Perceptions of Digital Competency among Student Teachers: Contributing to the Development of Student Teachers’ Instructional Self-Efficacy in Technology-Rich Classrooms

Abstract

Adequate self-efficacy is useful for motivating individuals to engage in continued improvement. This study explores the potential antecedents of instructional self-efficacy beliefs among Norwegian student teachers attending a programme for secondary school teachers. The most important finding was the strong association between the student teachers' perceptions of digital competency to resolve challenges relating to information and communication technology (ICT) in schools and their instructional self-efficacy, which was explored via two dimensions: (1) self-efficacy for maintaining discipline and (2) self-efficacy for influencing students' use of ICT in the service of learning. Implications for practice are discussed. We argue that digital competency among student teachers is important for sustaining instructional self-efficacy in technology-rich classrooms.

Teachers’ Skills and ICT Integration in Technical and Vocational Education and Training TVET: A Case of Khartoum State-Sudan

“…Whereas, the results show that majority of TVET teachers were more than 40 years of age, where very few respondents represented the digital generation. Hence, the study reported that the younger teachers were higher skills particularly in Word processing then Spreadsheet and databases, this results agreed with (Alazam et al, 2012;Bennett et al, 2008;Elstad & Christophersen, 2017). Therefore, younger teachers were more associative with ICT usage in the TVET institutions as reported in the findings.…”

“…(Demetriadis et al, 2003) state that "if educators do not have sufficient abilities for handling a computer, improbably they will be able to incorporate technology into their classroom teaching". (Elstad & Christophersen, 2017;Hatlevik, Scherer, & Christophersen, 2017) reported from their research that 56.6% of upper secondary students believe their professors have no knowledge of computer use. Keeping that overwhelming statistic in mind, assessing the basic levels of current teacher engagement with computer skills such as word processing (Hyland, 1990), handling files, spreadsheets database, e-mail and uses of social media through an internet connectivity needs to be the starting points for this study.…”

“…The skills were low among teachers and the disparities demographically due to age; this confirmed that there is a relationship between age and teachers' beliefs with respect to ICT skills and its practices. Therefore, teachers' beliefs were signified as one of the factors that constrain ICT integration all over the world (Tsai & Chai, 2012), as well as years of experience and performance (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, Rockoff, & Wyckoff, 2008;Elstad & Christophersen, 2017). As a result, there will be a new pattern for learners and teachers to meet the contemporary demand in the digital era.…”

“…Some studies revealed that at the present time teachers represented as the "Digital Native" users, or the first generation of students to grow up using computer technology, facilitate the usage of educational technologies and digital materials in the education system (Bennett, Maton, & Kervin, 2008;Elstad & Christophersen, 2017). (Alazam, Bakar, Hamzah, & Asmiran, 2012) conducted a study regarding teachers' skills and ICT integration with TVET program in Malaysia, the result demonstrates that the significant affiliation between ICT use and teachers' skills.…”

Normative Characteristics of Perceived Self-Efficacy

“…More generally, SEP helps the individual choose and control their actions (effort expenditure, persistence), but also their thoughts (positive or negative), their feelings (emotional reactions to obstacles), their motivation, etc. Self-efficacy is useful for motivating individuals toward continued improvement (Elstad and Christophersen 2017). People with high SEP thus approach difficult tasks as challenges to take on rather than threats to avoid.…”