Comparison of pre- and in-service primary teachers’ dispositions towards the use of ICT

Abstract

There is widespread agreement, that today’s students must develop competencies in the efficient use of information and communication technology (ICT) to cope with the demands of the 21st century. To meet this requirement, teachers must integrate ICT into their classroom activities on a regular basis. Studies have shown that the use of ICT in the classroom correlates with the level of professional knowledge and with affective-motivational dispositions (such as emotions and self-efficacy) of teachers. However, the relations between these dispositions and the extent to which these relations differ between pre- and in-service teachers have not yet been investigated. Hence, the present study examines the dispositions of 148 German pre-service and 132 German in-service primary school teachers to use ICT in geometry classes and tests for differences between these groups. To this end, a series of path models have been investigated on the basis of control-value theory in a quantitative study. Results of the invariance testing revealed only minor differences in the relations between the investigated dispositions: For in-service teachers a negative correlation between the assumed value of ICT for teaching geometry and the professional knowledge regarding ICT was found. The same does not hold true for pre-service teachers. Apart from this difference, however, the two groups were very similar. It can therefore be concluded that learning opportunities regarding the use of ICT in geometry classes do not need to differ greatly for the pre-service and in-service teachers.