Enhancing pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration through lesson planning practice

• We investigated pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration (SETI) after a course.
• Their SETI was increased after the course mostly due to lesson planning practice.
• Positive attitudes toward computers and high lesson planning ability bring high SETI.
• These two factors influenced the SETI directly, rather than indirectly.
• Lesson planning practice did not affect pre-service teachers' attitudinal growth.

The purpose of this study was to identify how pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration (SETI) can be improved during the coursework intervention, and which of the course factors (instructional media development skills, knowledge on technology, and lesson planning practice) has the highest impact on the SETI. This research also attempted to explore a more inclusive path of the direct and indirect influences between SETI and other non-course variables (computer use, teachers' attitude towards computers (TAC), changes in TAC). A total of 136 undergraduate students at a teacher education university in Korea participated in the study. Our data analyses illustrated significant increase of prospective teachers' SETI after their completion of education technology course resulting mostly from lesson planning practice. The hierarchical multiple regression revealed that the pre-service teachers with higher positive attitudes toward computers and greater ability for lesson planning showed higher increase in their levels of SETI. The path analysis indicated that these two factors influenced the SETI directly, rather than indirectly. Lesson planning practice did not affect pre-service teachers' attitudinal growth. Implications on effectiveness of the lesson planning and attitudinal factors on SETI, and suggestions for teacher education course design are discussed.