Document Type

Data Set

Date of Original Version

2014

File Size

341KB

File Format

.sav

Abstract

This dataset includes findings from a large sample of Turkish elementary and secondary teachers in Language Arts, Social Studies and ICT education who self-report the availability of media and technology in their schools, the frequency of use of media and technology, and teachers' digital learning motivation profiles.

Sampling

We distributed the online questionnaire widely, using email recruitment, listservs, social media and snowball sampling between January 2014 and June 2014. In sampling strategy, we recruited social studies, language arts and ICT teachers since media literacy and ICT courses are taught by these teachers. A total 2,936 participants participated in the study, with 2,820 cases of complete and usable data. There were nearly equal numbers of male and female subjects. More than half of participants have been teaching for five years or less, and 60% of participants are under the age of 30, with respondents coming from all seven geographic regions of Turkey, working in public and private schools in large cities (30%), middle-size cities or towns (46%), and rural communities (24%). Table 1 shows that there are roughly similar numbers of teachers with subject-area specialization in ICT (n = 698), language arts (n = 724), social science (n = 521) and other (n = 877). Although respondents are not a representative sample of the teaching population, the sample size does permit some generalization to the younger generation of Turkish teachers who are now using computers and social media as a part of daily life.

Instrument: Digital Learning Motivation Profile

Hobbs, Grafe, Boos and Bergey (2010) explored teacher motivations for digital learning and media literacy by creating a motivational inventory for media education, using an exploratory cross-national sample of 350 German and U.S. teachers to understand how teacher motivations may be associated with the likelihood of using media and technology in the classroom. In creating a typology of motivations, they tested 156 Likert-scale attitude statements using a 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) designed to align with a comparative study of German and U.S. media education, developed by Grafe (2012) that found five common motivations regarding the desired outcomes for media literacy in the scholarly literature in both nations: textual analysis, focus on interpretation and meaning-making, examination of source credibility, reflection on media effects and influence, and examining authorship and ownership. The instrument also measured types of and frequency of media and technology use in the classroom, preparedness for media education, levels of school support, equipment access, perception of potential harm and potential value of media, and preferences for professional development programs.

Building on this work, Hobbs and Moore (2013) revised questionnaire items to create the online Digital Learning Horoscope, which is available in English at www.quiz.powerfulvoicesforkids.com. The 48-item Likert scale instrument uses a 5-point scale (very important to not important) to measure 12 digital learning motivation profiles aligned to teacher empowerment-protection beliefs and conceptual themes.

The profiles were based on the observation that teachers have differential levels of attachment to empowerment-protectionist beliefs about the affordances or liabilities of media and technology. The instrument also measures differential levels of teacher valuation of six conceptual themes: (1) technology tools, genres and formats; (2) message content and quality; (3) community connectedness; (4) texts and audiences; (5) media systems; and (6) learner-centered focus.

The digital learning motivation measures feature the following twelve profiles: Techie, Professional (technology tools, genres and formats); Tastemaker, Professor (message content and quality); Activist, Teacher 2.0 (community connectedness); Alt, Trendsetter (texts and audiences); Watchdog, Demystifer (media systems); Motivator, Spirit Guide (learner-centered). There are four statements associated with each of the 12 profiles. Two have a valence with themes of protection and two have a valence with themes of empowerment. For example, an example of an Activist item with a valence as protection is: “It's my job to help students examine how and why social institutions can be unjust and inequitable.” An example of an Activist item with a valence as empowerment is: “Civic engagement should be activated by the use of media and technology in the classroom.”

Turkish Adaptation

The Turkish translation of the instrument was carried out in four stages. In the first phase, three native speakers of Turkish worked independently to translate items. These translations were examined comparatively and a single Turkish version was created. In the second phase, a back translation process was conducted through the translation of the Turkish version into English. In the third phase, these two versions were compared and a new revision was created. Finally, the instrument was reviewed by three ICT experts.

In order to check the language equivalence of the instrument, 107 Turkish senior ELT students studying at a university were included. Students completed the English version of the instrument and after two weeks, students completed the Turkish version of the instrument. Results showed high levels of reliability between the two versions, with Cronbach alpha value of 0.87.

The published article associated with this data set is available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12326

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