Fazilat Siddiq

A large body of literature suggests that attitudes toward technology and its educational use are important determinants of technology acceptance and integration in classrooms. At the same time, teachers' Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) facilitates the meaningful use of technology for educational purposes. Overall, attitudes toward technology and TPACK play a critical role for technology integration and have been in the focus of many empirical studies. Albeit the attention that has been paid to these two concepts, their relation has not been fully understood. The present study contributes to the advancement of this understanding by examining the relations between three core technology attitudes (i.e., general attitudes towards ICT, attitudes towards ICT in education, and ease of use) and TPACK self-efficacy beliefs, based on a sample of N = 688 Flemish pre-service teachers in 18 teacher-training institutions. Using a variety of structural equation modeling approaches, we describe the TPACK-attitudes relations from multiple perspectives and present a substantive-methodological synergism. The analyses revealed that the attitudes toward technology and TPACK self-beliefs were positively related; yet, differences across the attitudes and TPACK dimensions existed, pointing to the delineation of general and educational perspectives on the use of ICT.

This study aims to identify profiles of pre-service teachers in order to explore their readiness to integrate technology in education. The assumption is that pre-service teacher characteristics such as technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), go together with the influence of their teacher training. Specifically, this study examines whether pre-service teachers can be clustered on the basis of their TPACK, a typical set of ICT-related characteristics (e.g., general ICT attitudes, attitudes towards ICT in education, ease of use, ICT self-efficacy), and the perceived support at their training institution to adequately integrate ICT in education. Data were collected from a sample of 688 last-year pre-service teachers in 18 teacher training institutions in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). Using correlational and latent profile analysis, the results suggest that: (1) two profiles can be distinguished, (2) TPACK and other individual ICT-related characteristics are positively correlated, and (3) pre-service teachers in a profile with strong TPACK, attitudes, and self-efficacy scores also report high scores on the support they perceive at their teacher training institution. Implications for the role of teacher training institutions are discussed with a specific focus on how to close the gap between the two identified profiles.

The Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework – a framework which proposes a set of knowledge domains that are essential for effective teaching with technology – has gained considerable attention in the domain of education and technology. With the efforts to conceptualize these knowledge domains comes the question to what extent they can be distinguished empirically. Hence, the present study examines a measure that assesses pre-service teachers' self-efficacy in the technology-related TPACK dimensions (“T-dimensions”). In pursuit of crafting a validity argument, we investigated its factor structure and tested it for measurement invariance across gender and educational tracks, two subgroups that may indicate considerable differences. By means of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, the data of N = 665 pre-service teachers in 18 teacher training institutions in Flanders (Belgium) revealed a nested factor structure of the TPACK measure, which comprised a general factor and a specific factor of pre-service teachers’ technological knowledge. This factor structure was fully invariant across gender and educational tracks. Mean differences between educational tracks did not occur; yet, substantial differences were found across gender in favor of male pre-service teachers. This study sheds light on critical aspects of crafting a validity argument for the measurement of the T-dimensions in the TPACK framework and reports relevant subgroup differences.

The main objective of this study is to develop a self-report instrument to measure pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the extent to which they experience the necessary support and training in order to integrate technology into classroom activities. The questionnaire items of this instrument were drawn up on the basis of a synthesis of 19 qualitative studies (Authors et al., 2012) and were reviewed by experts in the field. In order to study its reliability and aspects of validity, data were collected and analysed consisting of a sample of 688 pre-service teachers in Flanders (Belgium). The resulting scale showed highly satisfactory psychometric properties. Item response theory revealed a good fit of the measurement to a Rating Scale Model for 22 out of 24 items. The results also indicate that the items differ in their degree of difficulty. It seems that helping pre-service teachers to design ICT-rich lessons and providing adequate feedback can be considered more challenging for teacher training institutions. Recommendations are given regarding how the new scale can be useful for both teacher training institutions and schools in developing approaches to equip pre-service teachers with the competencies needed to integrate technology in teaching and learning processes.

The main aim of this study is to validate an instrument to measure teachers' emphasis on the development of students' digital information and communication skills (TEDDICS), a construct that describes a qualitative aspect of ICT use beyond mere frequency reports. TEDDICS was conceptualized by focusing on digital skills such as accessing, evaluating, and sharing and communicating digital information. We validated TEDDICS with respect to its factorial structure, relations to further teacher-related variables (e.g., ICT self-efficacy), background characteristics (age and gender), and main subject differences. The Norwegian International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2013 teacher sample (N = 1072) showed that TEDDICS: (a comprises three factors which can be identified by exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM); (b) is positively related to ICT selfefficacy, the frequency of ICT use, and perceived usefulness of ICT; (c) differs across main subjects but not across gender groups. In addressing our research aims, we show that ESEM represents TEDDICS more appropriately than confirmatory factor analysis. Our results provide strong evidence on the construct validity and point out to the importance of looking at the degree to which Teachers emphasize digital skills in classrooms beyond the frequency of using ICT.

