Analyzing technological pedagogical content knowledge self - efficacy of prospective teachers in the context of international education technology standards (ISTE-T 2008)

The purpose of this study was to analyze technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) self-efficacy of prospective teachers studying at undergraduate programs' senior class level and pedagogical formation certificate program in the context of International Society for Technology in Education's educational technology standards that were defined for teachers in 2008 (ISTE-T 2008). In accordance with this purpose, the distribution of general TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy and sub scale means, the significant difference of TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy in point of some variables such as gender, the type of program that they attended, the condition of taking computer course based on a certificate and teaching branch were investigated. Furthermore, in the last sub problem whether the predictors such as prospective teachers' technology use levels, the level of access to resources, teacher educators as role models of integrating technology in their courses, the experience level of using technology in education and their attitudes of using technology in education predicted the TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy significantly and how well those values predicted the TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy were investigated. In this research survey, correlational and causal-comparative research designs of quantitative research methods were used. The research was carried out by cluster random sampling method consisting 3932 prospective teachers who study at undergraduate programs' senior class level and pedagogical formation certificate programs at 18 different state universities in Turkey. In this research, a scale of which theoretical framework depends on TPACK and based on ISTE's standards for teachers is developed for data collection. As to the data analysis phase, the basic descriptive statistics of frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation were used to indicate the distribution of the data. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskall-Wallis H nonparametric significance tests were used to compare the mean scores of TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy. Standard multiple regression was used to determine the prediction of TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy scores by independent variables, The findings of this research indicated that the prospective teachers had high TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy. Technological Knowledge (TK) scores indicated significant difference and represented small effect size in favour of males in point of gender. Also the prospective teachers who took computer courses based on a certificate had significantly higher TK and TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy scores than the others. The results indicated no significant difference in all dimensions and general scores of TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy in point of the type of program that prospective teachers attended. The TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy scores indicated significantly statistical differences among the teaching branches of the prospective teachers in the research. To the multiple comparisons of the teaching branches, the prospective teachers at department of Foreign Languages and at department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies had highest TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy scores, while the prospective teachers at departments of Mathematics and Turkish & Turkish Language and Literature had lowest scores. Finally, prospective teachers' technology use levels, the level of access to resources, teacher educators as role models of integrating technology in their courses, the experience level of using technology in education and their attitudes of using technology in education were significant predictors of the TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy. However, the predictors estimated TK and TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy general scores in medium significance level, the other sub dimensions of the TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy are predicted in small significance level. In addition, apart from PK, teacher educators as role models of integrating technology in their courses independent variable was not a significant predictor of none of the TPACK-ISTE self-efficacy sub dimensions. As to the general implications of this study, educational technology standards should be developed to lead professional development of prospective teachers and in-service teachers and these standards should be updated regarding to the innovative education technologies at national level. Keywords: Technological pedagogical content knowledge, educational technology standards, technology integration in education, scale development, pedagogical formation certificate program