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PurposeInformal learning is an effective and motivating strategy to support the learning process. Informal learning has received increased attention recently due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, finding effective ways to facilitate innovative teaching and learning through open educational resources (OER) is a vital issue. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the informal learning characteristics (ILC) (i.e. observation, imitation, exploration, innovation and articulation) of teachers in using OER and whether these characteristics have any relationship with teachers' innovative work behavior (IWB, i.e. opportunity exploration, idea generation, idea promotion and idea realization) in schools.Design/methodology/approachThe current study utilized a descriptive quantitative survey approach. A survey with three parts was developed: the Open Educational Resources Scale (OERS), the Teachers' Informal Learning Characteristics Scale (TILCS) and the Teachers' Innovative Work Behavior Scale (TIWBS). The information was gathered from a sample of 2,024 teachers working in Kuwait's public schools through an online survey.FindingsThe results revealed that social media, YouTube, PowerPoint and games were the most common open resources used by teachers. Teachers' responses on the TILCS showed that observation was the most common among teachers and exploration was the second. Responses on the TIWBS showed that idea generation was the highest. When using OER, the results showed that all five subscales of the TILCS and all four subscales of the TIWBS were linked in a good way.Research limitations/implicationsThis study had several limitations that should be considered in future research. First, the data collection method was self-report. Future research necessitates adopting qualitative methods such as participant observations where IWB can be monitored and documented. Another limitation is almost all teachers have smartphone with Internet access, which may have affected the results. This situation might not be found in other countries since a large percentage of young people in Kuwait use information and communication technology as is the case in other Gulf region countries.Practical implicationsThis study expects that this kind of support will be reflected on teachers' IWB which accelerates teachers' movement toward upper IWB tasks such as idea promotion and idea realization. This support will motivate teachers to transform teachers' innovative ideas into useful applications and try to assist teachers' colleagues through conducting workshops or inviting well-known educators to present their experiences to school personnel.Social implicationsThis study can be a guide to help teachers be independent, self-directed, problem-solving-oriented and internally motivated by incorporating the assumptions of andragogy theory. Furthermore, this study points out the high tendency of teachers to use OER and helps to plan teachers' professional development programs that take Andragogical tendencies into account in addition to developing teachers' lifelong learning skills.Originality/valueThe results implied that teachers have obvious ILC toward OER, specifically through observation and exploration to create their own innovations in their work environments. With the appropriate internal and external incentives and support from school administrators, this study expects that teachers will move forward toward upper informal learning stages such as innovation and articulation and toward upper tasks in IWB such as idea promotion and idea realization. As a result, schools as places of work can go through a lot of changes if new OER-related applications and workshops are added.

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The study aims to elicit Kuwait University student teachers' perceptions towards integrating technology in teaching during the practicum program in public schools. It also aims to investigate the effect of some variables such as predictive indicators on student teachers motivation towards integrating technology in teaching practice )practicum(. These variables included technology self-efficacy, school environment (using school facilities and using personal facilities(, incentives, teaching knowledge/skills and motivation. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 340 student teachers enrolled in the practicum program during the academic year 2013/2014. The results revealed that the technology self-efficacy variable was a predictive indicator for the positive perceptions the sample had towards their teaching knowledge/ skills. In addition, teaching knowledge/skills were a predictive indicator for two variables, namely incentives and using personal facilities, which in turn were predictive indicators for the motivation of student teachers towards integrating technology in the classroom. Furthermore, findings indicated that the student teachers faced some obstacles related to variables of environment and incentives. The study suggested some recommendations related to integrating technology in the practicum program.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis chapter is related to pre-service teachers preparing to teach in Kuwait public schools. Pre-service teachers were enrolled in an instructional technology course related to how to integrate emerging technologies, especially Web 2.0 tools, in their teaching. This course emphasized the connection between theory and practice reinforcing the process of how pre-service teachers smartly think about using web tools as means to enable them to experience deeper thinking when creating their lesson plans. This deeper thinking process will prepare them to transfer their gained experience into their actual teaching field. A conceptual model combining 7P-ILD with ASSURE model aided the design of the smart lesson planning environment. This design enables pre-service teachers to create innovative lesson ideas in the cloud environment. The lesson ideas and tools that were used to engage deeper learning enabled pre-service teachers to share their ideas with a wider audience and at the same time allowed the wider audience to assimilate these ideas into their own lesson structures.