Preparing future teachers to integrate ICT in their educational practice is a challenge that teacher training institutions (TTI) are increasingly confronted with (Liu, 2016). To train pre-service teachers, TTIs need to help them bridge the gap between technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK). Mishra and Koehler (2009) argue that for ICT integration to occur in education, teachers must be competent in these three forms of knowledge, but more importantly, they must be able to integrate all three types of knowledge (Schmidt et al. 2009).

The need to better align preservice teachers’ preparation in the integration of technology including pedagogical efforts and curriculum (TPACK) has been noted by many researchers recently (e.g., Sang et al., 2010). But preparing student teachers for TPACK is a complex process (Authors, 2015). Some pre-service teachers are intrinsically motivated to use ICT in educational practice, while others do not share this affinity. For this reason, many researchers have focused on critical individual characteristics associated with TPACK, such as pre-service teachers’ attitudes (e.g. Holland & Piper, 2016), ease of use (Teo, 2010), and self-efficacy (e.g., Authors 2016).

However, a mere focus on pre-service teacher characteristics could lead to “individual blame” rather than “system blame”. Therefore, research should also stress the role of pre-service training, especially with respect to the different strategies for the content and delivery methods to prepare pre-service teachers for technology use (e.g., Mouza et al., 2014). Still, the question remains how TTIs can get a comprehensive overview of effective strategies. In this respect, Authors (2012) reviewed 19 qualitative studies in order to develop an SQD-model (Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence) focusing on which content and delivery methods best prepare pre-service teachers to integrate technology into their future classrooms.

According to the findings of this review, six key themes at the micro level need to be in place. These involve providing pre-service teachers opportunities to: discuss and reflect upon successful uses of technology; learn about ICT integration by designing and/or re-designing curriculum materials; design technology-related curriculum materials in teams or other collaborative initiatives; scaffold authentic technology experiences; receive on-going feedback; and experience teacher educators as role models (for more detailed information about each theme, please see Authors., 2012).

In the current study, we aim at delineating profiles based on pre-service teachers’ ICT-related attitudes, their TPACK, and the support they perceive provided by their institution (SQD). This study aims to determine which pre-service teacher characteristics are connected to their perceived support from their TTIs to prepare them for educational ICT use. Specifically, the study examines whether pre-service teacher profiles exist on the basis of a typical set of (1) individual characteristics such as TPACK, their attitudes towards ICT (in education), their self-efficacy, ease of use, and (2) the support pre-service teachers perceive from their TTIs with respect to technology integration in education.





Method
A survey was developed to explore pre-service teachers’ characteristics and the perceived support pre-service teachers receive in their TTI. The survey was conducted among N=688 pre-service teachers from 18 teacher training institutions in Flanders (Belgium) in their final year of education. All respondents received an email invitation to fill in the survey; participation was completely voluntary. About 73.8% of the respondents were females; this gender distribution is representative of the pre-service teachers in Flanders (Authors, 2016). The average age was 25.1 years (SD=7.7 years).

(1) TPACK
The measurement of the TPACK technology-dimensions was based on the adapted Dutch version of Schmidt et al.’s (2009) TPACK self-report scale (Authors, 2013). Teacher students were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with a number of statements that referred to the technology-dimensions (0 = I completely agree, 4 = I completely agree). This new instrument (Authors, 2016) revealed a general TPACK (TPCK, TPK, and TCK) and a specific TK factor. The general TPACK factor was measured by 14 items that tapped TPCK, TPK, and TCK (Cronbach’s α = .94), whereas the TK scale was measured by 7 items (Cronbach’s α =.89).

