STUDY REGARDING THE USE OF COMPUTER IN ADULTS’ EDUCATION

This paper presents a study having as its purpose the investigation of the trainees’ satisfaction degree regarding the use of computer by adult trainers in the teaching-learning-evaluation process. In the first part, it makes a descriptive analysis of adult trainers’ and trainees’ perceptions on the use of computer in didactic actions. The study goes on by highlighting the existence of significant differences between the perceptions of adult trainers regarding the use of computer in the didactical process and the trainees’ perceptions regarding the acquirement of professional behaviors when adult trainers use computer in the classroom. Eighteen adult trainers and thirty-six trainees involved in continuous training courses organized by the Department of Teachers’ Training within the Pitesti University participated in this study. The following were included in the criteria for the selection of adult trainers: the educational level, the expert knowledge, the pedagogical skill, the quality of the didactical, scientific and research activity, and the run-through training programs in the information and communications technology and computer-based training fields. The interest of such research focused on two aspects, i.e.: one aspect focused on the identification of particular aspects of the computer use in the teaching-learning-evaluation process and on the deep understanding thereof – qualitative research, and a second aspect focused on the identification of general aspects allowing a wider understanding of the phenomon, irrespective of the categories of trainees benefitting from training within the programs promoted by the Department of Teachers’ Training in the Pitesti University; such approach is specific to quantitative research. The research design is a multi-method design, based on distinct methods for collecting qualitative and quantitative data; for this reason, for collecting the research data, semi-structured in-depth interviews based on the focus group method and questionnaires evaluating the acquisition of professional behaviors were used. The results of this study highlight the fact that the use of computer by adult trainers in the didactic activities underlines a series of vulnerabilities in the acquisition of trainees’ professional behaviors.