This chapter is aimed to presenting and discussing the findings of the field research which enabled the realization of the first phase of this study which consists in diagnose the situation of Information and Communication Technology’s use by the teachers of maths and natural sciences in the general Secondary Education in Mozambique.
The empirical study was an opportunity to get in touch with the reality and became a sort of frontier between the theory and practice, specially, because the instruments and research theories do capture other dimensions that are not possible to capture through bibliographical revision. The empirical work was, with no doubt, the phase where the researcher had the opportunity to identify and analyze social representations of the subjects of this study.
The opportunity to contact the reality helped the researcher to effectively recognize the object of study and reflection possibilities about it. Approaching the reality enabled to identify possible connections that the researcher could, truly, establish between theory and reality.
5.1 Presentation and analyze of results
In the following section are presented the results of focus group discussions with teachers of math’s and natural sciences in the general Secondary Education in Mozambique. After this, questionnaire results are discussed as well as interviews results obtained from a part of sample, object of this study. Finally, there is a brief conclusion based on the interaction between the researcher and senior staff of an institution of higher education in charge of teachers’ initial training course.
5.1.1 Results of discussion with focal groups
The focal group technique via the Internet pointed out negative and positive aspects related, which are described below.
One of the difficulties encountered was the limited availability of chat rooms of free access and restricted to small groups normally open to the entry of unknown persons, making the guidance of the group harder in some ways. Before the definition of the chat room other tools were tested in discussion forums, but the result was not favorable to meet the proposed objectives.
Another difficulty was the unavailability of this technology in the selected schools, what required a local computer specialist to conduct the installation of the software, which is free.
Another aspect to be observed and that hindered the participant's membership to the online group is the amount of information required for the registration and use of chat rooms. The focus group meeting took place without major surprises, involving 11% of the sample covered in the survey (See Table 4.1), and comprised by twenty-eight teachers divided into four groups. The composition of each group was within what is suggested by researchers (7 to10 elements) due to the use of electronic technology. One of the research participants noted that if the group were bigger it would be difficult to follow:
"... If they were more participants it would have been even more difficult to read everything and talk about everything! "
The fact that the research was conducted with the help of an instrument unknown to many teachers had also been a barrier. Other operational problems were also detected. The slowness of the system was highlighted by some participants. Others had difficulty in displaying all the answers and they were unanimous in stating:
"It is a pit the fact that the technology is still somewhat difficult"
The same happened with another participant in the meeting who said:
"My page is not rolling ..."
Some participants were surprised with other technical details:
"... Excuse me mates, I discovered that the chat does not accept accent ..."
"... The screen is too narrow to read messages".
As for typing, it was common to hear:
"... People, I am horrified with my typing mistakes"
"In Americans chats it is chic to make typing mistake. It is fortuitous ..."
In the other side, this technique was considered positive for almost all participants, who have put their views at the meeting when asked about the focus group through chat rooms:
"... I hope it was useful for the purpose ... I enjoyed taking part. "
"... I really enjoyed it. I know 'real' focal groups and I thought that this virtual, ends up resembling each other as long as people feel free to give their opinion other participants in the talks, agreeing or disagreeing, rather than being restricted to just answer what is asked by the moderator".
"I found the experience interesting. Sometimes the process is a little slow, but it is an excellent mean of communication. The teens can confirm. They “spend” hours and hours on MSN ..."
"I never had this kind of experience, but it was very nice. I think to do this has to be something very specific and short, right? (...) And I agree, our problem was that the technology does not go as fast as our thinking and willingness to talk. ";
"I think it is cool but kind of frustrating when speed does not allow us to participate exactly in real time."
In these last two opinions there is a difficulty of participation "in properly real time," because the texts are appearing in the sequence they are sent; sometimes appear two or three paragraphs at the same time making reading and coordination of ideas difficult.
Who type more slowly sends the response after the others, when other questions are being answered. This was observed during the discussion. One way to resolve is to request that the participants must wait for the responses of all and then other questions can be arisen again. This disadvantage was mentioned in the work of O'Connor and Madge (2003).
Krueger and Casey (2000) recommend a pause between the questions in face-to-face focal groups, what should also be done in the electronic focal group. For this operation could be placed on certain characters or words such as "break" or "wait" so that all participants can wait for continuity.
Munro and Zeidmsan-Karpinski (2003) provide guidelines for using chat rooms, noting that grammatical misspellings and typing mistakes are common due to the speed with which the texts are typed. These researchers recommend the use of short, simple sentences. Other aspects that influence the quality is the ability of the computer and network speed, which should be similar between the group members, since the settings must be interpreted in real time.
Smith et al. (2000) deal with the difficulties of using chat rooms, adding that there is a social context for those who read the results of a meeting in these rooms. Thus, the records must be read immediately after being raised to avoid the loss of the event chronology (social historic). They propose a program of the chat room called "chat line" for participants to enter their placement next to the subject matter.
Thus it is concluded that the facilities brought by the focal groups over the Internet is the ability to bring people of different places, staying in their classrooms, offices, finally, in places of their acquaintance, without travel costs, accommodation and meals.
