Previous research suggests that incorporating technology in the classroom can have positive educational outcomes for students. However, those outcomes depend upon proper use of technology by teachers, because not all types of technology are appropriate for all lessons, especially when teaching about the environment. This article argues that teacher education programs must go beyond training teachers to use technology; rather, programs need to provide teachers with a clear vision of how to effectively integrate that technology into the curriculum. If successful, such programs should enable teachers to foster greater environmental literacy among students. This study investigated whether a teacher education program could improve candidates' confidence in their ability to effectively use technology in the classroom; environmental education served as the context for this training.
Technological advancements have made new teaching methods and strategies possible. To prepare teachers to use these new methods, a teacher education program at a United States university provided a semester-long course in classroom technology that focused on environmental education. The course focused on modelling lessons that effectively incorporated technology, providing repeated opportunities for pre-service teachers to visualize their future teaching strategies. The authors describe the goal of these lessons as providing “vicarious mastery experiences.” Environmental education served as the context for these lessons, allowing pre-service teachers to apply the skills they learned to a specific topic, and encouraging them to learn new content themselves.
To evaluate whether this course was effective in helping teacher candidates feel knowledgeable and confident enough to use technology in their future classrooms, the researchers conducted a survey at the beginning and end of the course. They used an established questionnaire called the Technology and Teaching Efficacy Scale. This scale measures self-efficacy, which refers to a person's beliefs about their ability to perform certain tasks relevant to their lives. Higher scores indicate higher self-efficacy. In this case, the researchers assessed respondents' self-efficacy both in using technology and teaching in general. A total of 424 teacher candidates completed the survey, and the authors used statistical analysis to interpret the results.
The results of the survey suggest that the course succeeded in improving teacher confidence. Teacher candidates' self-efficacy regarding the incorporation of technology in the classroom increased significantly after the course, including agreement with statements like “I believe I will be able to incorporate technology into any classroom subject.” Teacher candidates' self-efficacy regarding their general teaching skills also increased significantly, including agreement with statements such as “I believe I will be able to create an atmosphere conducive to learning.” Together, the two self-efficacy measures increased from an average score of 77 out of a possible 110 before the course to 94 after the course.
This study did not incorporate a control group, which led the authors to recommend that future research include a group that receives similar technology training but with fewer experiential opportunities. Additionally, the study did not look at long-term effects of the course on teachers' actual classroom experience. Future studies could examine the effects of a technology training course through time. Finally, the authors suggest that future research could evaluate more specific aspects of teachers' skills, such as which types of technology they mastered, as well as their intended use of technology in lessons.
Based on the success of this program, the authors recommend that when teacher education programs provide technology training, they should focus on modeling appropriate classroom integration and providing vicarious mastery experiences. This should improve teacher self-efficacy, which will allow greater learning opportunities for students, and can help students draw connections—through images, games, and more—with environmental content.
The Bottom Line
To effectively incorporate technology into lessons, teachers must be confident and knowledgeable about how and when technology use is appropriate. This study evaluated a course designed to train teacher candidates in the use of technology through an environmental education (EE) curriculum, asking if the course could impact the teachers' self-efficacy (i.e. their confidence in their own abilities). The results suggest that the course significantly improved teacher candidates' self-efficacy, both in terms of technology use and teaching proficiency. The authors recommend that teacher education programs incorporate technology training that uses teaching models contextualized within a curriculum, such as EE. This approach should help teachers learn to visualize effective uses of technology, and improve their confidence in implementing these uses.