RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND UTILISATION IN THE TRAINING OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS FOR TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN TEACHING IN SELECTED COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN GHANA

There have been considerable investments in resourcing teacher training institutions all over the world especially, in advanced countries but can same be said of the middle income and underdeveloped countries? This study was carried out to investigate how resourceful colleges of education in Ghana are to enable them train pre-service teachers to integrate technology into teaching and learning. It is perceived that in teacher education programmes, technology receives very little attention and this lack to technology becomes a hindrance to the objective of equipping pre-service teachers to teach effectively with technology in schools even after graduation. The question therefore is: How resourceful technologically, are the colleges of education in Ghana to help train pre-service teachers for technology integration? A mixed method approach was used to gather data from teacher educators and pre-service teachers in order to identify the technology resources available in colleges to aid in pre-service teachers’ professional training to integrate technology into teaching and learning. The study adopted the mixed method approach because it aimed at delving deep into the topic in order to know more about how the colleges are resourced technologically for pre-service teachers’ technology training for the 21st century. The sample consisted of 417 pre-service teachers for the quantitative data and four student focus groups with each group made up of not less than ten students as well as four college tutors for the qualitative sample. Interviews were conducted to supplement the quantitative data and bring more meaning to the quantitative data. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 19 whereas the qualitative data were manually analyzed to establish the themes and sub-themes. It came to light that most colleges had challenges with regard to the provision of technology resources and that it has been extremely difficult using the few available obsolete resources to train pre-service teachers for technology integration into instruction. It is therefore necessary that the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, the National Council for Tertiary Education and NGOs would come to the aid of colleges to help resource them to meet the technology training of teachers in colleges.