Investigation of preservice teachers' technology acceptance in terms of epistemological and science teaching efficacy beliefs

The initiative to have technology in schools can help enrich the quality of education for students. Technology also helps teachers with their teaching tasks. However, if teachers do not accept the technology, the technology will not be used sufficiently and will not affect education. In this context, the study aimed to investigate the extent to which technology acceptance is predicted by external variables (e.g., science teaching efficacy and epistemological beliefs) and what kind of a relationship is between these variables. The research was conducted within the scope of the cross-sectional survey model. The study's accessible population consists of 3rd and 4th-grade pre-service teachers studying Science, Preschool, and Classroom Education in Central Anatolia. The research sample consists of 714 pre-service teachers selected from this universe via random sampling. The data collection tool consists of four parts. There is a Personal Information Form in the first part of the scale, which includes variables such as gender, age, and academic achievement. The second part includes the Epistemological Belief Scale (SEBS) developed by Conley, Pintrich, Vekiri, and Harrison (2004). SEBS consists of 26 items and four factors (certainty, development, source, and justification of knowledge). The Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI) developed by Enochs and Riggs (1990) was used in the third part. The STEBI consists of 23 items and two sub-factors (outcome expectation and self-efficacy). In the fourth part, the Intention to Technology Use Scale developed by Kartal and Kartal (2018) was used. The Intention to Use Technology Scale consists of 28 items and four factors (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude towards use, and behavioral intention). Before analyzing the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Skewness-Kurtosis tests were performed for the data's normality assumptions, and it was observed that the data showed a normal distribution. Percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation were used in descriptive analysis. Independent groups t-test was used for binary variables such as gender and grade level, and the ANOVA test was used for more than two variables. If the difference between groups is significant, Cohen's d and eta-square (η2) were calculated for effect size. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between variables, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to calculate the predictive power of the variables. According to the results of the research, it is seen that there is a significant positive relationship between the behavioral intentions of teacher candidates and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitude towards use. The stronger the pre-service teachers' behavioral intentions in using technology, the stronger their technology usefulness, ease of use, and attitudes towards using technology. Besides, a significant change in pre-service teachers' intention to use technology is explained by their scientific epistemological and efficacy beliefs for science teaching.