The attitudes and opinions of Cypriot primary teachers about the use of the Internet for their professional development and as an educational tool

Abstract

This article explores the attitudes and opinions of Cypriot primary teachers about the use of the Internet for their personal development and as an educational tool. It also examines the teachers’ concerns about the implementation of the Internet in schools and their opinions about what has to be done in order to ensure its effective integration into the educational settings. The research revealed that Cypriot primary teachers had positive attitudes towards using the Internet both for their professional development and as an educational tool. The only factor that appeared to have a significant positive relationship with the attitudes of the teachers was the degree of confidence in using the Internet. Additionally, teachers considered training in the use of the Internet as the most important need for its effective implementation in primary schools.

Keywords:

• Cyprus
• educational tool
• Internet
• professional development
• teachers’ attitudes

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge with gratitude the guidance given by Constantinos Loucaides for his helpful comments on the final draft.