Preparing beginning teachers for technology integration in education: ready for take-off?

TLDR

The study aims to examine how beginning teachers integrate technology in practice and how their technology use relates to pre‑service education programmes. The study collected data via in‑depth interviews with beginning teachers. Beginning teachers employed diverse technologies mainly for structured learning, rarely for student‑centred use, and found that teacher‑educator modelling and field experiences most strongly influence their technology integration, prompting recommendations for pre‑service and beginning teacher preparation.

Abstract

The overall aims of this study are to explore (1) how beginning teachers integrate technology in their practice and (2) the connections between teachers’ technology uses and their pre-service education programmes. Data of this follow-up study were collected through in-depth interviews with beginning teachers. The results reveal that all beginning teachers used a wide range of technological applications, mainly for structured learning approaches, while few created opportunities for student-centred technology use. Further, pre-service learning experiences that impact graduate teachers’ technology use are identified. While teacher educators modelling technology use are an important motivator for beginning teachers to use technology in their own teaching, field experiences seem to be the most critical factor influencing their current practice. Based on the results of this study, recommendations about how to prepare and support pre-service and beginning teachers for technology integration are discussed.