5.1.2 Results of the questionnaires
According to table 4.1 (Chapter 4) on the array of data gathering, the survey questionnaire (Appendix A) was kindly answered by 265 teachers of the general Secondary Education.
Under the guidance of authors Selltiz, Wrightsman and Cook (1987) there is some operational advantages in the use of questionnaire to perform a research. First, it is less expensive to apply, and second, it avoids potential biases of an interviewer and, finally, there’s more time allocated to respond, there is no psychological pressure that leads to hasty answers and without the necessary reflection.
Concluding the questionnaire, the construction of the scale contemplated the model created by Rensis Likert in 1932, called for the Likert scale. This scale is an instrument that seeks to raise the attitudes toward a set of assertions and, therefore, respondents are asked to agree or disagree with statements, according to a hierarchy that allows an explicit opinion providing a strong agreement to strong disagreement with the statement. For each choice is given a score ranging from 5 to 1, so that they can be worked out in a quantitative manner providing their graphic representation in frequency histograms.
In this study, the researcher used the following options: Strongly Agree (SA), Partially Agree (PA), Undecided or Indifferent (I), Partially Disagree (PD), Totally Disagree (TD). So that the choices could be treated mathematically, a conversion was used, which assign a value to each action: five (5) = fully agree; four (4) = partially agree, 3 (three) = indifferent; two (2) = partially disagree, one (1) = strongly disagree.
Figure 5.1: National distribution of the selected schools
Tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 below illustrate the degree of participation of the selected teachers.
Table 5.1: Response rate of the sample selected in the Southern region of Mozambique
Figure 5.2: Distribution of the selected schools in the Southern region of Mozambique
Table 5.2: Response rate of the sample selected in the Central region of Mozambique
Table 5.3: Response rate of the sample selected in the Northen region of Mozambique
Figure 5.4: Distribution of the selected schools in the Northern region of Mozambique
As it can be seen from the tables presented above the general rate of response from the selected sample was 84.18%, which allows the researcher to infer the entire population of this study.
Data Analysis
The exploratory character of the study conducted with teachers of the general Secondary Education from all over the territory of the Republic of Mozambique (with the exception of Niassa Province) had the gathering and processing data from December, 2008 to March 30, 2010.
This data set was subjected to a descriptive analysis and it was carried out using the software SPSS® (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) that allowed characterization of the teachers participating in this study. It was also applied the factor analysis in order to give consistency to a given set of numerical variables as well as graphical analysis of frequency histograms of the teachers opinions expressed in the Likert scale.
The factor analysis allowed the verification of internal consistency of a group of data that were collected from teachers of the general Secondary Education. It is important to understand that the outcome of this analysis, according to Pestana and Gageiro (2000: 389) provides:
The assessment of the validity of the constitutive variables of the factors, indicating in which extent it refers to the same concepts through the correlation between them. [...] Also seeks to simplify the data by reducing the number of necessary variables.
The main purpose of the graphical representation is to display characteristics of the variable in the study sample, that is; statistical sampling, in a simple and affordable mental acquisition (Maroco, 2007).
Descriptive analysis: characterization of the teachers
During the period of the data gathering, it was possible to obtain the participation of 265 teachers working in fifty one schools of the nine provinces of Mozambique selected for this study (see Tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3). From the total of 265 respondents, 48 are female, representing 18.1% of the population and 217 teachers are male, accounting for 81.9%, as shown in Figure 5.5 below. Figure 5.6 shows the percentage distribution of teachers in this study in terms of length of service. The sample size of this study was designed taking into consideration the table designed by Smith (1975), with a significance level of 99%.
Table 5.4: Sample distribution by gender
The largest number of teachers surveyed have a considerable teaching experience (≥ 5 years), which guarantees the quality of the sample and the consistency of the responses.
Figure 5.6: Percentage distribution of sample by length of service
Table 5.5: List of Secondary schools surveyed in the Southern region of Mozambique
Table 5.6: List of Secondary schools surveyed in the central region of Mozambique
Table 5.7: List of Secondary schools surveyed in the Northen region of Mozambique
The fact that it appears greater preponderance of males participants (81.9%) compared to female encourages the researcher for further work in order to study different populations where the female presence is more significant, or even consider situations where the age group presents a lower concentration at certain ages.
Figure 5.7: Percentage of respondents (teachers) by geographic zones of the country.
The percentage distribution of teachers, by region, who participated in this study, is shown in Figure 5.7 above. From this graphical representation it appears that the South region of Mozambique has a significant holding in respect of the other two regions, confirming the already identified asymmetry in the distribution of school network of this subsystem of education in Mozambique.
Tables 5.8, 5.9 and 5.10 below, show that there are teachers with a particular professional category which does not correspond to their level of training (for example, teachers with a University degree holding the N3 professional category). This fact interferes certainly in the motivation and commitment of this group of teachers. The motivation and commitment are involved in the teachers' behavior in school organizations: The motivation for indicating the reasons for the action of teachers; the commitment, because it is related to the intensity of connection that the teacher has with the school.
