Why

ICT trainings have low impact

Patricia Jaramillo
1st February 2012


Three findings of educational psychology about conceptual change (Murphy, 2006)1 can help
us understand why ICT training have low impact in teachers practices:

People approach new knowledge from prior knowledge and beliefs.
People need to adapt or abandon the prior knowledge to integrate new knowledge.
For people it is very difficult to change opinions and beliefs.

Many teacher training programs do not start exploring prior knowledge and beliefs of
participants. Teachers attending these courses, from older teachers who do not have fine
skills to handle the mouse, to teachers who were born when computers were at homes and
are good users thereof.

However, training is the same for all of them.

Trainings do not consider that these teachers come from different social and institutional
environment; from urban or rural places; from private or public school; from high, medium or
low socioeconomic status or from violent environments.

Trainings do not consider that there are teachers who came to the profession with passion for
education, children and knowledge; but others are professionals who have not found work
and teaching has been his livelihood but they are not trained for it and it is not part of their
interests and motivations.

Trainings do not consider that preconceptions are deeply rooted because of what they have
formally learned, what they have lived in classrooms, what the environment has required
them, among other reasons.

Trainings do not consider that teachers need time and practice to integrate new knowledge.

As a result, many times teachers are unwilling to change those prior knowledge and integrate
new knowledge without changing fundamentals, change in form but keep the background.


Thus, a training program is not the appropriate strategy to change their conceptions. It may
serve to give information or update on new trends, but real change requires deeper and
longer interventions.

1 Murphy (2006). Changing knowledge and beliefs.