Training Needs Assessment and Utilization of Information and Communication Technology in Secondary Teacher Education Colleges in Zimbabwe

This study aimed at assessing training needs that would enable not only lead to successful integration of ICT skills into teacher education curriculum in Zimbabwe, but also to sustained use of ICT resources. The research sought to analyze the gap between the ideal and the situation on the ground. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches was utilized to get the best out of each of the designs. Thus the research employed the use of questionnaires from which quantifiable data was generated, whilst valuable opinions, experiences, insights and feelings were captured through interviews. Policy documents and syllabuses were analysed to understand the context in which colleges implemented their ICT decisions, and this also enabled the researchers to triangulate by counter checking sources checked against each other to ensure reliability. Findings revealed that whilst lecturers are indeed using ICT skills and resources in their teaching, they are incapacitated by inadequate training. Most lecturers received ICT training on joining the colleges and none thereafter; hence there is a lack of Continuous Professional Development. (CPD) The research also identifies among other things barriers that are working against full ICT integration into the teacher education curriculum and these include access to ICT resources, technical problems associated with ICT use such as poor internet connectivity and lack of training programmes. Several recommendations are made, among other things that there is need for a well thought out training programme that would ensure success and sustainability of ICT integration into college curricula. Training should be part of CPD and should be central to the success of ICT integration. Other recommendations advanced include the need for standards that guide the implementation of ICT syllabi to ensure a good product in the form of a teacher graduate, that college administrators need to invest more human and financial resources on ICT integration, and lastly that the teaching of ICT skills needs to be decentralised from the IT Units in colleges to subject areas so that subject specific ICT skills are developed and subject lecturers are forced to develop their own ICT skills