Table 5.8: Training vs. Professional category of teachers in the South of Mozambique
One situation which drew the attention of the researcher is the fact that there are teachers with grade 12 teaching mathematics and natural sciences of the second cycle of general education. The negative results of the examinations in 2008 and 2009 associated with other socio-economic factors may be symptomatic of this factor. This group represents 9.8% of the total number of respondents. The remaining respondents have qualifications required for the exercise of the profession: 18.9% are bachelors, 69.4% are graduated, 1.5% has a master degree and one respondent is a PhD.
Table 5.9: Training vs. Professional category of teachers in the Center of Mozambique
Table 5.10: Training vs. Professional category of teachers in the North of Mozambique
These findings lead us to think of Distance Education in a new light. Distance Education is not a fad: it is part of an extensive and continuous process of changes, which includes not only the democratization of access to higher levels of education and permanent updating as well as the adoption of new educational paradigms, on which basis are the concepts of totality, of learning as personal and social phenomenon, the training of autonomous individuals capable of finding, creating and learning throughout life and to intervene in the world they live. Thus, the distance courses offered in virtual learning environments designed to train and improve teachers' work can reach the most remote places in the country, demonstrating their potential to democratize education. And they can also be an excellent strategy while building knowledge, mastering technology, develop skills and abilities and discuss ethical standards that will benefit later students of these teachers. That is to say, a good distance learning course offers students not only learning autonomy but also leaves the teacher ready to work with students in a more rich, modern and dynamic environment.
This, however, only happens with a distance education committed to quality. And quality in distance education is like fishing net: there are many of knots which come together to achieve an objective. The weakness in one of the knots can compromise the final result.
Table 5.11: Academic qualifications of the teachers surveyed
Figure 5.8: Graphical representation of the academic qualifications of the teachers surveyed
Regarding the age of respondents, the highest incidence is between 20 and 30 years with 38.5% followed by age group between 31 and 40 years with 35.8%. The percentage distribution of age groups is shown in the table 5.12 below. For the researcher, the fact that 74.3% of teachers surveyed are still young, enable the competent entity to design training programs more robust and consistent, able to become effective in the Mozambican education system, contributing to the achievement of the objectives of Education for All.
Table 5.12: Age array of teachers surveyed
Figure 5.9: Graphical representation of the age of the teachers surveyed
However, from the researcher's point of view, the teachers surveyed are isolated, living like in an "island". Note that only 18.5% of teachers surveyed have an Internet connection at home (See Table 5.13).
Table 5.13: Teachers respondents with Internet at home
The difficulty of access for the teachers of maths and natural sciences in the general Secondary Education in Mozambique to Internet makes the intellectual development of this social group difficult. Free access to the Internet should be seen as a positive symptom of human development. The accessibility to the information and communication technology should be considered as a factor of life quality. For most people technology makes life easier.
The new technologies open new horizons for an autonomous path of learning, that is, the self-directed learning. Today it is increasingly required for all persons, and particularly for the teachers, that they learn throughout life. The control over the learning cannot be conceptualized independently of the context that involves this learning (Baskett, 1991; Candy, 1991). Therefore, the control that the individual takes on learning is very dependent on the knowledge that it has on the subject of learning. The Internet presents itself as a powerful resource, enabling people to acquire new knowledge, ideas and perspectives, exchange information, etc.., or, contributing to greater control over the learning process (Moura, 1997).
Several authors see on the new technologies an excellent means of applying the principles for constructivist learning (Brown, 1998; Pereira, 1995; Tejedor, 2000). These offer to the individual the opportunity to learn through collaborative activities that promote knowledge. The existence of different alternative paths towards the information needed as well as the easy access to that information are very important factors for building a personal approach to learning. And when one speaks of a personal approach to learning, just not in any way imply isolation or independence. The concepts of autonomy and self-directed learning require interaction with others: it is this interaction that allows the person greater control over their learning (Candy, 1991). In this context, the Internet offers the possibility to the person asking for help and benefit from this support, facilitating their access to updated information (D'Eça, 1998).
The notion of a networked world requires an interconnection of people and ideas from many different corners of the world. This is the collaborative culture that the Information and Communication Technology provision allows to the break of one of the most negative features of teaching: individualism / isolation. "The Internet opens horizons - help us to leave our more or less isolation by enabling us to communicate at any scale, find colleagues anywhere in the world, share ideas, plans, projects, learn from each other” (D'Eça, 1998: 44). The Information and Communication Technology can therefore help to transform the vision of the teacher closed to the classroom, immune to all eyes and influences.
Curious fact is that, according to table 5.14, 78.9% of teachers surveyed have computers at home, but only 18.5% have Internet access in their homes (see Table 5.13). It can be concluded that, however powerful it is the computer that the teacher has at his/her house, it serves more as a typing machine or at best, such as electronic calculator. This shows itself as one of the factors accelerating the obsolescence of knowledge gained in initial training.
Table 5.14: Teachers respondents with computers at home
The researcher believes that the Internet can allow any number of teachers around the country to tune into the most recent guidelines from the Ministry of Education in terms of methodology, scientific and technical education. More than that, it provides teacher with support in their educational tasks and encourages the exchange of experiences, since many programs encourage the formation of study groups in which there is strong provision of mutual support among participants (Barreto, 1995).
