Teacher readiness and professional development strategies for technology integration in English teaching practice / Nur Amanina Zakaria

Technology integration has been a central theme in English language teaching. Nevertheless, technology by itself will not guarantee an effective learning without teacher readiness in incorporating technology. Recent literature has shown a worrying trend among teachers’ lack of competence in integrating technology, particularly in applying their technological, pedagogical and content knowledge in their teaching practice. Hence, there is a crucial need to examine the professional development strategies that could potentially support teachers in their attempt to incorporate technology in English classrooms. Using a case study design, this research will explore the influences of professional development strategies on teacher readiness in technology integration for English teaching practice. The findings depicted that teachers hold high readiness level in technology integration, suggesting that they have a positive attitude towards technology incorporation in their teaching practice. Their readiness is directly impacted not only by school-based professional development training, but also through their own self-initiated explorations and strategies; on top of other unexpected findings of the pandemic effect and their internal factors; such as teachers’ growth mentality, resilience and resourcefulness. However, the study also revealed that their practice still lacked the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), which implied that further support is needed to enhance the effectiveness of their use of technology in English classrooms. Future studies are recommended to further explore the effectiveness of other variety of professional development strategies such as teacher-based ambassador programs.