The Current Status of Early Childhood Teachers' Use of Digital Media in the Early Childhood Classroom

This chapter discusses technology and its role in teacher education. In order for technology to reach the early childhood classroom, it must first reach the classroom of the teacher education programs. The effect of self-efficacy on preschool teachers use and understanding of technology may influence their instructional applications. Early childhood faculty come from the same career pool as early childhood teachers and may share the same beliefs that practitioners have concerning technology. Teacher education programs have a responsibility to produce professionals who are literate in technology tools and applications.

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Barriers to the Use of Games-Based Learning in Pre-School Settings

10.4018/978-1-6684-3710-0.ch079 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 1639-1654

Author(s):

Dionysios Manesis

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Teachers ◽

Digital Games ◽

Early Childhood Classroom ◽

School Teachers ◽

Public And Private ◽

Major Barrier ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

Frequent Use ◽

Adoption And Implementation

The main aim of this research is to investigate how teachers perceive the barriers that limit the adoption and implementation of games-based learning in early childhood education on Cyprus. Teachers are working in public and private pre-schools. A 19-item questionnaire was administered to 148 early childhood teachers in Cyprus (78 public pre-school teachers and 70 private pre-school teachers). Factor analysis reveals three types of barriers to the use of games-based learning in early childhood classroom: lack of confidence, lack of support, and lack of equipment. The higher the teachers' self-efficacy in using digital games is, the lower the level of teachers' perception regarding the barrier lack of confidence becomes. Teachers with no frequent use of computer and digital games in the classroom perceive lack of confidence as a major barrier. Public pre-schools teachers have significantly more positive attitudes toward the usefulness of GBL than private pre-schools teachers.

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Media educational consciousness of early childhood student teachers: A critical case-description and a suggestion for a cross-curricular framework

10.31235/osf.io/cdsng ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Pekka Mertala ◽

Saara Salomaa

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Student Teachers ◽

Digital Media ◽

Early Childhood Teachers ◽

Early Childhood Teacher ◽

Media Education ◽

First Year ◽

Curricular Framework ◽

Empirical Context

The need for media education in early childhood teacher education has been regularly emphasized. However, the questions of what and how student teachers should be taught about media education have remained unanswered. This paper contributes to resolving these questions by introducing the concept of media educational consciousness which we argue to be crucial for 21st century early childhood teachers and, thus, for teacher education. A compulsory digital media course for first year student teachers provides the empirical context for this paper. By using students’ learning diaries as data we will demonstrate that the more aware teachers are of their underlying conceptions, the more potential there is for personal professional reflection and development.

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Barriers to the Use of Games-Based Learning in Pre-School Settings

International Journal of Game-Based Learning ◽

10.4018/ijgbl.2020070103 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 47-61

Author(s):

Dionysios Manesis

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Teachers ◽

Digital Games ◽

Early Childhood Classroom ◽

School Teachers ◽

Public And Private ◽

Major Barrier ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

Frequent Use ◽

Adoption And Implementation

The main aim of this research is to investigate how teachers perceive the barriers that limit the adoption and implementation of games-based learning in early childhood education on Cyprus. Teachers are working in public and private pre-schools. A 19-item questionnaire was administered to 148 early childhood teachers in Cyprus (78 public pre-school teachers and 70 private pre-school teachers). Factor analysis reveals three types of barriers to the use of games-based learning in early childhood classroom: lack of confidence, lack of support, and lack of equipment. The higher the teachers' self-efficacy in using digital games is, the lower the level of teachers' perception regarding the barrier lack of confidence becomes. Teachers with no frequent use of computer and digital games in the classroom perceive lack of confidence as a major barrier. Public pre-schools teachers have significantly more positive attitudes toward the usefulness of GBL than private pre-schools teachers.

Download Full-text