EMPOWERING TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY ON ICT: HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP PLAY A ROLE?

Abstract

There is no denying that the presence of ICT in the world of education has posed a great challenge to teachers in generating an effective teaching and learning process. School administrators, on the other hand, advise teachers to increase their ability and self-confidence in using ICT to improve the quality of teaching. This study focuses on the relationship between principals' technology leadership and teachers' self-efficacy on ICT. The five components of principal technology leadership are also analyzed to predict the influence on teachers' self-efficacy. The study used an instrument adapted from the National Educational Technology Standards for Administration (NETS-A) to measure principals’ technology leadership. At the same time, the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) was formulated with ICT elements to measure teachers' self-efficacy. The study conducted using a cross-sectional survey method with a quantitative approach. A total of 376 secondary school teachers in Malaysia were selected as study respondents using multi-level sampling methods. The results show that there is no significant difference between the age and gender of teachers on the self-efficacy of teachers on the use of ICT. The findings also found that there was a moderate positive relationship between principal technology leadership and teacher self-efficacy (r=0.47, p<0.01). However, principals’ technology leadership only contributed a low influence of 22% variance on teachers' self-efficacy (r2=0.22, F=21.38, p<0.05). Overall, teachers' self-efficacy on ICT can be developing if the principal plays a role as a true technology leader. Principals need to reconsider the characteristics of technology leadership so that they become role models for the use of ICT in schools.