Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs On ICT In Education

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the difficulties associated with the use of technology by pre-service teachers, in order to find mechanisms to improve the teaching process. The target group consists of pre-service teachers, who study in a second cycle program at the Faculty of Education, at "Aleksandër Moisiu" University of Durrës. Due to the heterogeneous composition of the population taken into consideration, the selected students teach in different cities of Albania. They come from different districts to study in Durrës and return in their hometowns after finishing their studies. For this reason, the findings of this study are not only related to the use of technology in the second, most important city in the country, but also the sampling is intended to be more comprehensive. There are included 80 pre-service teachers in this study, who teach in urban and rural areas of Tirana, Elbasan, Durrës, Kavaja, Shkodra, Vlora, Gjirokastra, Peshkopia, Kukës, Bulqiza, Burreli and a part in their villages such as Maqellarë, Sukth, Shupenzë.

The purpose of the questionnaire is to analyze teachers' awareness about the importance of technology in the teaching process, but also their competence to integrate digital tools / resources with pedagogy and subject specifics. The findings of the paper prove that most of the pre-service teachers respond positively to the need for improvements in the teaching process; they almost unanimously acknowledge the importance of incorporating technology into the teaching process. However, despite the desire for change, 76.3% of them continue to remain almost neutral in the real use of teaching during the lesson. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to find and analyze the reasons that hinder the process of technology inclusion in the teaching process of foreign language teachers, thus to help solve the problem.