Figure 5.10: Degree Percentage of teachers surveyed with a computer at home
Figure 5.11: Forms of Initiation in ICT for teachers questioned in percentage
Table 5.15: Forms of Initiation in ICT for teachers questioned in frequencies
Table 5.15 shows us that 13.2% of teachers of the Second Cycle of general Secondary Education have not had initiation in computing and 32.8% its initiation in information and communication technology was based on curiosity and help from friends, colleagues and others. This could mean that 46% of the universe of teachers surveyed do not have a solid background in information and communication technology, requiring therefore an urgent specific training. According to table 5.11 (shown on page 113), 69.4% of teachers respondents have got a University Degree and 18.9% are N2 professional category. How can one explain that only 30.6% of teachers surveyed have had specific training in information and communication technology during initial training? One of the hypotheses to be explored and that may explain this situation is the difference in the curriculum of higher education institutions involved in the initial training of teachers.
Table 5.16: Level of competence of the teachers surveyed in the use of MS-Office 
The table presented on page 131, referring to the anti-image matrices, can also be used to assess the adequacy of Factor Analysis to the variables selected here.
Chart 5.2: Level of indecision of teacher asked about the use of ICT' in TCT.
Table 5.26: Level of experience of teachers in the use of computing platforms
Chart 5.3: Level of agreement of teachers asked about use of ICT' in TCT
Figure 5.12: Level of competence of the teachers surveyed in the use of MS-Office
Table 5.16 and Figure 5.12 make evident that only 53.5% of teachers surveyed dominate the packages of MS-Office. Almost half the teachers surveyed said that they had little competence (23.4%) in operating MS-Office programs, (12.8%) very little and (7.9%) no competence to exploit those programs.
This finding is upsetting the researcher because the Ministry of Education in 2009 foresaw the introduction of the discipline of computer science in the curriculum of grade 10. A question arises: what is the profile of the teacher who will teach this course? Or the discipline was introduced aiming to meet the curriculum without properly trained teachers? The answer to these and other questions related to the introduction of the subject of computer science in the curriculum of the Grade 10 cannot be given here, because this study only covers teachers of the Second Cycle of general Secondary Education (grades 11 and 12).
However, the training of teachers for information and communication technology has to include not only the integration of them into the curriculum practice of the future teachers, but also a perspective of personal development and citizenship. To prepare future citizens for the use of technologies does not only mean to acquire mastery in their use but it also implies the ability to critically interpret their utilization. "To reach this objective it is necessary to prepare teachers to use information and communication technology pedagogically in the training of citizens who will produce and interpret the new languages of the present and future world". (Sampaio & Milk, 2000: 15).
Table 5.17: Category of the teachers surveyed
Figure 5.13: Category of the teachers surveyed
Looking at table 5.17, it appears that the number of teachers of N3 professional category working in the Second Cycle of general Secondary Education (grades 11 and 12) is relatively high (14%). This may be explained by the fact that 9.8% of the teachers surveyed have the medium level of education (see Table 5.11). However the difference of 4.2% points to the existence of teachers with a university degree who probably fall into this category and, consequently with wage situation not yet settled. This fact interferes probably in the motivation and commitment of this group of teachers. And as already noted above, the motivation and commitment are involved in people's behavior in organizations: The motivation for indicating the reasons why people act; the commitment because it relates the intensity of connection between the person and the organization.
Due to school organizations increasingly demanding greater and better participation of its employees in order to facilitate the processes of change, it is essential a motivating environment to promote the commitment of people to the school organization.
However, to achieve involvement, identification, attachment, commitment to promote the school organization may not be so easy. "People differ in their basic motivational drive and the same individual may have different levels of motivation that vary over time" (Chiavenato, 2000: 592). The level of motivation can vary between people and the same person through time that may change their behavior and commitment to the organization.
On every day of the teacher, it appears that the most relevant motivating factor of the participants of this study is on having good salary and less to see their work bringing good results for the organization. Although it is important to have good working conditions, have the work valued by the school organization and safety at work, they do not appear as the most important. Do these needs have already been fulfilled?
According to Maximiano (2000: 351), there are five human needs by Maslow's model of needs. In this hierarchy, a need must be met before the next level need to take place. In ascending order, needs are classified as follow:
Basic needs: shelter, clothing, hunger, thirst, sex and comfort.
Safety needs: protection, order, conscious of the dangers and risks, sense of responsibility.
Requirements for participation: friendship, inter-human relationships and love.
Esteem needs: status, egocentrism, ambition and exception.
Needs of Self-actualization: personal growth, acceptance of challenges, success and personal autonomy.
Montana and Charnov (2001), Megginson, Mosley and Pietri Jr. (1998), describe what Herzberg called the factors that generate satisfaction of motivational factors and those that just prevented the dissatisfaction of hygiene factors. In reading these authors, the first two needs in Maslow's Hierarchy (basic and security) is equivalent to the factors of hygiene and other needs (participation, self-esteem and achievement) to motivational factors of Herzberg.
The most important motivational factor demonstrates the need for self-realization, to see the work paying off for the organization to which Vieira (1994: 60), "is the latent desire in every human being to do what they can and want to do, to become what they are capable of performing as a person".
For Chiavenato (2000:592), the motivation is to exert efforts to achieve organizational goals and "conditioned by the ability to satisfy some individual needs."
