formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education Exploring Individual Characteristics Associated with Learning to Use Computers in Preservice Teacher Preparation Margaret Merlyn
Ropp Abstract This study explored the relationships among individual teacher characteristics that might change through experience and instruction in preservice teacher education. Fifty-three teacher preparation students in a semester-long course completed surveys measuring computer attitudes, technology proficiency, computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy, and computer coping strategies. Analyses revealed significant correlations among all but computer coping strategies. Significant improvements in technology proficiency, computer self-efficacy, and computer coping strategies occurred from the beginning to end of the course, which included hands-on training and classroom discussion of technology. Behavioral characteristics appeared to improve with experience and instruction whereas affective characteristics remained relatively stable. Contributor Before earning a PhD in educational psychology with a specialization in cognition and technology from Michigan State University, Margaret Merlyn Ropp received a BA in studio art and a master’s degree in museum studies from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Dr. Ropp’s career interests include working with preservice and inservice teachers and teacher educators as they learn to integrate technology into their teaching, and her research focuses on the investigation and development of cognitive, social, and affective environments that support self-regulated learning in the domain of teaching with technology. Dr. Ropp is currently an assistant professor of technology education at the University of New Mexico. (Address: Dr. Margaret M. Ropp, Room 267 Hokona Hall-Zuni, College of Education, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1231; megropp@unm.edu.)
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