(2) Attitudes towards ICT (in education)
The first instrument employed to measure pre-service teachers’ attitudes was the “General Attitudes toward ICT Scale” (Cronbach’s α=.82), a five-item scale developed by Evers et al. (2009). It includes items related to interest (e.g., “I want to know more about computers”), pleasure (e.g., “I like to talk about computers to others”), and usefulness (e.g., “The use of a computer is useful to me”).  The Ease of Use Scale (Cronbach’s α=.89) contains three items (e.g., “I feel comfortable when I use computers”). The Attitudes toward ICT in Education Scale (Evers et al., 2009) measures students’ attitudes toward the effects of adopting computers in education including the same spectrum of dimensions: “interest”, “ease of use”, “pleasure”, and “usefulness”. The eight items on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy (Cronbach’s α=.89) measure the degree to which pre-service teachers feel competent to use ICT as a supportive tool to strengthen their instructional practice (Authors, 2016), for example, “select ICT-applications in view of a specific educational setting” or “design a learning environment with the available infrastructure”.

(3) SQD-scale
The SQD-scale used in this study was constructed around the six significant domains of the inner circle (i.e., the micro-level) of the SQD-model (Authors, 2016): (1) using teacher educators as role models, (2) reflecting on the role of technology in education, (3) learning how to use technology by design, (4) collaboration with peers, (5) scaffolding authentic technology experiences, and (6) providing continuous feedback (22 items, Cronbach’s α=.97).

In order to identify profiles of pre-service teachers, we conducted latent profile analyses (LPA) to our cross-sectional data set. The LPA were based on robust maximum likelihood estimation, an estimation procedure that corrects for potential deviations from the normality of variables. In the current data set, 3.3% of the variables were missing due to participants’ non-responses, and we used the full-information-maximum-likelihood procedure in order to handle them under the assumption that they occurred randomly.

Results
On the basis of the LPA, the respondents were distributed among two profiles as follows: 241 were classified as Profile 1 members (35% of the 688 respondents) and 447 were grouped in Profile 2 (65%). The differences between the mean scores of the two profiles were statistically significant for all scale scores. Pre-service teachers in Profile 2 reflect higher scores on all the different scales compared to pre-service teachers in Profile 1. The latter profile is therefore labelled as ‘‘Low ICT Profile” (L-ICT). In contrast, Profile 2 is labelled as ‘‘High ICT Profile” (H-ICT).

This finding is in line with previous research that suggests that general and domain specific attitudes toward the use of ICT in education are closely related (cf. Agyei, & Voogt, 2015). Another general finding is that (pre-service) teachers adopting more positive ICT attitudes were more likely to report positive attitudes toward ICT in education (see also Authors, 2016). Interestingly, pre-service teachers’ ICT self-efficacy, ease of use, and their TPACK go together within both profiles.

In light of the two profiles, it is clear that some pre-service teachers are intrinsically motivated to use ICT in their educational practice, while others do not share this affinity (e.g., Teo & Milutinovic, 2015). For this reason, many researchers placed the individual teacher at the centre of educational change processes (Stoll, 1999). The results of this study indicate a positive association between TPACK and SQD.  Pre-service teachers in a profile with relatively positive attitudes, self-efficacy, and TPACK also report higher scores on the perceived support provided by their teacher training institution. As a consequence, understanding pre-service teachers’ TPACK profiles is a crucial factor in supporting pre-service teachers for ICT integration in education.

References (max. 400 words)


Key words
Profile analysis; ICT integration; teacher training or pre-service teachers, TPACK

The present study builds on the assumption that both pre-service teachers’ ICT-related background characteristics (e.g., ICT-attitudes) and perceived support from their teacher training institution (TTI) affect their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). While previous research documented similar determinants, this paper studied the relationship between profiles of pre-service teachers and TPACK. Survey data were collected from 688 pre-service teachers in 21 TTIs in Flanders. The study first examined whether profiles of pre-service teachers can be developed. A next step was to examine how pre-service teachers with different profiles perceived the support they received from their TTI. Finally, the relationship between pre-service teachers’ profiles and their TPACK was examined. The analyses showed distinct pre-service teacher profiles that varied along ICT-background dimensions. The different ICT-profiles and their relation to TPACK can inform TTIs about how to prepare pre-service teachers’ to integrate ICT in their practice.

This paper has been awarded the prize of best paper at the Educational Technology World Conference (ETWC) 2016. The main aim of this study was to measure the impact of the support pre-service teachers receive on their knowledge for effective technology integration, namely technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). Specifically, we focused on the strategies included in the SQD (Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence) model: 1) using teacher educators as role models, 2) reflecting on the role of technology in education, 3) learning how to use technology by design, 4) collaboration with peers, 5) scaffolding authentic technology experiences, and 6) providing continuous feedback. In order to explore the relation between the perceived occurrences of the SQD-strategies and TPACK, survey data were collected from a sample of 688 final-year pre-service teachers in Belgium. In addition, a multiple case study was conducted in three teacher training institutions, including three focus group discussions with 19 pre-service teachers. The first results are included in the presentation.

