Browse Theses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the preparation of pre-service teacher education graduates at Mississippi State University in the use of technology. The data for the study was collected through a 38-item survey that inquired about survey recipients' skill attainment, level of technology use in their classes, and background information. There were 211 teacher education majors graduating from the College of Education in Spring of 1999. Sixty-eight surveys from the teacher education graduates were collected, for a return rate of about 30%.

The focus of the study promoted one major research question and three subquestions. The major question was: Are undergraduate teacher education graduates at Mississippi State University adequately prepared to teach with technology__ __ The three sub-questions were: (a) which students seem to be the most and the least prepared to use technology in the classroom__ __ (b) what are the differences between students who are prepared and those who are not__ __ and (c) which experiences do the most prepared students have that the others do not__ __

The analyses of the data indicated that students with a higher skill level had been exposed to teachers/instructors who used technology in teaching, whether in student teacher placement, practicum placement, or during the last two years of classes. The analyses of the data showed that the courses student teachers took did not seem to make them more proficient in the use of technology. The study showed that there were student teachers who did not have exposure to the use of technology in courses they took. The findings of this study indicated that pre-service teacher education graduates were inadequately prepared in the use of technology.