Prospective Teachers’ Attitudes towards Computers in the Pre-service Teacher Education Programs at Eastern Mediterranean University

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes pre-service teachers towards computers. The participants of the study were 394 prospective first and fourth year teachers from the teacher education programs in English Language Teaching, Turkish Language Teaching, Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Pre-School Teacher Education, Elementary School Teacher Education, and Secondary School Teacher Education under the Faculty of Education at Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). To achieve this aim, quantitative data were collected from these participants. A quantitative research method was used to collect the data. The questionnaire given to the teacher candidates was in the students‘ mother tongue, Turkish, and consisted of two sections with a total of 45 items; the first section asked the participants their gender, program of study, year of study, computer ownership, and year(s) of ownership. The second section included 40 items concerning attitudes towards computers. The participants completed the questionnaire, which asked them to fill in an optic answer sheet toward the written statements. They were asked to do so, by stating whether they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed. The data were analyzed through the PASW program. Analysis of the data included differences between how pre-service teachers felt towards computers, and how they felt towards computers according to gender, program of study, year in program, computer ownership, and year(s) of ownership. The findings of the study revealed that pre-service teachers from the mentioned programs hold an above average positive attitude towards computers. The findings also reveal that gender, years of study, and years of computer ownership do not prove to be significant in the process of defining an individual‘s attitude towards computers. However, the findings do reveal that a significant different exists between the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards computers and their ownership of a computer. Furthermore, the findings indicate that a significant difference existed among the programs of Turkish Language Teaching, and English Language Teaching and Pre-School Teacher Education with respect to attitudes of students towards computers. A significant difference in the attitudes of students also exists between the programs of Pre-School Teacher Education and Psychological Counseling and Guidance. Finally, the implications of these findings and suggestions for further research are given. Keywords: Pre-service teachers, attitudes towards computers. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………