What Constrains Teachers From Using ICT to Support Teaching as Inquiry?

Abstract

Government reports indicate that many New Zealand schools have few supports for teaching as inquiry. Recent developments in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), however, appear to provide new tools which could support several aspects of teachers� inquiries, such as digital portfolios and online collaboration platforms. This literature review investigates what barriers there might be for ICT to support teaching as inquiry, primarily in a New Zealand setting. It challenges the prevailing notion that teachers� failure to recognise the potential of technology is the single most critical missing strategy for inquiry development, and shows that a variety of other factors continue to have significance in the literature. The implication of this review is that a variety of strategies appear to be required to support teachers in using ICT for an inquiry approach to teaching, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.