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Introduction There is a growing awareness that learners are motivated when learning activities are authentic, challenging, multidisciplinary and multi-sensorial. More emphasis is being laid on activity pedagogies. This has led to the shift from teacher centered didactic pedagogy to student centered constructivist pedagogy. The constructivist pedagogy strives with the evolution and infusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the curriculum. As Papert (n.d) rightly observed that technology for the fist time has made activity pedagogy feasible. The integration of ICT into the curriculum had provoked a fundamental revolution in curriculum and its pedagogy. Some important technology led changes are already underway in education. Bustra (2003) pointed at some of these changes to include:  a teacher is a coach, a supervisor and an expert, but from time to time also a self learner  a student is no longer primarily focused on listening to a teacher, the learner; has to accomplish tasks, is very active, is in a certain way building and constructing knowledge  a teacher no longer offers and explains texts but is offering experiences, tasks  contents of the learning process is multidisciplinary, integrating knowledge, skills and attitudes  testing is not purely aiming at selection, but at diagnostics and measuring progress  learning environment is based on a small scale, a lot of interaction, a lot of information sources and only a few teacher s order. Ruthven and Hennessey (2005:85) explained that as well as serving as a

lever through which teachers seek to make established practice more

effective, technology appears also to act as a fulcrum for degree or reorientation of practice and measured development of teachers pedagogical thinking . Contemporary ICTs (Internet) allow new types of teaching/learning experiences to flourish. Many new technologies are interactive, making it easier to create environments in which students can learn by doing, received feedback and continually refine their understanding & build new knowledge. Jager and lokman (1999) buttressed that an image in which ICT is used for communication between students and teachers, and consequently a variety of learning environment are possible, teacher centered and whole class instruction is no longer the dominant teaching method. Technical education must remain valuable to the educational system. Its programs must continue to be enriched to prepare students for the workplace and society. For technical teachers to meet this new demand, they must continue to value modern technologies and seek ways to connect program and instructional management with appropriate modern technology, especially the Internet. Technical teacher will continue to be challenged by these technologies and their innovative pedagogies. Thus the teachers must be able to use technologies that are continually changing the ways that people live, work and learn. Explaining the situation, Jung (2005) said that teaching is becoming one of the most challenging professions in the society where knowledge is expanding rapidly and modern technologies are demanding teachers to learn how to use these technologies in their teaching. There is need to understand how teaching and learning change as specific technologies are introduced into the curriculum. The novelty of introducing technology into the curriculum lies in the way subject matter, pedagogy and technology relationships are constructed. According to Koehler and Mishap (2008), the introduction of

technology causes the representation of new concepts and requires developing sensitivity to the dynamic transactional relationship between technology, pedagogy and content. There is no gain saying the role of the teacher has changed from acting in front of the class to coaching the individual student or small groups of students. More structures have to be developed and new ways of interaction/dialogue devised. The teacher has to learn to implement different constructivist instructional strategies such as; computer supported cooperative learning (Laat & Lally, 2005), knowledge building (Scadamalia & Berieter, 2003), social networking (Driver, 2002), community of practice (Wegner, McDermott & Snyer, 2002) and Problem-based learning (Savory & Duffy, 1995). This requires teachers to adjust their teaching programs around the concept of rich tasks and employ the concept of multilitracy as being appropriate for networked society. It requires the use and blending of various kinds of literacy, the mastery of many different codes and the capacity to switch between and blend the various multiliteracy (Education Queensland, 2000). It is obviously agreed upon that new role of the teacher is a key issue in connection with the use of new technology. But there are few in-depth analyses of what this role is, beyond some general statements that the role must put more emphasis on counseling and less on traditional classroom activities. However, this study was set to determine the new roles of the technical teacher and competencies required to adequately play the roles. To achieve this objective, the following research questions were formulated. 1. What are the technical teacher s prospective roles in a richly ICT design learning environment?

