ICT USAGE AND DEVELOPMENT OF BASIC SCHOOL TEACHER PEDAGOGY COMPETENCES FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Globalization has made the role of the teacher to expand and become more challenging in order to meet the needs of basic learners. Teachers are expected to have a wide variety of methods, skills, adequate knowledge and apply them to create positive classroom environment and work collaboratively with other stakeholders in order to provide the needed support to basic learners. The study therefore examined how basic school teacher pedagogy competences can be improved through ICT usage and development in teaching and learning. The descriptive survey design was used to assess 250 sandwich teachers at the University of Lagos. A 20 item questionnaire titled ICT Usage and Development of Basic School Teacher Pedagogy Competence Questionnaire {IUDBSTPCQ} was used to elicit data from respondents. Findings of the study revealed that, teachers do not have adequate ICT knowledge and skills for pedagogical competence and global competitiveness and inadequate availability and usage of ICT resources; there is a significant relationship between ICT usage and development and basic teacher pedagogy competence. The study equally showed the relative contributions of the independent variables (ICT knowledge and skills, school leadership, teacher quality, availability and usage) to the dependent variable (teacher pedagogy competence). It was therefore recommended that basic schools should focus attention on building teachers’ interest in ICT so as to encourage its usage and development for global competiveness and that there is the need for government to improve and develop school ICT resources to facilitate ICT usage and enhance teachers’ pedagogy experiences in teaching and learning.