Examining the Association Between Pre-service Teachers’ Self-efficacy and TPACK Competencies in Online Internships Under COVID-19

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-service teachers must devote time and effort to familiarizing themselves with the online educational internship system and adapting their pedagogy to the new internship mode that integrates information and communication technologies. Under such a circumstance, teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) plays a critical role in making them competent in online internships, and their self-efficacy can facilitate their TPACK development. Based on the data collected from 202 pre-service teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic in China through online surveys, this study investigated the association between their self-efficacy and their TPACK during the online internship. The results of multiple regression analyses suggested that pre-service teachers’ personal and general teaching efficacies significantly predicted TPACK competencies to varying degrees. To be specific, pre-service teachers’ personal teaching efficacy significantly and positively predicted all the TPACK dimensions; meanwhile, GTE only significantly and positively predicted Pedagogical Knowledge (PK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). Also, the conclusions, implications, and suggestions for theory and practice were discussed.