Singaporean and Taiwanese pre-service teachers' beliefs and their attitude towards ICT use: A comparative study

Abstract

Teachers' epistemological and pedagogical beliefs and their attitude towards ICT use are identified as the second-order barrier for the integration of ICT in the classrooms. In this paper, we report the findings obtained from a recent survey and conducted among Singaporean and Taiwanese pre-service teachers (N= 1 08). The results indicate that pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs were generally relativistic. They were inclined to believe in the constructivist notion of teaching. The results also suggested that pre-service teachers from Singapore and Taiwan hold beliefs that are congruent to the educational reform effort from their respective countries. However, the pre-service teachers' attitude towards ICT use does not seem to be associated with their epistemological and pedagogical beliefs. The findings suggest that further efforts are required to foster more productive use of ICT to support constructivist teaching.