It is from these individual needs, these motivational factors that schools can work conditions to develop and maintain a motivating climate that could assist in promoting engagement and facilitate the processes of change.
The commitment is also involved in taking responsibilities, have abilities and skills to enhance the performance of the school and is related to people love their compromised attitudes. And yet, schools must provide a good climate to foster attitudes of commitment. Profession satisfaction can be provided by enhancing motivation.
However, "the teacher extrinsic factors such as salary, security, organizational polices, interpersonal relationships, environmental conditions of work, just make people motivate themselves and willing to fight for them". (Bergamini, 1997:55), that is, the required effects, the constant motivation cannot be achieved.
A practical example, according to Bergamini (1997:55) is the payment of “something more for the same work that developed earlier. (...) Such a positive reaction appears to be of short duration, sometimes persisting ...", but losing its effect when it is no longer motivating.
In this context, to be committed to the school is closely linked to motivational factors. And schools need tools that can provide a motivating environment and raise the commitment of teachers to facilitate the achievement of better teaching and learning process.
It is urgent to regularize this type of situation on behalf of the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Moreover, this situation can be explained by the fact that 38.5% of teachers having less than five years of work. Part of this group has recently graduated in 2008 and 2009.
Table 5.18: Time of work of teachers surveyed
Figure 5.14: Time of work of teachers surveyed
Table 5.19: Teachers respondents with computer at home
Figure 5.15: Teachers respondents with computer at home
Figure 5.16: Teachers respondents without computer and Internet at home
Figure 5.17: Teachers with computer at home without Internet
Figure 5.18: Teachers with home computer and Internet
As already noted above, the percentage of teachers with computers at home (78.9%, See Figure 5.15) does not resemble the percentage of teachers with internet connection at home (18.1%, See Figure 5.11). Probably it could find some support in the data presented above (See table 5.15 on page 118). This table reveals that 13.2% teachers surveyed have not had initiation in computing and 32.8% of them initiation in information communication technology was based on curiosity and help from friends, colleagues and others. This could mean that 46% of the universes of teachers surveyed do not have a solid background in Information and Communication Technology, demanding, as already mentioned, urgent specific training.
Factor Analysis
The Factor Analysis (FA) is a technique of exploratory data analysis that aims to discover and analyze the structure of a set of interrelated variables in order to construct a scale to measure (intrinsic) factors that somehow (more or less explicit) control the original variables. In principle, if two variables are correlated (and the correlation is not spurious), this association resulting from the sharing of a common feature not directly observable (that’s a common latent factor).
Maroco (2007: 414) considers that:
The purpose of AF is to identify latent factors that explain the inter correlations observed in the original variables. That is, the main components are weighted linear combinations of original variables. While factors are variable not directly observable (that is, latent) that hypothetically explain the observed correlations between the original variables.
The Factor Analysis uses the observed correlations between the original variables to estimate joint factor (s) and structural relationships that link (latent) factors to variables. This technique was developed from the work of C. Spearman in the early twentieth century on the performance of students in various disciplines in order to clarify the relationship between the ratings and a general factor of intelligence.
Thus, in this study, using the software SPSS® (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), some variables were analyzed in a quantitative perspective through the "Equamax orthogonal rotation Method with Kaiser Normalization." Equamax method for performing orthogonal rotations by mathematical procedures was developed by Kaiser in 1958.
The factor analysis should be used once the data provides certain conditions. Initially we attempted to carry out two tests that assess those conditions, namely: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO), Bartlett's test of sphericity.
The Bartlett test of sphericity tests the hypothesis of the correlation matrix be the identity matrix with determinant equal to one. As Pestana and Gageiro (2000) when the Bartlett test associated with a significance level less than 0.0001, that is; with less than 0.05 leads to rejection of the matrix hypothesis of correlations in population to be the identity, showing a correlation between the variables. In this study, this condition was met and the "Test of sphericity Sig 0 .000" was obtained. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) compares the simple correlations with partials observed between the variables, ranging between zero and one. Although there is no accurate test for the KMO values, in general, these can be given qualified as shown on table 5.20 that follow (See Pestana & Gageiro, 2000).
Table 5.20: Range of KMO values and their meanings
The KMO test, shown in table 5.21, for the set of some data obtained in this research, indicates the value 0.615 which allows the continuity of factor analysis in data processing, although the result is bad. The Bartlett test of sphericity has a p-value <0.001 which leads us to conclude that the variables are correlated significantly.
Table 5.21: KMO and Barlett’s Test
Continuing, still in search of the reliability of the instrument, it appears that this can be expressed in terms of stability, equivalence and consistency, and commonly expressed by Cronbach's alpha. According to Pestana and Gageiro (2000: 415), "The Cronbach alpha is a measure commonly used to check the internal consistency of a group of variables."
Table 5.22: Variables subjected to factor analysis
The table presented on page 131, referring to the anti-image matrices, can also be used to assess the adequacy of Factor Analysis to the variables selected here.
