Proficiency of Vocational Teacher Educators and Availability of Information and Communication Technology Resources for Effective Instruction in Colleges of Education, South-South, Nigeria

Teacher educators in Colleges of Education in Nigeria are expected to be proficient in using ICT resources available in their colleges to facilitate and enhance their students learning and creativity. However, there is no indication that vocational teacher educators (VTEs) are equipped with the necessary ICT competencies and resources for effective delivery of instruction to vocational teacher trainees. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to determine the proficiency of Agriculture and Business teacher educators (ABTEs) on ICT competency standard of instruction and the availability of ICT resources for effective instruction delivery in Colleges of Education in South-South Nigeria. To achieve this goal, 2 research questions were generated and 1 null hypothesis was formulated. The study adopted a Descriptive design using the survey method. The population for the study was 298 made up of 145 agriculture and 153 Business teacher educators from Colleges of Education in South-South Nigeria. All the ABTEs were studied as no sampling was done. A 76-item structured questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 268 (89.9%) copies of the questionnaire were correctly filled and analyzed, using mean to answer the research questions and t-test for testing the hypothesis. Results showed that the ABTEs expressed moderate proficiency (M=3.11; SD=0.98) in all the 54 ICT competency standards. ICT resources such as television, microcomputer and radio were available, while ICT resources such as interactive television, electronic drawing system and different software were unavailable for instruction delivery. This paper concluded that the moderate proficiency in ICT competency standards of instruction expressed by the ABTEs is indicative of their readiness and capability to use ICT resources for effective instruction if the resources are made generally available in the classrooms. This paper recommended that the management of the various Colleges of Education in South-South Nigeria and relevant agencies involved in teacher educators’ capacity building such as Tetfund, NCC should organize in-service training programmes and workshops for ABTEs to acquire the requisite proficiency on ICT competency standards of instruction based on the identified proficiency gaps.