The Problems and Future Concerns of Computer and Instructional Technologies Preservice Teachers

In this study, both the roles of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies (CEIT) programs in 32 universities' educational faculties in Turkey, the problems that CEIT students encounter, their future concerns, the problems they face after graduation and possible solutions are investigated. In this survey, a questionnaire was administered to 373 students (157 female, 216 male) from 22 CEIT programs. The findings revealed that major problems of CEIT students are curriculum problems. Their major concerns about future are as follows: the number of students is higher than the number of PCs, teachers' low wages, role of computer courses as elective courses and absence of computer lesson scores in school reports at elementary schools, insufficient number of computer courses per week and regarding computers mostly as game tools. Keywords: Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, problem, concern SUMMARY Purpose and significance: Widespread use of information and communication technologies at schools, requires many technically qualified teachers. At the end of 2005, Ministry of Education in Turkey made some changes related to computer courses at elementary schools therefore it is important to investigate possible concerns of CEIT students as preservice computer teachers about these changes. In this research it is also aimed to reveal CEIT students' problems and their future concerns. It is also aimed to make suggestions to overcome these problems. Methods: In this research a cross-sectional survey conducted and a questionnaire developed by researchers was administered to 373 preservice computer teachers (157 female, 216 male) from 22 CEIT programs who participated 1 st National CEIT Students' Meeting in 2007. The questionnaire is of 3 sections including demographics, undergraduate CEIT students' problems and their future concerns. Results: The participants' major problems are related to curriculum problems. These are the number of courses unrelated to computer science (58 %), inefficacy of CEIT curriculum (54.4 %), insufficient time for some courses such as programming languages and database (50.1 %), ineffective computer hardware instruction (49.6 %), few number of Prof., Assoc. Prof. in CEIT departments (40 %), having almost no chance to select courses (39.7 %), insufficient free time for studying in computer labs (37.3 %), absence of a web site for communicating with instructors and accessing course materials (33.5 %), physical problems of departments and classrooms (33 %). The preservice teachers' major concerns are about schools' physical conditions and some changes that Ministry of Education made related to computer courses at elementary schools. 55 % of them are concerned with the number of students per PCs, 48.5 % of them are concerned with teachers' monthly wages while 47.4 % of them are concerned with course wages, 45.3 % of them are concerned with computer courses' position of being selective, 44.8 % of them are concerned with absence of computer course scores in school reports at elemantary schools, 44 % of them are concerned with number of computer courses per week and 43.7% of them are concerned with students' taking for computers mostly as game tools. Discussion and Conclusions: The results revealed that preservice computer teachers at CEIT program have several problems and future concerns. It is suggested to increase the number of computer courses per week at elementary schools, to assign computer course as requisite at elementary level, to provide teachers a higher level of life quality and to be sensitive about preservice computer teachers' future concerns who have important roles at schools in this technology-driven age.