Are Demographic and Academic Variables Related to Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Pre-service Secondary Student Teachers?

Abstract

Technology-enabled learning (TEL) has become an indispensable part of any education system. A crucial and widely adopted
theoretical framework for technology integration in teaching-learning is ‘technological pedagogical content knowledge’ (TPACK) (Koehler & Mishra, 2008; Angeli & Valanides, 2009; Chai et al., 2011). The present study aimed at assessing the technological pedagogical content knowledge of preservice student-teachers of the Bachelor of Education Programme, with respect to demographic and academic variables such as gender, age, habitat, academic qualification, and academic variables such as subject area, mode of study, and completion of ICT course.  The survey research method was used for collecting teachers’ perception of their TPACK level from a randomly selected 372 student teachers from different face-to-face and open and distance learning institutes using the TPACK,xs scale, developed by Schmid et al., (2020).  Cronbach’s alpha of .997 indicated high reliability of the instrument.  Besides, factor analysis was done to determine the validity of the scale. The findings showed that there were statistically significant differences in different dimensions of student teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge with respect to gender, and habitat. Student teachers’ age, academic qualification, subject area, mode of study, and completion of ICT course had no relation to their TPACK perceptions. The findings have been discussed in the light of prior TPACK survey studies, policy on teacher education, and the implications for different stakeholders of teacher education programme.