New generation of student teachers "Are they really different?"

A study on student teachers in Korea and Singapore

Abstract

During the past decade, both Korean and Singaporean governments have implemented several ICT policies in schools, and the ecology of classrooms was constantly changing with such policy impetus. Therefore, it is possible that the new generation of student teachers, who are the recipients of such policy initiatives, possess personal beliefs and knowledge about teaching and learning with technology, shaped and learned from their extended period of new experiences and observations as school students. However, we question are they really different in terms of their attitude and perspective about teaching and learning with technology? Hence, the purpose of this research is to examine the profile of the first-year student teachers in terms of past experiences, beliefs and attitude. Specifically, we examined the relationships of the following six variables: (1) past ICT experiences, (2) personal computer use, (3) constructivist belief, (4) computer efficacy, (5) attitude toward computer in education, and (6) prospective computer use. Participants include student teachers in the first year of teacher education programs in Korea (N=163) and Singapore (N=55). Survey findings indicate that participants in both countries had fairly negative or neutral ICT experiences in primary schools, while their experiences were better in secondary and post-secondary schools. In Korean data, past ICT experiences were significantly related to computer efficacy, attitude toward computer in education, and prospective use of computer while no significant relationships were found between past ICT experiences and other variables in the Singaporean data. Singaporean student teachers scored higher in all compared variables than Korean student teachers, and significant differences were found in two variables: past experience and attitude toward computer in education. We discuss implications of our findings and directions for future studies.