Contextualizing South Africa’s participation in the SITES 2006 module (original) (raw)

2010, South African Journal of Education

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievem en t (IEA) initiated the Second In tern ational Technology in Education Study (SITES 2006)-a large-scale com parative survey on the use of Inf orm ation and Com m unication Technologies (IC Ts) in schools. The goal was to understand the pedagogical use of ICTs in schools in 22 education system s. W e aim to contextualize South Africa's particip ation in SITES 2006 on four levels: (i) the nature and structure of the South African education system , (ii) a review of Sou th Africa's particip ation in SITES 2006, (iii) IC T in frastructure, facilities an d equip m ent, and (iv) teachers' use of ICTs f or teaching and learning. SITES 2006 adm inistered three questionnaires to school princip als, technology coordinators, and m athem atics and science teachers. The final sam ple consisted of 666 m athem atics and 622 science teachers. Although m ost education system s collected d ata via the internet, South Africa was the only country that used only a paper-and-pencil data collection strategy with an average return rate of 90%. South Africa scored low on m ost variables, e.g. IC T infrastructure, facilities, and equip m en t. A large percentage of South African teachers reported their IC T incom petence. South Africa's inability to cross the boundaries of traditional learning towards the developm ent of 21st cen tu ry teaching and learning skills inhib its social and econom ic growth for the developm ent of hum an capital.