Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Their Abilities to Teach Students with Special Needs by Integrating Technology in Their Classrooms

This inquiry is grounded in the theoretical framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). The study investigates pre-service special education teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, their perceptions of technology use for learning and teaching, their pedagogical approaches, and the challenges they face. A case study research design was employed to acquire quantitative data. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 81 pre-service teachers from one teacher training college. The questionnaire also contained open-ended questions. Quantitative data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 software while responses to the open-ended questions were thematically analysed. This study found that the pre-service teachers' use of technology may have developed over time and through the personal use of the devices in their classroom practices. Although the pre-service teachers had varied self-efficacy beliefs, they had positive attitudes towards the use of technology. Findings also suggest that the pre-service teachers lacked TPACK skills to use technology. Although most findings reinforce what is already known about the field, this study is unique as these results are new for Kuwait and possibly more widely for the Middle East. The study recommends that TPACK workshops may not only enhance better understanding of pre-service teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about integrating technology to teach students with special needs but also provide increased support for them to improve their attitudes towards emerging technologies.

al. 2017; Hutchings & Quinney, 2015). Teachers, who lack knowledge or the skills to use technology, may not be able to integrate it successfully (Koehler et al., 2014). The TPACK model is considered important in the context of this study because "quality teaching" using technology "requires developing a nuanced understanding of the complex relationships between technology, content, and pedagogy, and using this understanding to develop appropriate, context-specific strategies and representations" (Mishra & Koehler, 2006, p.1029. Therefore, this study examines teachers' beliefs about technology through the lens of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

Figure 1: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
(Adapted from Koehler & Mishra, 2009) The TPACK model offers a framework that educational institutions and educators can use to determine how to support pre-service special education teachers learn to make effective decisions regarding integrating technology into instruction (Anderson, Grifith & Crawford, 2017;Lyublinskaya & Tournaki, 2014). It provides a way to identify the diverse and distinctive types of knowledge that pre-service teachers need to develop in order to integrate technology effectively. Although most research have used TPACK as a theoretical framework to study teachers in general education settings (Koehler, Mishra & Cain, 2013), there is a lack of research exploring its application with pre-service teachers in special education contexts (Anderson et al. 2017). Besides, there is no research from Kuwait that has ascertained how pre-service teachers' pedagogical and epistemological beliefs influence their decisions to integrate technology for teaching students with special needs in schools. This study also assumes that in the context of Kuwait, there is increasing pressure on teachers by policymakers to develop their own skills in using new learning technologies innovatively. This requires a significant paradigm shift in teachers' classroom practices.

3.Research methodology
A case study approach was used to understand pre-service teachers' perceptions of their abilities to integrate technology into the classroom. The objective was to understand how they had developed the abilities since they had not been exposed to the TPACK framework. The rationale for using a case study approach was to collect quantitative and rich qualitative data in relation to the case and to gain a better understanding of the research problem (Ponelis, 2015). A questionnaire was used to measure pre-service teachers' self-perceptions of their knowledge and skills for teaching with technology and their self-efficacy (confidence) for technology integration in classrooms which include students with special needs. The questionnaire comprised of the Technological Knowledge (TK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), and Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) domains of the TPACK framework (Schmidt eta al. 2009). It also included self-efficacy scales for teaching with technology (Wang et al. 2004).

Data Analysis
The quantitative data from the survey was analyzed with descriptive statistics to explore the subscales and demographic items. Since the intention was not to describe and make inferences about the population or to reach conclusions that extend beyond the immediate data, inferential statistics were not used. The use of a convergent parallel research design (Creswell, 2012) allowed utilizing quantitative analysis as part of the development of a case study (Yin, 2014). For this study, particular areas of interest in the quantitative analysis were comparisons of gender, area of specialisation, comfort with computers/mobile devices and comfort with using Internet/social media.   Table 2 Survey participants by area of specialisation Most of the participants were involved in teaching students with special needs (Elementary Special Education N=39; Secondary Special Education N=31).

Survey participants and their comfort with computers/mobile devices
Comfort with computers/mobile devices N Percent Not at all comfortable 2 2% A little comfortable 9 11% Fairly comfortable 32 40% Very Comfortable 38 47% Table 3 Comfort with computers/mobile devices Most participants were comfortable with using computer and mobile devices (Fairly 40%; Very 47%).  Table 4 Comfort with using Internet/social media.

