New way of investigating ICT-enhanced teaching in TAFE Australia: Disciplinary focused

Abstract

Teachers’ ways of using ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in various disciplines is a recent issue in the higher educational research paradigm. In order to extend previous findings in relation to this issue, this research proposes an in-depth investigation focusing on vocational teachers’ qualitatively diverse ways of using ICT in different disciplines. A cohort of 11 teachers from three TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institutions of NSW, Australia, were purposively chosen aiming to ensure adequate variations in disciplines, gender, and experience of using ICT. The phenomenographic research approach was considered as the theoretical and methodological underpinning which guided the participant selection, data collection and data analysis. The findings revealed that disciplines have very limited influence on using ICT in TAFE teaching. It further discerned four categories of description: tool, content, subject, and student focused. The findings provide useful information towards improving vocational teaching practices in different disciplines and working as an input for improving teacher professional development program (TPD). In order to generalise these findings, an extended research with a wider sample is recommended.