The anti-image matrixes for the variance-covariance and correlations have negative values of covariance and partial correlations between variables. These values estimate the correlations among the variables that are not due to common factors. Low values of these partial correlations indicate that the variables share one or more common factors, while high values suggest that the variables are more or less independent. The figures below the main diagonal must be close to zero. The values of the main diagonal are another measure of adequacy of data to the FA designated as “measure of sampling adequacy" (from Anglo-Saxon MSA - Measure of Sampling Adequacy) for each variable in the analysis. This measure is a particularization of the KMO for each of the variables in the analysis calculated as (Maroco, 2007):
KMOi= (∑_(j≠i=1)^p▒〖r^2 xixj〗)/(∑_(j≠i=1)^p▒〖r^2 xixj〗+∑_(j≠i=1)^p▒〖r^2 xixj〗
xk)
xk)
With k = 1, …p Thus, the KMOi includes only the correlation coefficients and partial correlation between the variable i and the other variables. Of course, if the partial correlations are reduced compared to the bivariate correlations, the variable i is substantially correlated with other variables and is appropriate to its use in Factor Analysis. MSA values below 0.5 indicate that this variable does not fit the structure defined by the other variables and, in this case should be considered the elimination of FA. Notice that in the case study KMOi> 0.5 (i ∈ the first five communalities) suggesting that other variables 6-14 must be eliminated.
Chart 5.1, presented on page 132, shows the Scree plot and Table 5.24 indicates the own values and percentages of total variance explained.
Chart 5.1: Scree Plot
Chart 5.1: Scree Plot
The calculation showed that the alpha in the internal consistency of the scale is better without the presence of questions 6-14 whose intrinsic value is presented below one (see Chart 5.1 of the Scree Plot above).
Table 5.24: Total Variance Explained
According to the rule of retaining factors with proper values above 1 were retained five factors (which are confirmed by the Scree Plot) explaining approximately 68.3% of total variance. In fact, according Maroco (2007:381) "... it is considered that a high percentage of waste below 0.05 (over 50%) is indicative of a factor model with a good fit." In this analysis the cut of factors was given by the Kaiser normalization, that is; we considered only the factors with greater own value than 1 (one).
The factor model obtained after an exploratory factor analysis explains theoretically the structure of latent factors responsible for the observed correlations between the original variables. Naturally, the model assumes that there are a number of factors below the original number of variables that can explain a high percentage of the total variance of original variables. The rules of the greater own value than 1 and the Scree-plot are usually used to decide the minimum number of factors needed to explain a considerable proportion of the total variance of original variables. However, these rules only help to select the factors to explain the variance - covariance observed between the original variables, but tell us nothing about the quality of the reduced factorial model. That is; whether fitted model explains adequately or not the observed correlations between the original variables. It is clear that a model with many latent factors as the number of variables (saturated model) explain all the variance - covariance observed and all correlations between the original variables would be exactly reproducible by the model. However, such a model, nothing would bring in terms of ability to resume or parsimony, clearly violating the primary purpose of FA.
Graphic analysis: frequency histograms
According to Table 4.1 on the array of data collection, the questionnaire (Appendix A) was answered by 265 teachers. In section III, on the use of ICTs in teacher training was presented to teachers a set of 39 assertions of the Likert scale. The scale contained no right or wrong answers, but just wanted to know the opinions of each teacher expressed on that scale. It was on the base of the opinions expressed by teachers (for convenience represented by Item x) that the charts 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 were built which are listed below.
The graphical representation of results has as main purpose to display characteristics of the variable in the sample study, that is; statistical sampling in a simple and affordable mental acquisition. (Maroco, 2007).
In this study, the researcher presents the results as frequency histograms. In this type of graphical representation, the observations of the continuous variable under study (opinion of teachers) are organized into classes, varying amplitude, on the X-axis and the relative frequency of each class in the sample (that is; the number of observations in each class) is represented on the Y-axis. Charts 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 shows the summary of this analysis where the y-axis representing the views of teachers, obtained by applying the questionnaire in section III (on the use of ICT in teacher training) and the ordinate axis the relative frequency of each of these reviews (that is; the number of times a particular view, represented for convenience by Item x, was observed compared to total observations). As mentioned above, the Charts 5.2 to 5.5 show the views expressed by teachers.
The sharpest indecision of teachers was expressed in questions 7 (41), 14 (62), 26 (54), 27 (75), 36 (46) and 39 (50). In parentheses is the relative frequency of each of these reviews. In fact, these issues are likely to create serious doubts in teachers not familiar with the language of virtual learning environments. Large number of participants in this study (≥ 72%) revealed not having any experience in the use of computing platforms classify their competence as: none (16.6%) or very low (24.9%) competence in using applications for the production of multimedia documents and its publication on the web (See Table 5.24 and 5.25).
