IMPLEMENTATION OF UNESCO FRAMEWORK FOR THE ACQUISITION OF ICT-COMPETENCY OF TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AKOKA, LAGOS

Abstract

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was established to make pre-service teachers acquire practical skills, knowledge of job creation and self-reliance for national economic growth and development. However, studies have shown that the outcomes of TVET (skills acquisition and creativity) could not be achieved as a result of inadequate ICT resources. Previous studies focused largely on improvisation and improvement of instructional strategies without much attention on the use of ICT to teach TVET practical skills. A survey of TVET teachers in Lagos State showed that they had low technology literacy and knowledge creation. Therefore, this study was carried out to implement UNESCO ICT-Competency Framework (Technology Literacy - TL; Knowledge Deepening - KD and Knowledge Creation -KC) for the acquisition of ICT-based teaching competencies among Federal College of Education TVET pre-service teachers in Lagos State. Competency and Engagement theories provided the framework. Design-based approach of mixed methods adopted was in four phases – analysis, development, iterative and reflection, which were carried out in 16 weeks. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used. Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka was purposively selected being a college of education with adequate technical and vocational resources in Lagos State. Fourteen 200 level pre-service teachers were enumerated and purposively selected in their ultimate year, where the bulk of the courses were taken. The instruments used were Skill Acquisition (r=0.72); Technology Literacy Assessment (α=0.98); Knowledge Deepening Assessment (α=0.87) and Knowledge Creation Assessment (α=0.94) scales, and UNESCO training module. A session of focus group discussion was held with TVET class representatives. Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistics and paired t-test at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content analysed. The majority of the participants (92.9%) were male. Pre-service teachers’ TL (85.0%); KD (78.5%) and KC (73.1%) were high. Pre-service teachers demonstrated high creativity in use of ICT (ease of use - 76.3%; engagement - 71.0%). There was a significant difference (t =5.302; df=13) between the level of ICT use. The mean of level of ICT use before training was (𝑥̅= 80.07), while that of after training was (𝑥̅= 142.50). Pre-service teachers’ knowledge of skills (71.4%); standard of work (57.2%); autonomy of work (71.4%); coping with complexity (57.1%) and perception of context (78.5%) were high. Despite preparation, pre-service teachers lack ICT skills. In addition, they prepared ICT-based lesson notes which were used to teach Technical Drawing. They perceived the use of ICT tools as relevant and related to achieving the objectives of TVET. They demonstrated acquisition of practical skills and creativity after the training. The implementation of UNESCO framework for the acquisition of ICT competency for Technical and vocational education in Federal College of Education Akoka, Lagos was effective. The framework should be adopted by technical and vocational education teachers.