Media & ICT in Teacher Education

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Digital Competence and Computational Thinking of Student Teachers

Digital competence is one of the most demanded skills, and includes, among other aspects, the use of technological, informational, multimedia or communication skills and knowledge. In recent years, different institutions have included computational thinking among the different areas that make up this digital competence. However, there are few publications that deepen the relationship between computational thinking and digital competence. The present study analyzes the level of digital competence and computa-tional thinking of 248 Spanish university students, exploring the relation-ships between both abilities and the existing differences. According to the results, the majority of the students perceive themselves with a medium to a high level of digital competence, highlighting the multimedia and commu-nicative dimensions, as opposed to the more technological aspects. On the other hand, there is a correlation between computational thinking and digi-tal competence, especially with the communicative and technological areas. Likewise, the results indicate that women obtain lower results in their computational thinking and are perceived to be digitally less competent than men, especially in regard to the technological dimension. These results provide relevant information in terms of research and open the door to the development of training actions in student teachers to overcome the still-existing gender gaps

Identifying factors that affect the acceptance and use of E-assessment by academics in Saudi Universities

As assessment is one of the important pillars of the learning process, and E-assessment has become an essential part of education systems. E-assessment has developed to address some of the limitations and problems of a paper-test. In last the10 years, E-assessment has improved in developed countries such as the UK. In contrast, in Saudi Arabia, one of the developing countries, less attention has been paid to the usage of E-assessment and research which discusses E-assessment issues in Saudi Arabia is limited. Consequently, we investigate the factors that impact on academic’s use of E-assessment in Saudi universities. In order to examine these factors, the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior model (DTPB) is adopted with slight modification. Age and gender are added to the proposed model as moderating factors that affect attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. IT support is also added as a sub-factor under perceived behavioral control and technology facilitating conditions are included under resources facilitating conditions

The Influence of Teacher Attitudes and Beliefs on Information and Communications Technology Integration Behavior in South African High Schools

The integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into teaching practices has the potential to improve both teaching and learning outcomes. Governments and educational authorities worldwide are increasingly investing in various initiatives to introduce ICTs in education. However, the rate of ICT integration by teachers at various levels and types of schools remains low. Research suggests that even in schools where educational ICTs are readily available, teachers do not effectively integrate the technology into their teaching practices. This study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to understand how the attitudes and beliefs of teachers influence their ICT integration behavior. Participants were drawn from South African high schools in Cape Town with well-endowed ICT resources. The study concludes that even though teachers believe that ICT is beneficial, their ICT integration behavior is inconsistent with these beliefs

ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF PEDAGOGICAL FORMATION PHYSICAL EDUCATION STUDENTS ABOUT WEB 2.0 TOOLS AND FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL ADAPTATION OF THESE TOOLS

Today, use of the Web 2.0 technologies and applications (e.g. text messaging, wikis, personal web pages, social networks, blogs) in many different areas of education have been increasing, and this can be seen as an important development. However, teaching candidates from specific subject matters, such as physical education, still appear unaware of the potential benefits of such tools in a teaching and learning environment. The purpose of this study was to assess pre-service teachers’ perceptions about Web 2.0 technologies and to explore the awareness of this technology among students using the Technology Acceptance Modal (TAM). In this context, the descriptive survey method was used and a questionnaire was applied to 79 pre-service students (53 male and 26 female) enrolled in the physical education department in Dokuz Eylul University. The data for this study was collected by the researcher through a questionnaire after 2017-2018 fall semester of the course including weekly web 2.0 activities based on the lesson topic. The results of the study indicate that gender was an important factor that affected the implementation or use of this technology. Accordingly, male students had higher levels of awareness about web 2.0 applications than female students had. The study also showed that usefulness and ease-of-use are two significant factors that affect students’ attitude towards this technology.  Article visualizations

Promising online learning and teaching in digital age: systematic review analysis