Teachers’ integration of information and communication technology (ICT) has been widely studied, given that digital competence has become crucial in 21st century education. In this context, teachers’ ICT integration is mostly represented by quantitative measures describing the frequency of ICT use in classrooms without examining the degree to which digital information and communication skills are emphasized. Consequently, the present study investigates teachers’ emphasis on developing students’ digital skills, focusing on accessing, evaluating, sharing & communicating digital information. The aim of our study is to validate an assessment of the construct with respect to its factor structure, relations to other constructs (e.g., teachers’ ICT self-efficacy, ICT use), and the differences between gender and main subject groups. We used a representative sample of 1,072 Norwegian teachers that participated in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) in 2013. We show that teachers’ emphasis: (a) comprises three correlated factors which are identified by exploratory structural equation modeling; (b) is positively related to teachers’ ICT self-efficacy and the frequency of ICT use; (c) differs across teachers’ main subject but not across gender groups. Our results provide strong evidence on the construct validity and point out the importance of teachers’ emphasis on fostering students’ digital skills in 21st century classrooms.

The fast development of information and communication technology (ICT) has brought about profound changes in the way we live and work. These changes clearly offer further opportunities, but also a number of risks. Many people do not have ICT-competencies, resulting in a new form of exclusion often thought of as the ‘digital divide’. This brings us to the role of education and teacher training institutions (TTI). TTIs are expected to prepare pre-service teachers to integrate technology into their educational practice. Therefore, TTIs around the world have engaged in various efforts to re-shape their curriculum (Ottenbreit-Leftwich et al., 2010). More specifically, it is suggested that technology should be infused into the entire curriculum so that pre-service teachers have the opportunity to understand and experience the educational benefits of using technology as a tool to support teaching and learning across different subject domains (Tondeur et al., 2012). In this respect, research has identified a number of approaches that can successfully contribute to developing the competences future teachers need in order to integrate technology in teaching and learning processes (Chien, et al., 2012). However, the adoption of integrated cross-curricular approaches to promote pre-service teachers’ competencies for educational technology use is a complex process that requires various strategies (Polly et al., 2010).
Given the lack of a review about these strategies, Tondeur et al. (2012) has synthesised six effective strategies for contemporary technology integration in pre-service teacher education programmes: 1) using teacher educators as role models, 2) reflecting on the role of ICT in education, 3) learning technology by design, 4) scaffolding authentic technology experiences, 5) collaboration with peers, and 6) providing continuous feedback. As a result, the overarching SQD-model (Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence) was developed to present how these necessary strategies relate to each other. After the introduction of this model, there was the need of a comprehensive instrument to measure to what degree TTIs are integrating these strategies. This study intends to address this gap in the existing literature by providing an instrument that can be used to measure the adoption of effective strategies to prepare pre-service teachers for technology use in education.
The questionnaire items of the self-report instrument are developed on the basis of the qualitative review and were reviewed by experts in the field. In order to study the reliability and internal validity of the newly developed instrument, data were collected from a sample of 688 final-year pre-service teachers in Flanders (Belgium). Item response theory revealed a good fit of the measurement to a polytomous Rasch model for twenty-two out of twenty-four items. The resulting scale showed excellent psychometric properties in terms of reliability and different forms of validity. In this regard, there was evidence that the assumptions of unidimensionality and local independence were met for the SQD scale. Moreover, differential item functioning between female and male pre-service teachers did not occur, pointing to the fairness of the scale across gender. The newly developed test instrument can therefore be regarded as a suitable tool for measuring SQD. Researchers and practitioners can make use of this scale in order to assess adoption of effective strategies to prepare pre-service teachers for technology use in education.

References

Chien, Y., Chang, C., Yeh, T., & Chang, K. (2012). Engaging pre-service science teachers to
act as active designers of technology integration: A MAGDAIRE framework. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 28, 578–588.

Tondeur, J., van Braak, J., Sang, G., Voogt, J., Fisser, P., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2012). Preparing pre-service teachers to integrate technology in education: A synthesis of qualitative evidence. Computers & Education, 59(1), 134-144.

Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A., Glazewski, K., Newby, T., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Teacher value
beliefs associated with using technology: Addressing professional and student needs.
Computers & Education, 55, 1321–1335.

Polly, D., Mims, C., Shepherd, C. E., & Inan, F. (2010). Evidence of impact: transforming teacher education with preparing tomorrow’s teachers to teach with technology (PT3)grants. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 863–870