Pre-service primary school teachers' self-efficacy perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge and their technology supported learning task preferences

The rapid development of technology has brought about an inevitable transformation in the field of education. At the center of this transformation are teachers who are responsible for organization of educational environments. It is a basic requirement of today's educational understanding that teachers integrate technology, which permeates every element of educational programs, into learning and teaching processes in a correct and effective way. Accordingly, it can be said that TPACK competencies, which can be defined as the ability of teachers to reach the learning goals of students by associating technologies appropriate to the teaching content with appropriate teaching methods, is one of the variables that directly affect the quality of the teaching process. In this study, it was aimed to identify pre-service teachers' perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge self-efficacy. The aim of the research, which was designed in a mixed method, was to determine the pre-service teachers' perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge self-efficacy and their technology supported learning task preferences. In line with the main purpose of the research, in the quantitative part of the study, it was aimed to determine whether the gender variable has an effect on pre-service teachers' self-efficacy perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge; in the qualitative part of the study, it was aimed to determine the characteristics of pre-service teachers' preferences for technology-supported learning tasks and their preferences for these tasks. As a mixed method design was used within the scope of the research, the study group was selected by convenient sampling method from non-random sampling methods. The study group consisted of 59 4th grade prospective classroom teachers studying at Marmara University, Department of Classroom Teaching in the 2022-2023 academic year. The quantitative and qualitative data of the study were collected from the same study group. The quantitative data of the study were collected with the Personal Information Form created by the researcher and the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Scale (TPACKS) developed by Horzum, Akgün, and Öztürk (2014). In the collection of qualitative data, the Technology Supported Learning Task Form and Technology Supported Learning Task Scoring Key, which were developed by the researcher and consisted of 3 sections: Course Information Form, Teaching Activity Form and Interview Form, were used. The quantitative data of the study were analyzed by unrelated samples t-test and the qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings, it was seen that pre-service teachers' self-efficacy perception levels for technological pedagogical content knowledge were at a high level in terms of the total score of the scale. The pre-service teachers stated that they perceived themselves as competent mostly in pedagogical content knowledge and least in technological knowledge sub-dimensions. In the study, it was seen that the total scores of pre-service teachers from the technological pedagogical content knowledge scale did not show a significant difference according to the gender variable. However, it was determined that male pre-service primary school teachers considered themselves more competent than female pre-service teachers in the technological knowledge sub-dimension. When the effect size was analyzed, it was seen that this difference was a small effect. In the qualitative dimension of the study, the level of pre-service teachers' technology-supported learning task scoring key scores, the characteristics of technology-supported learning tasks and their views on the benefits of using technology in learning-teaching processes were examined. It was seen that pre-service teachers' technology-supported learning task rubric scores did not differ significantly according to their upper and lower self-efficacy levels. The results obtained from the study were evaluated in the light of the literature and suggestions were developed.