HOW USING OF TECHNOLOGY CHANGED PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ TEACHING PRACTICES

Technology has begun to take a crucial role in education, so, there has been substantial investment on technological tools in order to integrate technology to the science teaching. Research suggests that disappointing outcomes are frequently associated with lack of the necessary teachers’ skills to integrate technology into their classes. The purpose of this study was to examine how using of technology change pre-service physics teachers’ teaching practices. Case study design was guided to the research. The participants of the study were 10 pre-service physics teachers, three of whom were male. Computer-Based Laboratory (CBL) was the technology in this study. The participants were observed two times while teaching the same physics concept in two different semesters. In the first semester, they designed and implemented a lesson plan by taking the constructivist philosophy into account. Their teaching practices were observed and recorded. In the second semester, they again designed and implemented a lesson plan about the same physics concept by integrating CBL technology into their practices. Science Classroom Observation Rubric (SCOR) was filled out by two researchers separately for each participant while observing their practices. When the pre-service physics teachers used CBL technology, their roles changed and they became more facilitator by providing students more active participation in the learning process. Meanwhile, the class environment shifted from the teacher-centered teaching to the student-centered teaching when CBL technology was integrated into the lesson. Therefore, when misconceptions occurred in the students’ minds, the pre-service teachers supported discussions among students by encouraging them to get rid of their misconceptions in the CBL teaching environment. On the other hand, since the participants concentrated on CBL usage, they did not prefer to use any innovation or another tool such as model and metaphor to facilitate student learning. Another finding was that usage of CBL did not have any influence on the interest of students to the lesson and on the relationship between teacher and students. Overall results showed that technology integration had an influence on the pre-service physics teachers’ teaching practices positively and they used technology as a learning tool. The current study contributes to the science teacher education by examining the effects of technology usage on pre-service physics teachers’ teaching practices.