Relationships between Pre-service Teachers’ Social Media Usage in Informal Settings and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

Social media are increasingly adopted in university administration, teaching, and learning. For pre-service teachers, although there is growing evidence suggesting the effectiveness of educational technology courses in enhancing their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), relatively little is known about whether and how this knowledge is associated with social media usage (SMU) in informal settings. In this study, the relationships between SMU in informal settings and TPACK among pre-service teachers were investigated. Based on the survey data of a sample of 212 pre-service teachers in Hong Kong, media sharing was found to be a significant positive predictor of technology knowledge and knowledge of teaching with technology, whereas Internet searching and video gaming were not predictive of any component of TPACK. The findings of the study were interpreted in the light of the educational affordances of social media technologies, and their implications for researchers and teacher educators were discussed.

The Correlation Between Social Media Usage in Academic Context and Self-Efficacy Towards TPACK of Prospective Science Teachers in Indonesia

“…Although previous research shows, TPACK correlates with the use of technology level (Kazu & Erten 2014), educational internet use (Sahin, Celik, Akturk, & Aydin, 2013), attitude towards computer (Baturay, Gökçearslan, & Sahin, 2017), attitude towards web-based instruction (Kavanoz, Yüksel, & Ozcan, 2015) and SMU in informal setting or leisure activities (Lau, 2018), no research connect it with SMU in an academic setting or school activities. Lau (2018) suggested that extended research of SMU in an academic setting and specific domain should be identified as an area for future research, especially in the context of Science Education. Previous studies (Kaya, Kaya, & Emre, 2013;Lin, Tsai, Chai, & Lee, 2013;Pamuk, Ergun, Cakir, Yilmaz, & Ayas, 2015;Schmidt et al 2009) supported that TPACK could be domainspecific.…”

“…Social media is also integrated into Moodle to support distance learning (Buus, 2012). Lau (2018) investigates the correlation between SMU in informal settings (outside of classroom context), including for Media Sharing, Internet Searching, and Video Gaming with TPACK level of pre-service teachers with Path Analysis. He found that Media Sharing is a useful predictor of Technological Knowledge (TK) and Knowledge of Teaching with Technology (KTT).…”

“…The former, extensive literature review is conducted by reviewing related peer-reviewed articles to discuss Media and Technology usage. We found that the instrument to identify the frequency of social media use has been initially developed by Lau (2018). However, the instrument focus on developing an instrument to measure SMU in an informal setting which not fully reflect SMU in academic life.…”

“…Based on the result of the literature review and elicitation study, the author them modify SMU in an informal setting, which is developed by Lau (2018). The instrument has five constructs includes five including Searching and Studying (SS), Download Media (DM), Sharing Media (SM), Professionalism Development (PD), and Entertainment and Motivation (EM).…”

“…The instrument has five constructs includes five including Searching and Studying (SS), Download Media (DM), Sharing Media (SM), Professionalism Development (PD), and Entertainment and Motivation (EM). Media Sharing, which is developed by Lau (2018), initially has four subitems, including the use of Social media to watch TV shows, to watch video clips on a computer, to download media files, and to share media files on a computer. In the modified instrument, we remove SMU to watch TV because it is not related to the academic setting and teaching practice.…”