The Impact of Powerpoint Use on Teacher Sense of Efficacy

Abstract

The use of PowerPoint is widespread in classroom teaching, yet no studies exist that investigate how its use affects teacher sense of efficacy. Teacher sense of efficacy, understood as the teachers’ judgment of their capability to make differences in students’ learning, affects the effort teachers invest in teaching, the goals they set, and their level of aspiration. It has been found that highly efficacious teachers use a variety of teaching strategies and are more willing to integrate new technologies in their teaching practices. As the number of teachers who use presentation tools in their classroom increases, it would be valuable to know whether and how their use affects teacher sense of efficacy. This study expands the current literature on teacher sense of efficacy by investigating how the use of PowerPoint in the classroom relates to the construct. In order to measure whether PowerPoint use affects teacher sense of efficacy, we developed a self-administered questionnaire based on the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) and adapted it to measure the effect of PowerPoint use in teacher efficacy. Twenty five in-service teachers who use PowerPoint quite often in their practices participated in this study. The results show that PowerPoint use has a general positive impact on teacher sense of efficacy.