Pre-Service Teachers` Competencies and Perceptions of Necessity about Practical Tools for Content Development

The purpose of the study is to investigate pre-service teachers` competencies and
their perceptions of necessity about using practical tools for content development.
The study was designed using pre- and post-test experimental design method. The
study group consisted of 170 pre-service teachers at a public university in Turkey.
The Practical Tools for Content Development (PTCD) scale was used for data
collection. Pre-service teachers had been trained about practical tools for 14
weeks during the Computer II course in spring semester. For the data analysis;
descriptive statistics, independent t-test, dependent t-test and single factor variance
analysis (ANOVA) methods were applied. It was observed that the competency
levels of pre-service teachers increased from medium to high. A slight decrease
was observed in pre-service teachers` perceptions of necessity. No significant
differences were observed in competency levels of pre-service teachers depending
on gender, department and daily internet use variables. Female participants’ level
of perceptions of necessity was significantly higher than the the males, whereas
there was no other significant differences. It can be concluded that Computer II
course might have an important role to improve pre-service teachers’ competencies
and skills on the use of practical tools for content development.