Table 5.25: Degree of competence of teachers in the production of multimedia materials
Table 5.26: Level of experience of teachers in the use of computing platforms
Chart 5.3: Level of agreement of teachers asked about use of ICT' in TCT
Questions 1 (103), 2 (175), 5 (156), 6 (208), 10 (184), 13 (155), 16 (200), 17 (183), 19 (175), 20 (126 ), 21 (161), 22 (191), 23 (190), 28 (148), 29 (185), 30 (154), 32 (197), 36 (113) and 38 (125) earned a more expressive total agreement of the teachers. The issues that deserve this level of agreement are indeed crucial in the continuous training of teachers in virtual learning environments. That is to say that teachers participating in this study have clear understanding of the usefulness of ICT in the process of their professional qualifications, despite their experience in use of computing platforms is almost zero (see Table 5.25). One factor that may be behind this level of agreement of teachers on the use of ICT in the Teacher’s Continuing Training (TCT) may be the classification of good (23.8%) and very good (4.2%) competence in the production of multimedia documents to be published on the web using MS-Office applications (see Table 5.24). Serves as example the issue number 6 (with the use of ICTs in the educational community can meet new challenges by improving the quality of teaching), which received the highest score by teachers participating in this study.
Chart 5.4: Level of disagreement of teachers asked about use of ICT' in TCT
The homogeneity of the participants in terms of age, and to some extent, academic and their professional work provided a relatively peaceful and balanced discussion of the issues presented.
Chart 5.5: Level of abstention of teacher asked about use of ICT' in TCT
As it can be measured in the Chart 5.5 above, there was a small group of teachers who did not respond to questions. These teachers, representing 1.16% of all teachers surveyed (13.2%) make part of teachers who still had no initiation on information and communication technology and therefore they declined to give their opinion on their use in training teachers (see Table 5.26).
Table 5.27: Form of initiation of teacher respondents to ICT
In search of solutions
These days, we already have a certain portion of Mozambicans making use of distance learning, building new knowledge and educational experiences through various technologies and in all levels of learning. But this is still insignificant in a country of just over 20 million inhabitants "embedded" in a knowledge society, within which are all those who, wishing to participate actively in the socio-economic development of Mozambique, must update their professional and personal knowledge.
A critical look at the politics of distance learning, I would say that what is happening in this area currently is only a replica of what is done in the face-to-face learning, just with a delivery system or treatment different to the learner. One can say that has not been seen in Mozambique which is known in the computing community and the Internet as a killer application (a device or feature designed and engineered so well that essentially "kills" all competitors).
It's time to leave the unknown and explore new areas of knowledge not yet explored through distance education, to find many people in need of benefits that we know that distance education brings, but so far no one thought to focus on and accomplish. There are certainly risks. But good research of the possibility of a viable market for a new educational service through distance education, good business planning, training of a team not only appropriate but also a true dream team and good support for learners before, during and after the course, will guarantee success of the project.
Speaking about Distance Education is, above all, speaking about education. It makes no sense to fix the adjectives in peripheral and non-essential aspects of the educational act, even today when the "distance" has lost its original meaning in the face of increasingly massive penetration of new technologies of information and communication.
In a dialogical and dialectical conception, it makes no sense to try to put this or that subject in the center of the educational process. Education is continually built in a network of relationships, rebuilding, transgressions, from statements and partnerships, in which all involved individuals, participate with responsibilities and commitments, modifying and being modified. Who educates is much more an "institution" and a collective entity rather than individuals.
Therefore, we consider distance education as a dimension of a pedagogy that contributes to a new way of being, that is; with the interest and determination to overcome and break the boundaries that "contain" us as human beings (Neder, 2000).
And one of these transgressions refers to the break, to the separation of the process of teaching from the process of learning. They happen in separated time and space. Who "teaches" the author (or teacher) and who "learn", the "learner". They do not necessarily happen in the same place and at the same time. Hence, the time and space are gaining new significance from the subject because it is he who gives it the meaning: it is time and space of the subject!
Therefore, this mode allows a greater respect for personal rhythms, to social and cultural differences, to pathways and individual life histories, contributing in the process of building the intellectual and political autonomy and recover self-esteem and professional.
But how can the process of learning be possible? According Constructivist theories, it requires not only cognitive processes but also human environment in which the individual interacts with others?
If it is true that "no one teaches anyone ...", on the other hand,” ... no one educates himself: men educate themselves in communion, mediated by the world "(Freire, 1993:9)." Distance education, paradoxically, requires ongoing dialogue and thus closeness to the dialog.
Here arises the figure of the tutor, monitor, advisor, etc. The terminologies are varied, differing because concepts that underlie the educational proposals in the distance learning are different.
5.1.3 Results of interviews
For the analysis of data collected through the interviews, the researcher has privileged the conceptual method of inventories because consider it more appropriate for this study, for the following reasons: (i) Maintain the original language of the interviewee, not reducing the natural speech to the propositional form, (ii) It is a descriptive technique where the number of inferences between data and final results are little compared to the propositional analysis;
The choice of the technique of content analysis as called by Carrion (1986:5) is related primarily to the interest of this research to understand the social representations of the teacher of natural sciences and mathematics. As it is known, the techniques of content analysis are valuable in communication processes, and particularly useful in scientific work in which the investigator is faced with a significant amount of information. Therefore, this technique provides the researcher relevant procedures to analyze categorize and organize the information gained through communication processes with the interviewees. According to Carrión (1986:5) the content analysis constitutes a valuable technique to decode the linguistic forms that may be subjected to certain syntheses and semantic contexts. This assertion becomes the second justification of choice of this technique, especially because the researcher dedicates himself/herself to studying a subject that does not belong to his//her reality.
