Pre-service EFL teachers’ motivational beliefs about instructional use of technology: development and validation of a scale

Abstract

This article presents the development and validation of the Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Motivational Beliefs about Instructional Use of Technology scale (PTMB-EFL) using a randomly split sample. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 23-item six-factor structure of the PTMB-EFL generated from exploratory factor analysis. Significant correlations between the PTMB-EFL factors and teachers’ perceived actual classroom technology use practices supported the concurrent validity of the PTMB-EFL. A second-order confirmatory factor analysis further provided empirical evidence to consider motivational beliefs about instructional use of technology as a unitary construct with six correlated but distinct motivational belief factors. In addition, unlike previous technology acceptance studies, this study revealed that among the six types of motivational beliefs, growth mindset was the strongest predictor of perceived actual classroom technology use practices. The PTMB-EFL can be used as an evaluation tool to appraise pre-service EFL or ESL teacher technology-based English teaching experience during their practicum, and as a research tool to investigate more associations between instructional use of technology and other contextual and teacher factors.