Teachers’ computer self-efficacy and their use of educational technology

Abstract

This study examined the use of educational technology by primary and subject teachers (i.e. secondary and high school teachers) in a small town in the eastern part of Turkey in the spring of 2012. The study examined the primary, secondary and high school teachers’  personal and computer related (demographic) characteristics,  their computer self-efficacy perceptions,  their computer-using level in certain software,  their frequency of computer use for teaching, administrative and communication objectives, and  their use of educational technology preferences for preparation and teaching purposes. In this study, all primary, secondary and high school teachers in the small town were given the questionnaires to complete. 158 teachers (n=158) completed and returned them. The study was mostly quantitative and partly qualitative. The quantitative results were analysed with SPSS (i.e. mean, Std. Deviation, frequency, percentage, ANOVA). The qualitative data were analysed with examining the participants’ responses gathered from the open-ended questions and focussing on the shared themes among the responses. The results reveal that the teachers think that they have good computer self-efficacy perceptions, their level in certain programs is good, and they often use computers for a wide range of purposes. There are also statistical differences between;  their computer self-efficacy perceptions,  frequency of computer use for certain purposes, and  computer level in certain programs in terms of different independent variables.