; resources; teacher confidence and capability; connectivity; security;
and management of the system. Each of these has, to a greater or lesser extent, an influence on the ways in
which ICT becomes part of the learning and teaching process and has an impact upon the experiences of
pupils, teachers and schools. This section describes the context in which the use of ICT in learning and
teaching is developing.

LIMITATION

In the course of the survey, the researchers encountered the following as the limitations to the study.

Unwillingness of the interviewee to provide detailed information on questions asked by the interviewer.
The respondent lack understanding on questions asked.
Bias information was received from the respondents due to their past experience with other researchers who
engaged them in similar interviewing processes.
Gaining access to schools and teachers.
People vetting which questions to be answered.
Schools/institutions not wishing to be identifiable, even with protections guaranteed;

DELIMITATION
The study is centered on University Practice School, Winneba. The researchers did not extend their study to the district,
regional or the national scope but limited it to University Practice basic school due to lack of funds by the research team
to broaden the scope to other schools. Time factor was another hinderance to extending the study to the district, regional
and national levels as this will require a longer time frame which is a resource the team lacks.
University Practice school was selected for the study because of its relatively large population, and also because it shares
similar resources with other or most public schools in Ghana or Winneba to be precise making it more representative for
the study.
The study is not based solely on either quantitative or qualitative method but the mixed method of research is employed
so as to cater for both the quantity and quality data.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The research will aid a quick and effective implementation of ICT integration policies.
The research will help in the equitable distribution in basic schools.
The research will also help the government device policies to effectively train teachers in order teach learners for
optimum output.
The findings of this research will serve as guide to the government and other stakeholders in identifying
deficiencies or strengths of the current system and formulating new policies where necessary.
The research will also serve a reference guide to anybody who will need it in any constructive way.

ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This gives the general outline on how researchers work is organized.
Chapter one contains introduction, background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research
questions, significance of the study, limitations and delimitations of the study.
Chapter two has a review of related literature.
Chapter three is the methodology employed. This describes the procedures used in collecting concern data which
comprise research design, population and sampling section, research instruments and invention procedure that is, Preinvention and Post-invention.
Chapter four include reporting of the findings. This involves representation of data which requires description of data
obtained from various instrument used.