Investigating Pre-Service Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Competencies Regarding Digital Literacy Skills and Their Technology Attitudes and Usage

Abstract

The integration of technology into education is a substantial issue for supporting and updating teachers’ professional development in today’s world and bringing up digitally literate generations and well-educated human capital. Studies have shown that technology integration in education is a complex and multidimensional issue. TPACK transcends the triad of core knowledge types and comprises the basis for the effective integration of technology into teaching. Therefore, the present study sought to understand the contribution of the technology attitudes and usage, digital literacy skills, and online reading comprehension strategies in pre-service early childhood teachers’ TPACK competencies. The participants in the study were 481 voluntary pre-service early childhood teachers (female=398, male=83). The data were collected as a cross-sectional survey. The study findings revealed that pre-service teachers’ TPACK competencies are associated with their technology attitude and usage, digital literacy skills, and online reading comprehension strategies, as well as that the variables explained 38% of the variance. However, pre-service teachers’ grade level and GPA are not related to their self-reported TPACK competencies. These findings can be seen as signals of the necessity for theoretical knowledge and practice to be developed in pre-service teachers’ technology integration in education.

Predicting the Intention to Use Technology in Education among Student Teachers: A Path Analysis

“…Studies have also found that attitudes towards technology were related to TPACK knowledge and the skills of student teachers via a two-way effect-positive attitudes were associated with higher evaluations of TPACK competencies and vice versa [25]. At the same time, beliefs play an important role in the acquisition of knowledge [13], and it has been found that teachers and attitudes influence knowledge [14].…”

“…There have been quite a few studies that combined teacher knowledge and skills as well as beliefs and attitudes and studied how these all affected the intention to use technology in teaching-with samples of Korean [6], Serbian [29], and Chinese student teachers [28]. At the same time, a study with a sample of Turkish student teachers [14] studied how the use of ICT and attitudes toward technology predicted TPACK knowledge. Farjon et al also presented an interesting study [10] wherein the integration of technology by student teachers was explained using the WEST model, which combines will, experience, skills, and tools.…”

“…Among preservice teachers, studies have assessed the effect of professional knowledge on intention solely to use (e.g., [14]) and how beliefs affect intention to use (e.g., [33]). A few studies [6,28,29] estimated a model that included three dimensions: knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes.…”

“…The integration of technology into teaching is complex and influenced by different factors [14]. It is influenced on the one hand by external factors, such as the availability of technical resources and support, and on the other hand by internal factors, such as knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes.…”

Exploring Awareness for Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPAC) in Pre-Service Teacher Education Programme

“…Hence, our teacher education programme shouldn't confine itself as an introductory programme rather it must be full fledge training and practice programme to encounter real problems. Nevertheless, it is also evident that pre-service teachers' TPACK competencies have been associated with their attitude and usage of technology, along with digital literacy skills, and online reading comprehension strategies (Altun, 2019).…”