International Portal of Teacher Education

Source: Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, Vol. 29 No. 4, p. 110-117. 2013.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

This study analyzes the association between teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in educational Internet use and the perception levels of their technological pedagogical content knowledge )TPACK).

Methods
The authors conducted the study in a college of education at a large Turkish university in central Anatolia. The participants were 163 preservice teachers.
Of these participants, 91 (56%) were female and 72 (44%) were male.
As seniors, they were enrolled in a university class as part of their internship program.
The participants received training on technology integration as part of their classes.
The authors administered two surveys - Survey of Self-efficacy in Educational Internet Use and Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge at the end of the internship program.

The findings show statistically significant relationships among the knowledge domains in technology, pedagogy, content, and their intersections.
Also, results from the canonical correlation analysis show that statistically significant, strong relationships exist between the knowledge dimensions in the TPACK model and the self-efficacy beliefs in educational Internet use.
Specifically, technology, content, and technological content knowledge domains are statistically significant predictors of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in educational Internet use.
In fact, as the Survey of Self-efficacy in Educational Internet Use includes items regarding Internet use for educational purposes, it mainly measures self-efficacy beliefs in technology and content.
Hence, the prediction of self-efficacy beliefs in educational Internet use by knowledge in technology, content, and technological content domains shows the consistency of the two surveys with each other.

The authors argue that successful teaching with technology should help preservice teachers understand the closely interrelated and mutually supportive relationships between these three knowledge areas.
For this reason, the TPACK framework emphasizes the need for the integration of subject area knowledge and technology with appropriate pedagogical practice.

This study emphasizes the importance of TPACK.
The TPACK model advocates that teachers, researchers, and faculty members should not simplify technology as an added tool to the curriculum, but should consider it as a fundamental part of the learning environment that contributes to pedagogy and content (Koehler & Mishra, 2009).
The findings show all knowledge types contained in the TPACK model are significantly and strongly related to the self-efficacy beliefs in educational Internet use.
The findings indicate that teachers who understand TPACK will have higher self-efficacy toward Internet use and therefore better integration habits around using the Internet.
By experiencing more technology-related pedagogy, teachers develop higher levels of self-efficacy beliefs in educational technology.
In addition, the results suggest it is important to investigate the areas of Internet use.
In particular, teachers’ information literacy and Internet use skills may be improved with preservice and inservice training, so the Internet can be an effective part of the teaching process.
The authors also suggest that in order to strengthen students’ self-efficacy beliefs, teachers should make instruction appropriate for the individual needs of students, make various activities suitable for the needs of each student, use collaborative learning approaches, and avoid assessment approaches that compare students to each other.
The results clearly show that better TPACK knowledge is correlated with higher self-efficacy in educational Internet use.

Reference
Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60–70.