The aim of this study is to find out pre-service English language teachers' ICT self-efficacy perceptions and ICT integration in their lessons. The data were collected from 60 pre-service English teachers in one of the state universities in Turkey via a questionnaire developed by Ekici, Ekici, and Kara. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with some volunteering pre-service teachers. The questionnaire data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 22). Interview data were analyzed finding emerging themes and categorizing them using constant comparison method. The results showed that they use ICTs in their lessons mostly especially in practicum or macro and micro teaching sessions and they have high self-efficacy on ICT use in language education. Results also revealed some problems they encounter while using ICTs in language teacher education and their suggestions on how to improve their use. Based on the results, certain implications were drawn from the study in order to organize future teacher education programs that utilize ICTs.
TopIntroduction
ICTs have become an indispensable part of our lives and the application of ICTs has been affecting the way of teaching in schools. ICTs can be defined as technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications and they include the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums (Tech Terms 2014) and different types of ICTs include email, virtual learning environment, social networking sites, social mobile applications, user-generated content sites and video-conferencing and voice-over-internet protocols (Oliver & Clayes, 2014). ICTs play a vital role in the future of education throughout the world (Tongkaw, 2013) and are important catalysts and tools for inducing educational reforms that change our students into productive handlers of knowledge (Eynon, 2005). ICTs provide individuals with a creative, innovative, and supposedly more colorful setting in comparison to face-to-face instruction. In this regard, equipping individuals with the skills to use ICTs effectively and responsibly carries utmost importance (Akbulut, 2009). ICTs have rapidly developing structures in nature, so are the processes of integrating ICTs into instructional practices.
Teachers are required to have adequate ICT competencies to make use of ICT for education (Goktas¸ Yildirim, & Yildirim, 2009). Thomas and Knezek (2008) point out that, teachers in both real and virtual schools and classrooms must be equipped with technology resources and skills to provide learning experiences effectively. These teachers will have the ability to develop innovative ways of using technology to enhance the learning environment, and to promote technology literacy, knowledge deepening, and knowledge creation (UNESCO, 2011a). The effective integration of ICT into education can be thought to enable effective citizens and workers to acquire functional and critical thinking skills such as information literacy, media literacy, and ICT literacy in the 21st century (Partnership, 2015). For that reason, one of the goals of the schools systems in many countries is to ensure that students gain adequate literacy and numeracy skills with the ability to use ICT in their compulsory education (OECD, 2013).
Training pre-service teachers in using ICTs is indispensable since they are the teachers of the future generations who are digital natives. Thus, pre-service teachers should be equipped with the skills and knowledge for ICT use. Pre-service teachers need to gain the necessary technological competence to meet their students’ needs during their pre-service education (Zhou, Zhao, Hu, Liu, & Xing, 2010). In this regard, Yıldırım (2000) stresses that “it is crucial for teachers to have appropriate technology training during their pre-service education, if they are to meet their students’ needs for the next century.” Pre-service teachers should acquire the skills and knowledge essential for ICT use in their pre-service learning process, and apply them in their pre-service education period and in their professional life (Yapıcı & Hevedanlı, 2012). Besides being competent in using ICT, teachers must be media and information literate to critically assess media texts and information sources (UNESCO, 2011b).