Research Article
Eirini Tzovla, Katerina Kedraka, Thanassis Karalis, Marina Kougiourouki, Konstantinos Lavidas
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: ep324
ABSTRACT
Teachers’ Professional Development Massive Open Online Courses (TPD-MOOCs) are a new form of MOOCs and have influenced an intense research interest. This study reports on the design and implementation of a TPD-MOOC which utilizes digital educational content and Open Educational Recourses (OER) and supports in-service elementary school teachers to enhance their self-efficacy beliefs. In the design framework we take into consideration the findings of previous research and the educational needs of the participants. We conducted an experimental design research and compared the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs before and after their participation in a TPD-MOOC. A total of 251 teachers enrolled in this course and 142 of them completed it. We used quantitative data to measure the enhancement of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and the effectiveness of the course. The results provide evidence that our TPD-MOOC improved in service elementary school teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in teaching biological concepts. Recommendations are made for future research.
Keywords: teacher professional development, MOOC, self-efficacy beliefs, elementary education, improving classroom teaching
Research Article
Salih Birisci, Emin Kul
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 10, Issue 1, pp. 75-93
ABSTRACT
This correlational study aimed to investigate the prediction levels of technopedagogical education competency for technology integration self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers. The study group comprised 174 pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education of a university located in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. Both “Technopedagogical Education Competency Scale” and “Technology Integration Self-Efficacy Perception Scale” were administered as data collection tools. The results of the study showed that pre-service teachers had high levels of technology integration self-efficacy beliefs, with a high-level positive correlation with technopedagogical education competency. In addition, the dimensions of technopedagogical education competency such as ethics, design, exertion and proficiency were revealed as the predictors of technology integration self-efficacy; moreover, predictive effects of exertion and proficiency dimensions are insignificant. The findings obtained from the present study are thought to be helpful for the development of pre-service teachers' technology integration self-efficacy beliefs.
Keywords: Technopedagogical education competency, Technology integration, Self-efficacy belief, Pre-service teachers