Understanding Preservice Mathematics Teachers’ Technology Use: Some Pedagogical Issues

Becoming technology literate citizens has gained great importance in recent decades. Technology also has become crucial for the teaching and learning of school subjects as well as the workplace. For successful technology integration, teachers should have adequate pedagogical and technological knowledge, beliefs and attitudes. The aim of this study is to explore how PMTs describe characteristics of a good teacher who integrates technology into instruction, what they would consider when they teach with technology and what kinds of problems they anticipate in their future classrooms. The participants are twenty senior pre-service mathematics teachers enrolled in a four-year teacher preparation program in a state university in Turkey. The study used an online form to collect data. We analyzed participants’ written responses using the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) framework. Findings indicated that participants considered issues such as technical knowledge and skills, content knowledge, the pedagogy of using technology, the interrelation between content to be taught and software, and time constraint. With regard to students, participants anticipate problems such as negative attitudes towards mathematics, mathematical misconceptions that might emerge as a result of inappropriate use of technology, distraction and time constraint. The paper will propose recommendations for teacher education programs.