This report focuses on the effectiveness of the 2006-2008 Information and Communication Technologies Professional Development (ICT PD) School Clusters programmes and supplements previous evaluations of the first six ICT PD programmes. It is the last report of an ongoing evaluation of the ICT PD teacher professional development initiative, which has been implemented in New Zealand since 1999.
Key Results
The overall finding of the study is that the 2006-8 ICT PD programme had a marked effect on the teachers and students in cluster schools with respect to its key goals. There were high levels of goal achievement reported by participants, and marked increases or changes with respect to the relevant Ministry objectives as outlined in cluster performance agreements. At the national level, the programme achieved its overall goals of: significantly increasing teachers’ skills and confidence with ICTs, improving teachers’ understandings of the role of ICTs in teaching and learning, and providing quality ICT-mediated learning experiences for students. The 2006-8 programme achieved levels of participant satisfaction that were somewhat lower than the preceding two (2004-6 and 2005-7) cohorts but achieved overall increases in skills, confidence, understanding and regular or routine classroom/student usage of ICTs for learning in orders of magnitude at least similar to those of earlier cohorts.
We note also that, in regard to a range of outcomes, the ICT PD programme continues to have a greater impact among primary teachers and schools than among their secondary counterparts.