How trainee teachers of IT approach teaching their subject

This paper explores the nature of Information Technology (IT) as a separate subject in the secondary school curriculum. It reports on research carried out with a cohort of specialist IT post-graduate trainee teachers at a loc al university. The paper explores IT trainees' approach to teaching their s ubject and describes their strong focus on purpose when teaching IT. Import ant characteristics of the purposeful approach are the use of authentic dat a; the transformation of data by pupils; and a focus on problem solving wit hin a context to which pupils can relate. However in their work in schools, trainees found constraints on developing a strong focus on purpose in thei r lessons. They were encouraged to experiment but felt they needed more sup port to carry out purposeful activities with pupils. The implications of th is research on teacher training and on the value of IT as a curriculum subj ect are discussed.