The importance of teachers in integrating ICT into science teaching in intermediate schools in Saudi Arabia: a mixed methods study

Curriculum reform is central to the aspirations of many developing countries as they strive to deliver a quality education to their citizens. In Saudi Arabia, with its remarkable achievement of a high literacy rate in a few decades, the next step is bringing its resources to bear on providing a quality education so that Saudis may take their places in the global labour force.<br><br>This study concerns the integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) into the science curriculum of intermediate schools for boys and girls in the educational district of Jeddah, and the training and development requirements of science teachers in this regard. A mixed methodology was employed to obtain qualitative data from six policymakers within the Ministry of Education in Riyadh and Jeddah, and quantitative data from a questionnaire for which 311 replies were received from intermediate schools’ science teachers in Jeddah.<br>The findings confirm those reported in the literature that inefficient central project management and inadequate resources influence the integration of ICT in the science curriculum. Further, qualitative and quantitative findings confirm that teachers’ access to training is affected by time constraints, ineffective ICT course material, and in the specialised case of an Islamic country, inadequate access of women teachers to external training. However, this study does not support the majority of researchers which finds teachers’ negative attitude to ICT. Whilst the policy makers interviewed in this study perceived the teachers as having a negative attitude toward ICT integration in the science curriculum, quantitative data from the teachers pointed to a high interest (90 per cent) in ICT integration, and their willingness to pursue further professional development in the effective use of ICT in the intermediate science curriculum.