Pre-service Teacher Self-efficacy in Digital Technology

Source: Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, Vol. 22, No. 3, 387–408, 2016.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

This study explored how pre-service teachers perceived their self-efficacy in teaching of technology.

Methods
The participants were pre-service teachers from two states in Australia.
One hundred twenty one pre-service teachers were from Queensland university and eighty five pre-service teachers were from Victorian university.

The participants completed The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). They were asked to rank their teacher self-efficacy for technology on a nine-point Likert scale.

The present study reveals that the pre-service teachers who took part had much variation in their confidence and competence to a variety of teaching tasks.

Furthermore, the authors also found variation in classroom management. The questions in the survey were designed to monitor a range of teacher skills necessary for effective technology education. However, there appeared much variation within each survey question, highlighting different levels of perceived competence to engaging with technology in classrooms. The authors argue that perhaps pre-service teachers do not feel competent in all areas of technology engagement. In addition, the pre-service teachers may not have the necessary skills to accommodate for all children in the classroom. Hence, the authors recommend that teacher educators having a working understanding of beliefs towards digital technologies.

This study also found much difference in the ways pre-service teachers in two states responded to questions relating to the skills necessary for teacher engagement with technology in a classroom.
They suggest that there is a need to explore what influences assist self-efficacy in teacher education for technology including university context, practicum contexts, and personal to professional use.

The authors conclude that it is important to understand the beliefs of pre-service teachers who will soon teach in Australian classrooms.
Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that curriculum documentation is becoming even more focused on technology skills and integration to address discipline areas.

This study emphasizes the variety in perceived competence using the teacher self-efficacy scale to assess a range of skills necessary in a classroom.
The authors argue that there is a need to further explore the beliefs within different programmes in order to help inform better ways to support teacher confidence and competence with digital technologies.

Reference
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2001). Teacher efficacy: Capturing and elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 783–805.