This paper discusses online learning in the digital era by reviewing various international publications. This study is interesting given the growth of schools offering online education. This trend continues to develop, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, which caused all social activities to stop. For that reason, we are interested in discussing online learning strategies, enriching the learning experience. Our analytical process involves coding, evaluation, and in-depth interpretation to obtain valid and reliable findings. We conducted data searches with the help of electronic searches on the Google Scholar app, ERIC publications, and Academic Microsoft between 2015 and publication in 2021. As a result, online educational activities have won a place in the hearts of students and teachers, which occur automatically through website technology. More specifically, this is called "e-learning." This is a promising distance learning that has become a trend for students and scientists and has become a way for people to get information about their needs

Exploring the digital competence of pre-service teachers on entry onto an initial teacher education programme in Ireland

peer-reviewedThis study aimed to explore the digital competence of recent entrants into a pre-service teacher education programme in an Irish University. The participants were drawn from a cohort of 208 undergraduate teacher education students. The study employed an online survey that captured both self-reported levels of digital competence and knowledge of key areas of cyber ethics and digital technology. The respondents were active users of technology and very frequent users of social media but reported levels of skills in the use of other digital technologies was lower. In addition, their knowledge of cyber-ethics and associated practices varied. The study also found that they were positively disposed to technology in teaching. The paper argues that, while there are limitations to surveys that aim to capture one’s level of digital competence, they can help guide teacher educators in responding to pre-service teachers. However, digital competence is an evolving concept and care must be taken to ensure that frameworks and tools used to assess it do not stifle teachers’ autonomy in relation to their utilisation of technology

Is the Bridge Really So Far Away? Elementary Mathematics Teachers' Competencies to Implement Neuroscience Theory into Their Teaching Practices

This research investigates elementary mathematics teachers' competencies to implement neuroscience theory (NS) of mathematical cognition into their classroom practices during and after, participation in a professional development (PD) course. We examine the teachers' familiarity with Approximate Number System (ANS), relevant to elementary school level, and build their competencies to implement this NS concept into teaching. Data for this qualitative study were collected from the reflective reports written by nineteen female elementary mathematics teachers (aged 25–40) and were analysed using two complementary methodologies: content and linguistic analyses. Our findings indicate that the teachers acquired NS knowledge, and their competencies evolved from listing the facts and analysing their meanings to weighing possible applications and attempts to integrate newly acquired knowledge into their teaching. This study seeks to contribute to the field of professional teacher development by demonstrating how teachers can lend meaning to theoretical knowledge they obtain in a PD course, in meaningful ways by connecting it with their classroom teaching practices

Investigating pre-service teachers’ perceptions on readability tools: a case study in Indonesia

The readability tools allow us to measure the readability of a text. The previous studies have elaborated the use of readability tools to analyze reading materials, but it is relatively sparse regarding the teaching of readability tools especially involving the second language teaching education (SLTE) program as a context. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the acceptance of pre-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher upon readability text tools. It covers their acceptance towards the tools, the extent to how the pre-service teachers accept the Web-FX and Readability Analyzer as readability tools and seeks for participants’ concerns using the tools. The study was conducted at one English Language Education Study Program at in East Java, Indonesia, involving 33 third-year undergraduate students taking pre-teaching program. Having incorporated a qualitative data analysis approach on the students’ text analysis reports and interviews, the study revealed that the participants have positive acceptance of the tools for several reasons. Some final concerns from pre-service teachers after readability tools teachings are presented, including suggestions for future research related to readability tools

Exploring the factors affecting pre-service science teachers’ actual use of technology during teaching practice

The primary objective of the research reported on here was to decide whether a combined framework of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) could be a valid and reliable model to predict Indonesian pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) actual use of technology (AUT) during teaching practice. A survey instrument consisting of attitudes (ATs), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), technological content knowledge (TCK), technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), and AUT was adapted from previous studies and validated through face and content validity. Thereafter, the instrument was piloted to 135 PSTs and validated through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The sample (n = 457) completed the instrument during the main data collection. The data analysis was done through the steps of partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Through the measurement model phase, the combined framework was reported to be reliable and valid. SN was the strongest predictor (β = .445) of AUT, followed by PBC (β = .281). Meanwhile, AT, TPK, TCK, and TPCK were reported to be insignificant. Additionally, significant differences regarding AUT were reported based on gender and institution. An insignificant relationship emerged based on information and communication technology (ICT) -based courses