Graduate-entry pre-service teachers: the relationship between their experience using technology in their previous occupations and their technological pedagogical beliefs

An important aspect of teachers’ work is integrating technology to support student learning. Teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, and skills related to technology develop well before their pre-service teacher education begins. For graduate-entry pre-service teachers, prior experiences may play a valuable role in shaping their self-efficacy for, and use of technology in their pedagogical practice. This paper presents findings from the first phase of a mixed method study of students enrolled in a one-year graduate teaching course (N = 146). Graduate-entry pre-service teachers at an Australian university were invited, at the commencement of their course, to complete a survey about their self-efficacy beliefs using technology in their previous occupations and their self-efficacy beliefs for integrating technology into classroom teaching. Analysis revealed a significant relationship between the four variables: frequent use of technology, types of technological tools used, general technology self-efficacy and technology pedagogy self-efficacy. The greater the experience in applying a wide variety of technological tools in their previous workplace, the higher the participant’s self-efficacy beliefs for both general technology and technology pedagogy. For participants (n = 58), who used specialised technology applications in their former roles, there was a significant and positive relationship between the types of tools used and their self-efficacy beliefs. This study provides a greater understanding of the technological skills, expertise and beliefs graduate-entry teachers bring with them from previous roles. These findings suggest that graduate-entry teachers’ experience of using specialised technology could facilitate the achievement of mandated technology pedagogy reforms and support advanced pedagogical skill development.