ICT, Teaching and Leadership: How do Teachers Experience the Importance of ICT-Supportive School Leaders?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between teachers’ experiences with ICT-supportive school leaders, perceived usefulness of computers, perceived learning outcomes for students and teachers' use of computers in their teaching. A total of 386 teachers from a nationwide sample of primary and lower secondary schools participated in the study. The correlation analysis revealed that teachers with higher levels of ICT-supportive leaders reported higher levels of perceived usefulness of computers, perceived learning outcomes for students and more frequent use of computers compared with teachers reporting lower levels of ICT-supportive leaders. Regression analysis indicated that two factors, ICT-supportive school leaders and perceived learning outcomes for students using computers, explained 25 percent of the variation in perceived usefulness of computers. Finally, these two factors, ICT-supportive school leaders and perceived learning outcomes for students using computers, explained 5 percent of the variation in how frequently teachers were using computers for reading and writing. The results indicated a need for further studies in order to examine factors that predict teachers’ use of computers in their teaching.

Keywords

• ICT-supportive school leaders
• supportive colleagues
• perceived usefulness of computers
• perceived learning outcome for students
• teachers' use of computers in their teaching
• gender.