Abstract
Scientific research shows that the role of teachers is crucial in the integration of informatics at all educational stages. Besides some other barriers, teachers’ lack of knowledge of informatics is believed to be a reason why educators are reluctant to get involved in informatics teaching. Hence, this study focused on the factors influencing primary school teachers’ motivation and possible barriers for integrating informatics in lessons. The data were collected from an accessible sample by conducting semi-structured interviews with primary school teachers in Lithuania and Turkey in 2022. This paper also presents an overview of informatics primary education curricula in both countries. Results showed that despite different curriculum conditions and sociodemographic issues in two countries, primary school teachers’ factors of motivation and barriers are the same. Motivation depends on teachers’ willingness to acquire new digital competences, to go beyond being a regular teacher and to innovate in their school. Teachers understand the importance of keeping their students up-to-date with the newest educational technologies and CT competences, however they face serious challenges to overcome. We sum up with a discussion comparing curricula and teachers’ attitudes in both countries and conclude with some insights and recommendations.
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Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the contribution of interviewed primary school teachers from both countries. This project has received funding from European Social Fund (project No 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-23-0083) under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).
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Stupurienė, G., Gülbahar, Y. (2022). Informatics at Primary Education: Teachers’ Motivation and Barriers in Lithuania and Turkey. In: Bollin, A., Futschek, G. (eds) Informatics in Schools. A Step Beyond Digital Education. ISSEP 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13488. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15851-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15851-3_3
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