Use of Information Communication Technology in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Insights During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe

Background To The Study

The emergence of Covid-19 disease presented a lot of challenges with regards to the teaching and learning of science in teacher education. The disease was named Covid-19 and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2020). The dangers associated with this pandemic is that person-to-person transmission occurs primarily via direct contact or through droplets spread by coughing or sneezing from an infected individual (Liu et al, 2020). This means that the virus is transmitted from human-to-human through contact between infected and uninfected individuals. Preeti (2020) noted that this pandemic COVID-19 has resulted in disruptions in the economic, social and political aspects of life. As a result, countries took various measures to control the spread of the disease. In Zimbabwe, government declared recursive national lockdown, travelling restrictions, social distancing (Mbunge et al, 2020). Following such declarations, Dzobo, Chitungo, and Dzinamarira (2020) observed that all school, colleges and universities were closed. Therefore, it meant that learning institutions including universities and colleges had to find alternative ways of teaching and learning during these restrictions.

Teachers’ colleges and universities in Zimbabwe fall under the Ministry of higher, tertiary, science and technology education, now Ministry of higher and tertiary education, innovation, science, and technology development. This Ministry churns out teachers who would work mostly in the Ministry of Primary and secondary education (MoPSE, 2014). Currently what clearly separates Teachers’ colleges from Universities is that the former follows a three or two-year course program to train their students; while the later have a four and a two-year training programs. Both colleges and universities produce pre-service primary and secondary school teachers; and universities further train in-service teachers who would have undergone initial training at teachers’ colleges for their Diploma qualifications, guided by STEM polic. In higher education in Zimbabwe, the shutdown of universities and colleges meant that authorities were tasked to come up with measures to ensure continuity of teaching and learning within these learning institutions. One way instituted to deal with the problem was through online teaching and learning methodology, particularly conducting lessons through use of ICTs (Savec, 2019). In particular, the role of ICTSs as emerging technologies was emphasized in in the teaching and learning of STEM when learning institutions attempt to deal with the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The underlying question is: How is ICT implemented in STEM teaching and learning in teacher education during Covid-19 pandemic?