Instructor and Student Classroom Interactions during Technology Skills Instruction for Facilitating Preservice Teachers' Computer Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Technology skills instruction is an important component of educational technology courses, which has been shown to raise pre-service teachers' computer self-efficacy. Computer self-efficacy, in turn, is positively related to their self-efficacy for technology integration. Studies of undergraduate technology skills instruction found that classroom interactions between instructors and students can influence students' computer self-efficacy. These relationships are not well understood with respect to technology skills instruction of pre-service teachers as there is a dearth of such studies in teacher education literature. This study addressed the gap by analyzing video recordings of three educational technology classes to derive a taxonomy of classroom interactions that occur during technology skills instruction. Survey and interview data were further used to determine how these interaction categories influenced pre-service teachers' computer self-efficacy. Based on these findings, we offer guidelines for how teacher educators can foster pre-service teachers' computer self-efficacy through the process of technology skills instruction.