Reliability statistics for survey subscales
Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficients for the sub-factors of the scale were found to be between 0.942 and 0.990. The acceptable reliability for each scale was > 0.70 which is indicative of higher indicate acceptable internal consistency and considered excellent (Taber, 2018 Table 6 Descriptive statistics

4.Results
A close examination of the descriptive statistics (Table 6) makes it clear that teachers were able to use technology, although none of the pre-service teachers had any exposure to the TPACK framework. The mean score of preservice teachers for all items were high. Moving from these results, it can be said that the levels of pre-service teachers towards technology competencies and perception of technology integration self-efficacy is high. This is also consistent with other results from the descriptive statistics (Table 3 and 4) which shows that the pre-service teachers were either fairly comfortable or very comfortable with computers or mobile devices (87%) and the Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.10, No.35, 2019 Internet or social media (91%).
Thematic analysis of the responses to the open-ended questions revealed five themes. The data was read and re-read and coded for the possible presence of any of the four technology-related TPACK domains (i.e., TK, TPK, TCK, or TPACK). The themes that emerged are tabulated (Table 8) discussed below.
Themes Inference Lack of adequate skills Pre-service teachers had fair knowledge of use of technology but when integrating it in classrooms they had to rely on the experiences and practices of the colleagues and classmates. Affordance Pre-service teachers considered that rapid technological development and its benefits or advantages of technology in education prompted them to use technology.

Constraints
Pre-service teachers considered technology for its relevance to specific content while weighing the technology access issues, reliable instructional applications, college policies, lack of training, inadequate teacher preparation programmes and resource constraints Instructional strategy Pre-service teachers wanted to use technology for a specific instructional strategy; However, they were unable to combine pedagogy, content and technology in instructional strategy (in the learning process) Expectations Wanted more TPACK workshops to learn more about technology integration in classrooms for students with special needs. They also felt that the workshops would enable them to learn more about flipped classrooms, digital videos, social networking applications, collaborative learning and mobile learning as well as the TPACK framework. Table 7 Themes

5.Discussion of the findings
In this study, the pre-service teachers believed that they had developed enhanced understanding of the role of technology in special education. The results of this study indicate that the pre-service teachers' self-efficacy on technology competency, and their beliefs in technology integration in future classroom instructions indicate that they have a good understanding of the role of technology in special education. These results paralleled those obtained in previous studies (for e.g. Lemon & Garvis, 2016;Ottenbreit-Leftwich et al., 2010) It is not enough for pre-service teachers to possess the requisite knowledge and skills to use technology, but also have self-efficacy beliefs in an effort to provide more engaging and effective instruction. Although the pre-service teachers generally had confidence in using technology, based on their understanding of the affordances of new technologies, they also feel a sense of pressure to be able to teach with these tools. The pre-service teachers had to learn about technology integration from colleagues and therefore struggled with effective use of technology. Therefore, the findings of the current study suggest that teacher education programs cannot assume that just because their pre-service teachers are extensive users of technology, they will be confident in integrating technology in their lessons.
The results further suggest that the pre-service teachers had high levels of self-efficacy in using technology in a technical sense but in matters of pedagogical knowledge such as preparation, application, evaluation, supporting content learning, effective teaching strategies and performance assessment applications they lacked skills and knowledge. The reasons they attributed to this lack of knowledge were resource constraints, lack of training in effective technology integration and inadequate policies. This suggests that teacher educators and the college administrators have to support pre-service teachers in their learning to integrate technology, including modelling technology integration, providing both formal and informal learning opportunities to develop technological knowledge and skills, and helping pre-service teachers understand the link between technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. Researchers have therefore recommended that preservice teachers can better understand technology integration through the development of TPACK (Redmond & Lock, 2019) which should be an important element of teacher-training programmes (Batane & Ngwako, 2017).
The results from this research echo some of the approaches that have been identified in the literature to be helpful to change teachers' beliefs about technology integration. For instance, Ertmer (2005) had suggested that pre-service teachers ought to engage in vicarious experiences by observing the college educators' technology integration practices. Such experiences can change their mind from a nonbeliever in technology integration to a strong advocate for technology use in education. This finding corroborates Ottenbreit-Leftwich et al. (2010) and Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010) who claimed that field or vicarious experiences, for example workshops, are key for improving teachers' technology integration practices. The workshops provided an authentic experience for pre-service teachers and played a significant role in helping pre-service teachers develop stronger beliefs in the positive role of technology in education and enhance their self-efficacy on their technology integration practices.
Overall, the results of the current research has the potential to inform teacher preparation programs and in