Besides these, the content analysis becomes an appropriate technique to structure reference data and to produce meaningful reports (Carrión, 1986:6). At certain times a thesis turns into a chaotic work, especially when the researcher is faced with a mountain of information. At first glance the amount of data seems to communicate that they are all important and even indispensable. However, just from the choice of method or technique for information analysis is that it is possible to give life, and particularly meaning to data. In the case of this thesis as it is already evident, this happened with the help of the analysis of inventories of content.
The choice of this technique was determined by its importance in the identification of categories of analysis that characterizes the thinking of the interviewee and the trainer's perspective over this subject. In this sense, we have used the recommendations of Bardin (1986:78) related to encoding of information which according to this author it is held by the process of decomposition, enumeration, classification of information and data obtained in the empirical study. Before the field material and the objectives of this study, we decided to decode the information by following the procedure of textual unit registration, particularly because this modality is indicated for the study of beliefs, values, opinions, and to examine open responses (Bardin, 1986:80). That is an appropriate procedure for this thesis drawn to know and study the thinking of the teacher of natural sciences and mathematics from the understanding of his/her speech, according to the arrest of elements of their culture.
With respect to the extraction process of the categories the researcher also followed the recommendations of the author mentioned above. In the case of this research the categories are thematic type and were constructed from the meeting of common characteristics. This fact has resulted in the grouping of information that share similar elements. The choice obeying thematic themes is related to the interest of representing important aspects of the teacher of natural sciences and mathematics thought. Naturally that in this process the inventory and the classification of information (Bardin, 1986) played an important role because it would be difficult to build categories without first isolating the elements and then, distribute them in an organized manner. In summary, it was thus that the information was managed and was able to find sense and meaning in the most important elements of the thinking of the teacher of natural sciences and mathematics and of course, the trainer, constituting thus response categories as can be seen in table 5:28 that follows.
Table 5.28: Answers to questions from the structured interview
Table 5.29: Answers to open interview questions
However, in order to obtain a set of information relevant to this study, while contrasting them with the information obtained from the sample, the researchers managed to achieve an unstructured interview with a teacher in one of IHE responsible for initial teacher of natural sciences and mathematics, on the information communication technologies but not directly involved in distance learning. For the relevance of the results obtained, the researcher judged relevant its summarized presentation in the table 5.29, above, following the method of conceptual inventories.
5.2 Conclusion
The results of this study indicate that the education that people develop in some way is determined by the challenges of the historic moment for the world view of a time and by the social and scientific and technological advancement. Therefore it is believed that Distance Learning brings the possibility of freeing students and teachers from a monotonous role, passive and centralized to the teacher as a mean of transmitting information. Distance learning has developed strategies and is using resources that promote interaction, exploration and building of their own learning by setting their own pace, creating opportunities to choose according their own interests. In short: take over the management of own learning processes. These cognitive ecosystems are likely to represent the realization of the constructive ideals, creating an enormous area of potential development for students and capabilities of information processing which is believed to be indispensable to be a citizen of today’s society.
In this sense the articulation of appropriate technologies is opening space for the formation of a new education: more flexible, meaningful, participatory and motivating than traditional education. ICT enable the shortening of distances, providing the dissemination of ideas and different perspectives. In this sense, they are proving to be a valuable tool for critical reflection, opening the possibility for the teacher to find new ways of seeing the world, enabling a comparison with his/her ideas. The Internet has opened the doors to a brave new world, a revolution in communication that allows connection among people, sharing knowledge, giving the teacher a way to constantly update knowledge, lifelong learning and learning for life.
Distance Learning is a form of education that combines specialists from various areas in the reflection of the educational process which takes the teacher's out of isolation and providing him/her with resources that generate different strategies for different audiences, but appropriate to local contexts and more reflective as well.
In this context, it equates the Distance Learning as a way in which the teacher ceases to occupy the role of transmitter and fills the role of pedagogical mediator between knowledge (presented through various media) and students (through various media and tools), deepening the educational dialogue.
The interaction systems ensure bilateral communication because they allow the learner to access to the institution of Distance Learning anytime, anywhere to facilitate the collection of study materials, access to updates or inter-medium work, posting questions to forums of course, read messages from peers and instructors, enter online dialogue into the virtual classroom, make a computer video telephony with the trainer or other learners or ask for help.
With the advent of technologies related to e-learning it is able to enrich the entire space of mediation between the person and learning processes. These new media are bringing new content, new tools for mediation of learning and enable the person in his/her learning process to have greater freedom in space and time (Tribolet, 2001).
Reinforcing the idea that e-learning tools that are on the market are trivial, normal and simple, this researcher believes that they extend of space for mediation between the individual and the learning, they will wag the educational system in its entirety, because the system is based on the physical malfunctioning cornerstones (Tribolet, 2001).
The same author advances an idea that may seem a paradox: "The new area of e-learning came to enhance significantly the face-to- face learning. That is, it will allow face-to-face learning to focus on substantive issues, in discussing themes that students want to discuss, because the means that they possess do not allow them to clarify their doubts. And it will be in contact with the trainer and colleagues that they will clarify and discuss these doubts". For the researcher, "I" is the word that best defines the e-learning, because this system enables to learning what “I” like to learn, when “I” want and how “I” want.
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