Teachers' Self-efficacy for Using Information and Communication Technology: The Interaction Effect of Gender and Age

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the moderating effect of age on gender differences in teachers' self-efficacy for using information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching as well as possible variables underlying this effect. Following Bandura's conceptualisation of selfefficacy, we defined teachers' self-efficacy as their confidence in performing specific tasks that require the integration of ICT into the teaching practice. The study was conducted via an online questionnaire on a sample of 6613 elementary and upper secondary school teachers in Croatia. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied. The findings indicate minor gender differences in self-efficacy for using ICT that are more prominent among older teachers and practically nonexistent among younger teachers. These effects remain statistically significant after controlling for the type of school where the teacher works, perceived technical and professional support for using ICT in school, and frequency of use of computer programmes in teaching. The interaction effect ceases to be statistically significant after the introduction of length of computer use in teaching and/or attitudes towards computers in the model, indicating that these two variables have a role in low self-efficacy for using ICT among older female teachers. A similar level of self-efficacy for using ICT among young male and female teachers is an encouraging finding which could hopefully be followed by gender equality in other aspects of ICT use. The findings suggest that strategies for enhancing ICT self-efficacy should be particularly targeted at older female teachers. This study contributes to a better understanding of the underresearched topic of gender differences in teacher's ICT self-efficacy.

The Application of Interactive Effect Evaluation Model in the Teaching of College Mathematics Courses

“…Form the Chinese and English meaning of interaction, it is easy to know that the interaction implies that activities should be held to enhance the communication taking place among teachers and students to further improve the common comprehension. From the perspective of journalism and communication, it belongs to a part of human external communication and is the main form of human subject activities in journalism mathematics classroom teaching [22]. The specific definition of classroom communication is not explained in the education dictionary, but it often exists in the form of classroom communication, classroom teaching interaction, and classroom teaching communication in various teaching and scientific research documents [23].…”

Gender Differences in Teachers' Readiness

“…Reported gender differences may have several causes or mechanisms through which they operate (Klassen & Chiu, 2010). Given that OTL readiness is often represented by self-perceptions and self-beliefs, teachers' experience with OTL-a key source of these perceptions and beliefs (e.g., Hung, 2016;Scherer et al, 2022)-may explain the gender differences (e.g., Perera & John, 2020;Šabić et al, 2021;Siddiq & Scherer, 2016). In the present study, we examine whether teachers' OTL experience explains (i.e., mediates) possible gender differences in OTL readiness (see Figure 1): RQ 2.…”

“…Teachers who report similar institutional support and engage in similar online teaching practices may not report the same level of confidence in OTL (e.g., Howard et al, 2020;Scherer et al, 2021). The extant literature has identified teachers' gender as a key source of this variation (e.g., Korlat et al, 2021;Šabić et al, 2021). However, the directions and sizes of such gender differences vary largely, with some studies reporting women's or men's higher self-efficacy in teaching with technology (e.g., Hung, 2016;Martin et al, 2019), and other studies reporting no gender differences (e.g., Adnan, 2017;Eslaminejad et al, 2010).…”

Self-Assessed Digital Competences of Romanian Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Moreover, it has been found that the more highly teachers rate their digital competence, the more likely they are to use ICT in their work ( Sundqvist et al, 2020 ), as illustrated by Malaysian teachers whose digital competency and confidence level in using ICT are in a positive relationship ( Tasir et al, 2012 ). However, in other studies, the limitations in teachers’ ICT knowledge have caused anxiety about using ICT in the classroom, and thus, they are not confident in using it to teach ( Arkorful et al, 2021 ; Huang et al, 2021 ; Šabić et al, 2021 ), namely in front of a class of children who are perhaps more digitally literate than they are ( Van Mechelen et al, 2021 ). Keeping this in mind, teachers, who are not confident in using ICT in their teaching, will encounter difficulties in preparing their students to be confident in the use of ICT for themselves ( Starčič et al, 2016 ), but at the same time, as Willems et al (2021) found out, pre−service teachers’ self-regulation and mastery approach goals are strengthened when using case studies (even examples) that are authentic.…”