2. To what extent should the new technical teacher master ICT competencies? 3. To what extent should the new technical teacher master innovative pedagogical competencies? 4. To what extent should the new technical teacher master the various aspects of the curriculum? 5. What personal skills should the new technical teacher possess? Method Survey design was used to collect data on the New Technical Teacher s Professional Repertoire. The study covered colleges of education (technical) in Eastern Nigeria, Abia State College of Education (Technical) Arochukwu, Enugu State College of Education (Technical) Enugu and Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze. The population consists of 26 technical teachers in the three colleges. No further sampling was made owing the population size. One instrument, New Technical Teacher s Professional Repertoire

questionnaire was developed and used by the researchers. Part A and E were rated on a 2point scale (1&0), while part B, C and D were rated on a 5point scale(4,3,2,1&0). The instrument was face and content validated by two experts from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka; while its reliability was 0.77, established using Cronbach Alpha reliability test. The questionnaires were administered directly to the respondents and collected after being filled. Data collected were analyzed using statistical mean to answer the research questions. Decision was taking in favor of items that scored 0.5 and above for part A and E, while those contained in part B, C and D must score 2.0 and above to be considered important.

Results Table 1: Mean Responses of Technical Teachers on their Prospective Roles in ICT Rich Learning Environment
s/n Prospective Roles Mean Score 1 2 3 Inducer/persuader Inquirer/catalyst Promote students 0.8 0.7 0.8 important Important Important 9 10 11 Remark s/n Prospective Roles Mentor Dialogist Foster multiple perspective of 0.3 Unimportant 12 Support metacognition 0.7 0.8 Important Important 13 14 Coach Scaffold learning 0.7 0.4 important Unimportant 15 Facilitator 0.9 important 0.9 0.8 Important Important 0.7 Important Mean Score 0.8 0.7 0.7 important Important Important Remark

self management 4 Sole possessor

knowledge 5 6 Counselor Partner in learning process 7 8 Moderator Knowledge dispenser

Only items 4 and 8 were not considered as important roles of the technical teacher in ICT rich learning environment. Table 2: Mean Responses of Technical Teachers on the Extent they should Master Innovative Pedagogical Competencies
s/n Innovative Pedagogical Competencies Mean score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Design ICT rich learning material/environment Stimulate/model knowledge building process Use social network/community of practice Develop/employ problem-based learning Design visual learning environment Design educational websites Employ online collaborative/cooperative learning Develop educational software Critically select appropriate technology/media to support learning process 10 11 Employ visual learning environment Utilize educational website 2.5 2.8 3.0 3.2 2.6 2.8 2.0 1.9 2.9 1.9 2.7 unimportant Important unimportant Important important Remark

All except items 6 and 8 scored above average 2.0 indicating that the respondents considered those pedagogical competencies important excluding designing educational websites and developing educational software. Table 3: Mean Responses of Technical Teachers on Extent they should Master ICT Competencies
s/n ICT Competencies Mean score 1 2 3 4 5 6 Basic computer operation Word processor MS word, word perfect Presentation software MS power point Spreadsheet MS excel, Multiplan, Super Calc Databases MS Access Desktop Publishing pagemaker 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Computer aided design AutoCAD, ArchiCAD Computer aided manufacturing CAM Graphic design Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator Create and use email connect to networks internet, intranet, extranet Surf the internet or other networks Download and save data Use antivirus and spywares Online communication chatting 2.7 2.8 2.7 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.4 3.5 3.3 Important Important Important Important Important Important Important Important Important MS publisher, ventura Publisher, adobe 3.9 2.2 2.5 2.3 2.1 2.0 Important Important Important Important Important Important Remark

All items scored above the average 2.0, indicating that the respondents considered all ICT competencies important to be mastered.

Table 4: Mean Responses of Technical Teachers on Extent they should Master Various Aspects of the Curriculum
s/n Aspects of the Curriculum 1 2 3 4 5 6 Objectives Content-subject matter Learning experiences Learning materials Evaluation Administration Mean score Remark 3.3 3.8 2.9 3.0 3.2 3.1 Important Important Important Important Important Important

From the result in table 4, all aspects of the curriculum are considered important to be mastered by the technical teacher. Table 5: Mean Responses of Technical Teachers on their Required Personal Skills
s/n Personal Skills Mean score 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lifelong learning Creativity Flexibility Logistic Sympathy Passion/willingness to learn 7 Making decision 1.0 important 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.6 1.0 important 8 important 9 important 10 important 11 important 12 important 13 Rigid Firm Building trust Responsible Smart Cooperative/ collaborative Remark s/n Personal Skills Mean score 0.4 0.4 0.8 1 0.7 0.9 unimportant unimportant important important important important Remark

