The impact of modeling technology integration on pre-service teachers’ technology confidence

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES the PT3 Implementation Grant at the University of Rhode Island's School of Education and the impact it had on students' confidence in using technology for teaching. The three-year project focused on working with faculty from the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences to integrate technology into their instruction and improve the supervision of pre-service teachers. The goal was to provide exemplary models of pedagogically sound technology use that were embedded in core teacher education courses, and not through a stand-alone "technology for teachers" course. A technology confidence survey was administered to students in the teacher education program at the end of each semester of the three-year project. Data from the survey were analyzed to look at change in attitudes over time as students progressed through the teacher education program. Results show a significant increase in students' confidence in six areas of technology use in teaching, the majority of which were a focus of the project's training and support of university instructors.

Improving Understanding of Pre-Service Teacher Experience with Technology Integration

“…In a 2006 study of pre-service teachers and their learning experiences in an educational technology class, Brown and Warschauer found that most participants did not feel adequately prepared to enter a classroom and teach in a technologically rich environment. Similarly, other studies [12,13] found that these required technology classes tended to focus on technology skills and not integration. This lack of emphasis on technology integration is made worse when many traditional teacher education programs also do not adequately model it in methods classes [2,12,13].…”

“…Similarly, other studies [12,13] found that these required technology classes tended to focus on technology skills and not integration. This lack of emphasis on technology integration is made worse when many traditional teacher education programs also do not adequately model it in methods classes [2,12,13].…”

Can instructional technology enhance the way we teach students and teachers?

“…Many authors, however, have raised questions about the value of such an introductory course for pre-service teachers (Adamy & Boulmetis, 2006). "These authors propose that such courses have very limited impact on actual practice.…”

Developing pre-service teacher competencies for ICT-integration through design teams

“…The teacher preparation program, and in particular the science teacher preparation program at PAAET on which this study focuses, includes some courses on ICT skills, but only as stand-alone ICT skills courses, on the assumption that acquiring ICT skills will lead automatically to effective integration of ICT by preservice teachers in the future. The ICT skills courses provide students with basic ICT skills and emphasize mastery of hardware and software, but with limited exposure to the possibilities of ICT for educational practice (Adamy & Boulmetis, 2006;Brown & Warschauer, 2006). Previous research stressed the importance of basic ICT skills as the foundation for ICT literacy; however, basic ICT skills are not enough to prepare pre-service teachers to effectively use ICT in their practice (Angeli & Valanides, 2005;Wetzel, Wilhelm & Williams, 2004).…”

“…This is consistent with Alhammar's (2006) research, reporting deficiencies in Kuwaiti higher education. The lack of preparation to be ICT-integrating teachers can be attributed to the following reasons: 1) the ICT-focused courses do not provide students with the ability to integrate ICT in practice (Adamy & Boulmetis, 2006;Brown & Warschauer, 2006;Keeler, 2008), 2) there is limited ICT integration throughout the program, so the pre-service teachers do not experience authentic use of ICT in teaching and learning (e.g., Doering, Hughes & Huffman, 2003;Kay;Milbrath & Kinzie, 2000), and 3) traditional teaching methods.…”