Investigating the Relations Among Pre-Service Teachers’ Teaching/Learning Beliefs and Educational Technology Integration Competencies: a Structural Equation Modeling Study

Abstract

With the rapid developments in technology, training of pre-service teachers in terms of technology integration has become a crucial issue for all stakeholders of education. However, it is important to investigate the relationships among pre-service teachers’ teaching beliefs, skills, and educational technology integration competencies before training pre-service teachers of all fields. Within the scope of this objective, a model was proposed to investigate the relations among pre-service teachers’ epistemological beliefs, conceptions of teaching and learning (COTL), and educational technology integration competencies. As for the participants, 1499 pre-service teachers enrolled at the School of Education at Northwestern region of Turkey participated in the study. An Educational Technology Integration Competencies Scale, Epistemological Beliefs Scale, and COTL Scale, which were developed by the researchers, were utilized to collect the data. At the end of the study, it was found that there were significant relations between pre-service teachers’ beliefs (epistemological beliefs and COTL) and their educational technology integration competencies, which is parallel with the findings of the studies in the literature.