Mathematics Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding ICT Use in Teaching and Learning Practices

Abstract

Background : Since we have been living in the digital age, the ways of interacting with information, data and other human beings have changed. Being so, teachers need to understand their new role in pedagogical environments, changing their perspectives, and, most of all, transforming their knowledge to be able to teach with digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Concerns about this new kind of teacher knowledge led to discussions that culminated, in the beginning of the 21st century, with the development of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. Objectives : Knowing the importance of preparing teachers to work with ICT to enrich their pedagogical practices, we propose this qualitative study that aims to analyse perceptions of a group of preservice teachers about the use of ICT in mathematics teaching and learning practices. Design : This study has a qualitative approach and it can be understood as a case study. Setting and Participants : The participants are 10 preservice teachers from a Portuguese University. Data collection and analysis : Data were collected using a survey and the responses were analysed through Discursive Textual Analysis. Results : We understand that most participants have a well-developed TPACK and they can see several educational benefits from using ICT to teach and learn mathematics. Conclusions : The results of this study highlight the valuable activity of this preservice teachers’ course, which is committed with the goal of helping them to develop their own TPACK.