Technology Professional Development: Long-Term Effects on Teacher Self-Efficacy

The West Virginia K-12 RuralNet Project was an NSF funded program to train inservice teachers on integrating the Internet into science and mathematics curriculum. The program involved training inservice teachers through an intensive summer workshop and supplemental online courses. This study examines the effects of the project on the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers and their use of the Internet in the classroom. The specific research questions addressed are: Do professional development programs affect the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers? Did the addition of online courses and follow-up to the program affect self-efficacy levels? Finally, do certain external factors, specifically years of teaching experience, college technology courses, professional development, or participation in other similar professional development programs play a role in teacher self-efficacy? The findings indicate that: (a) Teachers improved level of self-efficacy after the summer workshops remained high even years after their involvement in the program, (b) that combining an intense summer workshop with additional online courses shows a significant difference in some aspects of self-efficacy over just having a professional development workshop, and (c) certain external factors do affect teacher self-efficacy over the long-term