Teacher educators’ perspectives and practices towards the Technology Education Technology Competencies (TETCs)

ABSTRACT

This mixed-method study explores current innovative methods towards technology integration in a teacher preparation programme at a mid-sized university in the Southeastern United States. The authors collected and analysed qualitative descriptive data from instructors of a foundational technology course. Using the recently developed Technology Education Technology Competencies (TETCs), they surveyed 17 faculty members and conducted follow-up interviews to understand their perspectives about the importance of the TETCs, and their belief of whether their current instructional technology integration aligned with them. Key findings suggest policies and initiatives to increase faculty technology integration did not tightly align with practice; teacher educators believed the TETCs were important, but most perceived their practices with teacher candidates were weak, and teacher educators with a higher proficiency with technology scored higher on their beliefs and practices with technology integration. The authors use their findings to propose ways to redesign teacher education programmes to increase faculty technology integration practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-service teaching
• technology integration
• teacher educators
• TETCs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danielle Herro

Danielle Herro is an Associate Professor in the Learning Sciences at Clemson University. She researches the efficacy of teacher professional development towards integrating digital media in learning environments, ways to foster computational thinking practices and collaborative problem solving in young learners, and STEAM instruction and learning in K–12 schools.

Ryan Visser

Ryan Visser is a senior lecturer in the College of Education at Clemson University where he focuses on digital media and learning. His research interests include examining the relationship between technology and cognition, social media and its impact on education, technology integration in teacher education programmes, and how artificial intelligence can be used in qualitative research.

Meihua Qian

Meihua Qian is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Clemson University. Her current research focuses on creativity assessment, game-based learning, test bias and machine learning.