The Role of Beliefs in the Use of Information Technology: implications for teacher education, or teaching the right thing at the right time

Abstract

The decision of teachers whether to use or not to use computers depends on two basic categories of factors: factors at the school level and factors at the teacher level. At the school level the principal plays an important role in the support of innovations in school. The principal supplies financial, organizational and moral support and should give the innovation a long‐term perspective. However, teacher factors outweigh school‐level factors. Teachers have strong beliefs with respect to the content of their subject matter as well as to its pedagogy. The case studies described in this article show that those beliefs appear to change only very slowly. Teachers adopt new media if they can use them in accordance with their existing beliefs and practices. From the results of this research, implications are drawn with respect to the content and strategy of initial and in‐service teacher training in the field of information technology (IT).