Am. Gilmore, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM - AN EVALUATION OF PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS, New Zealand journal of educational studies, 29(1), 1994, pp. 21-36
In 1990, teacher development in the effective use of information techn
ology in the classroom was offered to teachers in the Canterbury, Nels
on and West Coast regions. Approximately 700 teachers participated. Un
like earlier models of teacher development which have shared character
istics of ''periodic detention'', the model employed for this programm
e possessed a number of important differences which contributed to a t
ruer model of ''professional development''. The evaluation of the prog
ramme revealed substantial changes to teachers' confidence and compete
nce in integrating computers into their classroom activities. Notable
benefits were also found for students and the classroom learning envir
onment. These outcomes were largely maintained twelve months later. Th
e teacher development programme was extremely valuable for initiating
teachers into using computers in the classroom and for providing a ''s
pringboard'' for further professional development.