Redesigning the Teacher Training Curriculum through the Development of Gaming Materials for Planning ICT Integrated Lessons

Abstract

We have developed and implemented a training curriculum for pre-service teachers to help them plan JCT (Information and Communication Technology) integrated lessons. However, we found that the present ways of instruction, such as lectures and hands-on practice, were insufficient for helping inexperienced teachers distinguish the class situations in which ICT could be a powerful tool for effective teaching and helping them understand how to design JCT integrated lessons. For providing further assistance we opted to use “gaming” as a communication tool, and developed gaming materials. Through over two years of empirical studies, it was proved that the materials would facilitate teachers’ utilization of the knowledge acquired in the lectures for lesson planning. Moreover, it was found that the process of developing gaming materials contributed to the improvement of the curriculum. A further direction of this study will be revising the materials in order to correspond to individuals and to advise closely on teaching skills in JCT integrated lessons.