Abstract

ICT user skill is a relatively new subject area and has a limited pedagogical
history. To date, most of the discussion has been about ICT within schools,
particularly integration of ICT into other curriculum areas, with less emphasis on
how to teach user skills, especially to adults. This research explores differing
teaching practices within the adult ICT user skills environment from a teacher
professional knowledge perspective. By examining the ways that teachers
develop, maintain and enact pedagogical knowledge and by determining
influencing factors, this investigation contributes to the subject and pedagogical
understandings vital to an emergent subject area. A naturalistic, qualitative,
multi-methodology approach was used, involving interviews, classroom
observations, document examination, and learner questionnaires. This enabled
flexible examination and triangulation of the varying influences on practice and
the development of emergent models.
The research identified seven different teaching approaches but concludes that
‘transmissive’ teaching styles focusing on procedural skills dominate. Activity is
almost universally perceived by stakeholders as practical, hands-on and
individual. The diversity and nature of the teachers’ professional backgrounds,
ambiguous subject goals, perceptions of adults as learners, and strong
institutional and examination influences all contribute to this narrow perspective.
This thesis questions whether such one-dimensional subject and pedagogical
outlooks could impact adversely on outcome, leading to skills deficiencies which
may limit economic and/or personal ICT potential. Drawing on problem solving
examples from the research the thesis proposes a more holistic approach to
create a robust theoretical base for both subject and pedagogy.