Items 1,2,6,7 and 11 scored 100%, indicating that all respondents see these personal skills as what the technical teacher must possess. Except items 8 and 9 all other personal skills were important as well. Discussion The findings in table 1 has illustrated that, to be included in the professional repertoire of the technical teacher are such roles as

inducer/persuader, inquirer/catalyst, promoter of students self management, counselor, partner in learning process, moderator, mentor, dialogist, foster of multiple perspective, coach, scaffolding learning and facilitator. But some roles as sole possessor of knowledge and knowledge dispenser, which characterized the traditional old teaching roles, were rejected as roles to be played by the new teacher in the new learning environment. This corroborate with the suggestions and remarks made by Lee, Teo, Chai, Choy, Tan, and Seah (2007), Forsyth (1996) VonGlaserfeld (2005), Ellsworth (n.d). Lee et al maintained that the role of the teacher has changed from acting in front of the class to coaching the individual student. Forsyth analyzing the views of John Dewey, Paulo Frerie and Jean Piagets, upheld that the role of the teacher are concerned not with dissemination of information but in imbuing them with skills they need to become rounded individuals. VonGlaserfeld remarked that educator is not to dispense knowledge but to provide students with opportunity to build it up. Ellsworth identified inducer, inquirer, dialogist and facilitator among the professional roles of the teacher. Table 2 revealed that of all innovative pedagogical competencies, only designing educational websites and developing educational software are not considered important skills by technical teachers, otherwise the rest were important. The identified important pedagogical competencies reflect the view of many authors as Laat and Lally (2005), Berieter and Scadamalia, (2003), Driver (2000), while the unimportant competencies do not conform to their views. However, Akudolu (2006) had similar finding as this finding. Akudolu found that writing educational program and developing hardware are not teacher-required pedagogical competencies. Teachers may regard these skills less important, taking them to assume the same place as textbooks, which is

not compulsory for every teacher to write. However they are willing to use these resources if developed. From the findings in table 3 and 4, all ICT competencies and aspects of the curriculum are important to the technical teacher. Akudolu (2006) made similar observation on ICT competencies. In line with this finding, New Basic Project (Education Queensland, 2000) opined that teachers require to maintain their commitment to traditional standards of mastery with reading and writing while blending these with standards of mastery of new technologies, new literacy and new ways of expression and interpretation. Koehler and Mishap (2008) also suggested that technological, pedagogical content knowledge is a form of knowledge expert teachers should bring into their practice at any moment of their teaching activity. A teacher has to be a professional with respect to the content and pedagogy of the teaching of that content. This includes that the teacher knows (reflectively) the process of designing teaching strategies and teaching materials, including ICT. Table 5 identified all necessary personal skills that will enable the technical teacher to perform effectively and efficiently in the new learning situation. It was found that rigidity and firmness are not among the arsenal of the technical teacher s personality in the teaching/learning process. All the important skills conform to the new skills identified by Jager and Lokman (1999), as part of skills to be possessed by teachers. A critical analysis of these skills attests to their relevance in the new teacher s role. Conclusion The aged traditional methods of teaching are fast becoming archaic and outmoded. The curricula where lessons and content are fixed no longer exist. Emphasis is shifting from teacher-centered curriculum (teacher telling) to student-centered curriculum (knowledge construction). Knowledge

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construction is supported by using different kinds of collaborative technology, especially enhanced learning. This requires teachers to rethink their pedagogical roles and demand that they acquire new skill sets, which must include innovative pedagogical skills, ICT skills, mastery of the curriculum (content) and personal skills. Recommendations 1. Since the technological dynamism even in education system waits for nobody, technical teachers should not wait for government, institutions or NGOs to support their transition to new teacher by committing their time and resources in acquiring relevant training and facilities. 2. Hands on experience increases teachers confidence in integrating

technologies and employing innovative pedagogies in their professional tasks. Technical teachers preparatory institutions have to design quality models/approaches to prepare teachers for uptake of technology/ innovative pedagogies in their teaching. 3. ICT facilities should be distributed to teachers at a subsidized rate. 4. Respective government and authorities should enact policies that will entice teachers and teacher training institutions to integrate technology/ innovative pedagogies. Also they have to support professional development programs for teachers ICT and related educational capacities.

