Determining the Training Needs of Teachers in Ethical Use of Information Technologies

Abstract

In this study, the training needs of teachers regarding the ethical use of information technologies were examined. The training needs levels of teachers and the significant differentiations of training needs according to gender, teaching level, professional seniority, branch, and education levels were investigated. In this study, the discrepancy view approach and normative need type were used. The data were collected via “the Scale of Ethical Use of Information Technologies in Education” developed by Baysan and Çetin (2019). The survey method was applied. The research was carried out with 745 teachers working in public schools in the city center of Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. The sample group was determined by stratification method and simple random sampling method. Schools were stratified as primary school, secondary school, divinity secondary school and high school. A certain number of schools from each stratum were determined by lot, and it was aimed to reach all teachers in the specified schools. More than half of the participants were female with a rate of 55.5%. Data were collected from teachers working in five different main branches. According to the results, 22.8% of teachers need ethical training in the Stalking sub-dimension, 14.5% in the Communication sub-dimension, and 9.4% in the Confidence and Material sub-dimension. In Privacy and Accessibility sub-dimensions, nearly 1% of teachers need ethical training. Regarding the ethical use of information technologies, there were significant differences in some sub-dimensions according to some independent variables. Results show that teachers need less ethical training than expected.