A comparative study on TPACK self-efficacy of prospective Biology teachers from the faculties of education & science: TPACK self-efficacy of prospective Biology teachers

Due to the different applications in the execution of the teaching profession in Turkey, the aim of this research is to compare the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) self-efficacy levels of the biology teacher candidates who graduated from the faculty of education and who completed the Pedagogical Formation Certificate Program (PFCP) as a graduate of the faculty of sciences. The research was carried out in a screening model, which is one of the quantitative research techniques. The participants of this research consist of a total of 342 volunteer teacher candidates, 138 from the faculty of education and 204 from the faculty of sciences. The data were collected from TPACK self-efficacy scale. In the analysis of the data, independent sample T-test and one way ANOVA were applied by using SPSS program. The data were analyzed separately in the five academic years. As a result of the research, it was found that the TPACK self-efficacy scores of the biology teacher candidates who graduated from the faculty of education was higher than the faculty of sciences. In addition, when compared to same groups over the five academic years, it was also found that there was a significant difference between them.  All results showed that there was a significant difference in favor of the education faculty teacher candidates on TPACK self-efficacy

THE OPINIONS OF PRE-SERVICE BIOLOGY TEACHERS’ ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF TEACHERS’ SKILLS IN TECHNOLOGICAL PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

In recent years, the concept of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge has emerged as a result of changes taking place in the process of teaching by the introduction of technological tools and equipment. The idea of this was described by Mishra and Koehler and builds on the core of Shulman’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge through the inclusion of technology. The framework negotiates the relationships between technology, pedagogy and content. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to describe the opinions of pre-service biology teachers’ about the context of teachers’ skills in technological pedagogical content knowledge. It is very important that teachers understand how content, pedagogy and technology interrelate with each other and create a new form of knowledge in our 21st century. Qualitative research method was applied in this study. The data were collected via semi-structured interview form from 60 pre-service teachers and analyzed by utilizing the NVivo 9.0 package program employing the content analysis. As a result of this analysis the data were organized by these groups: Technological Knowledge, Content Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Technological Content Knowledge and Technological Pedagogical Knowledge