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References
Akudolu,L.R.(2006) Quest for teacher needed competencies for instructional use of ICT. A Paper presented at the National Conference of Nigerian Primary and Teacher Education Association at Enugu State University of Science and Technology Busstra, J. J. (2003) ICTs and their relative impact on the organization and content of vocational training. UNESCO Expert Meeting on Information and Communication Technologies in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Moscow: UNESCO IITE Driver, M. (2002). Exploring student perception of group interaction and class satisfaction in the web-enhanced classroom. Mathematics and Science Teaching 17 (4) 311-338 Education Queensland (2000) New Basic Project. Technical Paper. Retrieved on 02/02/2010 from http://www.education.qld.gov.au Ellsworth, J. (n.d.) The teaching role. Behavioral Management in Special Education ESE502. Retrieved on 14/08/2010 from www.jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese502.html Forsyth, T.(1996). Teaching and learning materials and the internet. London: Kogan page Jager, A. K. and Lokman, A. H. (1999) Impacts of ICT in education: the teacher and the teacher training. Paper Presented at the European Conference on Educational Research Lahti, Finland Jung, I. (2005). ICT pedagogy integration in teacher training: application cases worldwide. Education Technology & Society, 8 (2), 94-101 Koehler, M. J. and Mishra, P. (2008) Introducing TPCK. Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators. New York Routledge Laat, M. and Lally, V. (2005). Investigating group structure in CSLC: some new approaches. Information Systems Frontiers 7 (1) 13-25 Lee, C.B.; Teo, T.; Chai, C.S.; Choy, D.; Tan, A. and Seah, J. (2007) Closing the gap: Preservice teachers perceptions of an ICT based student centered learning curriculum in ICT: providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascillte Singapore. Retrieved on 14/08/2010 from ascilite.Org.au/ conferences/Singapore07/procs/lu-cb.pdf.

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Papert on Psychology (n. d.) http://www.connectedfamily.com

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Ruthven, K. and Hennessy, S. (2002) A practitioner model of the use of computerbased tools and resources to support mathematics teaching and learning Educational Studies in Mathematics 49 (1), pp. 47 88. Savory, J. R. & Duffy, T. M. (1995). Problem based learning: an instructional model and its constructivist framework. Education Technology 35, 31-38 Scardamalia, M. and Bereiter, C. (2003). Knowledge building. In Encyclopedia of Education (2nd ed: 1370-1373) New York: Macmillan Reference, USA VonGlaserfeld, E. (2005) Introduction aspects of constructivism, in C. T. Fosnot (ed) Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice (2nd ed) New York; Teachers College, Columbia University Wenger, E., McDermott, R., Snyer, W. M. (2002). Cultivating community of practice. Boston. Harvard Business School Press

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NEW TEACHER S PROFESSIONAL REPRERTOIRE AS PERCIVED BY TECHNICAL TEACHERS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION (TECHNICAL) IN EASTERN NIGERIA.
Abstract As ICT evolve, so new possibilities arise, leading to adaptations of teaching content and curriculum. ICT will not only feature in the future but will also reflect and shape it. It is not just a change in how people compute or communicate, rather a potentially radical shift in who is in control of information, experience and resources. The shift in educational focus from pedagogy that onuses the role of the teacher as shaping a future worker to shaping a future human mind has slowly infiltrated the mainstream public consciousness and change the way teaching and learning are organized and conducted. It is expected that the role of the teacher should change in line with this pragmatic shift. This demand the teachers to acquire new set of skills to enable them participate functionally and maintain their position as leaders in the instructional process. This study was therefore design to determine the new roles and the competencies, which will transform the technical teacher to the new teacher that can function actively in the dynamic learning environment. The study adopted a survey research design and was guided by five research questions. A structure questionnaire was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was 0.77, established using Cronbach Alpha reliability test; while two experts did the face and content validation. Statistical mean was used to answer the five research questions, and it was found that technical teachers have to; i. take up additional roles as facilitating, coaching, mentoring, counseling, persuading, etc. ii. master innovative pedagogical competencies iii. master ICT competencies iv. possess relevant personal skills It was concluded that technical teachers should rethink their pedagogical roles

and acquire new skill sets. Therefore the recommendation is teachers should on their own put effort to acquiring these competencies, while the teacher training institutions and government make effort to equip teachers with the necessary skills and material to actualize this task ahead.