The Effects of Teachers’ Educational Technology Skills on Their Classroom Management Skills.

Abstract

Because technology integrations require changes in instructional processes it may require different approaches for classroom management. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether teachers’ educational technology skills, besides their gender and years of experiences, significantly explain their classroom management skills. The data was gathered from 300 elementary school teachers in a mid-western city of Turkey. It was found that teachers' educational technology skills and their years of experiences were significantly associated with their course management skills, behavior arrangement skills and activity management skills. The finding of non-significant effects of teachers’ gender on their subordinate classroom management skills are supported by previous research. The finding that experience may be expected to be an important predicting factor for occupational proficiency may be explained by the opportunities teachers may have to develop themselves in occupational skills during their career. Teachers with high perceptions of educational technology self-skills have high perceptions of classroom management skills. This result may be attributed to the experience in the use of educational technology.