The Role of ICT in Teaching Processes in Bulgarian Schools

As the twenty-first century is dominated by information and communication technologies (ICT), they are a fundamental factor for innovation both in social and economic sectors. Education has an essential role in this process, as it is responsible for the establishment of the necessary knowledge and skills in students today, who will be the key driver in future development. ICT has been widely introduced to school programs for students to learn, but the meaningful integration of technology into classrooms is not strongly evident. Until recently, the use of these technologies in education practice is not explored in details. Many studies point out that teachers are the key determinant to the effective use of ICT in teaching practice. However, the issue of how students perceive the efforts of teachers in this direction have to be further explored. There are a lot of related studies worldwide, but very few empirical research has been done to investigate this issue in the context of Bulgaria. The authors make a scientific study on the role and impact of ICT to comprehensively demonstrate the effects of technology tools on the learning process. For that purpose, a survey that applies multiple case study methodology is performed, where both teachers and school students were the units of sampling used. The goal is to explore their views concerning the impact and importance of technology in education. The presented research formalizes and assesses the main aspects that refer to the use of new technologies in the education process. The current paper focuses on several issues concerning the application of ICT resources and tools in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and other subjects. The results point to the importance of providing appropriate conditions for effective teaching, so teachers can employ a wide range of technology resources to support many different pedagogical strategies to enhance the comprehension of students.