Abstract:

With the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT), technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has become a necessity for 21st century teachers to be able to integrate technology into education in all fields and grades. In line with this requirement, the number of studies on evaluating and associating TPACK and ICT skills of teachers and pre-service teachers has increased in recent years. However, early childhood teachers and/or pre-service teachers were rarely included in these studies. Therefore, the current study aims to compare early childhood teachers’ TPACK and ICT self-efficacy perceptions with pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions, and to examine whether the participants’ ICT skills are a significant predictor of their TPACK, after controlling for their occupational status, years of computer use, and prior ICT training. The data of the research were obtained from 141 participants, 64 of whom were teachers and 77 of whom were pre-service teachers via an online survey in the spring of the 2020-2021 academic year. It was found that TPACK self-efficacy perceptions of teachers were significantly higher than those of pre-service teachers and participants' ICT self-efficacy were a significant predictor of their TPACK self-efficacy. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature.

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