The public primary school principals’ self-perceived competence and use of ICT for personal, teaching and administrative purposes

Abstract

The current study surveyed a random sample of 250 public primary school principals, from April until June of 2008, in order to explore the principals’ self perceived competence and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for personal, teaching and administrative-managerial purposes in primary schools of Cyprus. The results of the study revealed that primary school principals generally, do not feel very competent in using ICT, although the majority of them have received in-service training on ICT for personal purposes. Moreover, principals use ICT frequently but not on a daily basis. Also, principals feel more competent in using a word-processor and a search engine on the Internet than creating and using a spreadsheet or a database. Finally, it appears that principals use the computer more frequently for personal purposes, then for administrative purposes and last for teaching purposes.