Examining the Impact of Instructional Technology and Material Design Courses on Technopedagogical Education Competency Acquisition According to Different Variables

Abstract

The need to integrate technology into education has made necessary a thorough examination of teachers' technopedagogical competencies. While training preservice teachers, it is of particular importance that they acquire technopedagogical education competences during their preservice education. Practical and theoretical course content and Instructional Technology and Material Design (ITMD) courses are thought to be essential for preservice teachers' technopedagogical education competency acquisition. However, the role of ITMD courses in preservice teachers' technopedagogical education competency acquisition has remained obscure in the literature. As such, the study aims to describe the effect that ITMD courses have on technopedagogical education competency acquisition. The research was conducted with a total of 186 preservice teachers studying in the departments of classroom teaching and preschool teaching in a Faculty of Education in Turkey. The research data were gathered using the Technopedagogical Education Competency Scale (TPACK-deep), developed by Kabakci Yurdakul, Odabasi, Kilicer, Coklar, Birinci, and Kurt. This five-point Likert type scale consists of a total of four factors, i.e. design, proficiency, ethics, and exertion. The internal reliability coefficient of the 33-item scale was .95. The scale was applied by faculty members in-line with the course description designated by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) as a pre-and post-test at the beginning and end of the semester that the course was given. A paired samples t-test and CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) analysis were incorporatedly employed to analyze the data. The research showed that ITMD courses influenced preservice teachers' acquisition of technopedagogical education competencies. The following were observed to be critical predictor variables in technopedagogical education competency acquisition: having received computer training prior to taking the ITMD courses and the average time one spends using a computer per day.