Teacher engagement in online professional development follow-up: The role of the workplace and ICT familiarity

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine factors that affect primary school teachers’ participation in an online forum that was set as a follow-up support platform of a professional development workshop about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in education. A purposeful sample of 89 primary school teachers participated. The study followed a sequential explanatory mixed design with a quantitative initial phase and a qualitative follow-up that allowed expansion and elaboration on the results of the quantitative phase. The quantitative phase was a prediction study that was conducted via logistic regression. The qualitative phase was a phenomenology conducted via content analysis of classroom observation notes and individual interviews that followed a hierarchical focusing method. Quantitative findings revealed that teachers’ perceived workplace conditions and teachers’ prior forum experience predicted online participation significantly, whereas teachers’ attitudes towards ICT use in education, gender, work experience, and computer competence did not significantly predict online participation. The identified key themes that emerged from the data about teachers’ perceptions of the factors that affect online participation were as follows: (a) teachers’ need to use ICT applications introduced in the workshop, (b) teachers’ reactions to ICT-related problems, (c) training for online forum use, (d) others’ posts on the online forum, and (e) lack of time.