Challenges of Professional Development for Technology Integration in Higher Education

Abstract

The Teacher Professional Development (TPD) models, approaches, and programs have contributed to some extent to overcome the barriers that higher education faculty experience as regards ICT adoption for student learning. However, their impact on practice is still limited. The current scenario in education is complex and demands new approaches regarding TPD for ICT. The present research uses Expansive Learning as the analytical approach to study the factors that limit ICT integration as well as the challenges of TPD for ICT adoption in Higher Education (ICT-TPD) to address limitations. Four main challenges were found and are herein described in order to propose an organizational-oriented development model, to wit: (1) a required collective cross-level development approach, (2) an approach where problems or limitations are essential to surpass boundaries, (3) a cultural appropriation of ICT and (4) the influence of power relations.