Abstract:
To analyze and develop the competency in information and communication technologies (ICTs) of the students in the faculties of education, to construct a competency-based test on ICTs basing on their self-perception to test their competencies, and to propose some recommendations for policy-making to raise their standards to a satisfied level. The samples of this study were 36 experts who could provide information on the framework of ICTs for education students, 600 students in the faculties of education from 5 types of university, namely, government universities, Rajamangala universities of technology, autonomy universities, open universities and Rajabhat universities, and 12 knowledgeable persons who could give recommendations on ICTs for policy-making. The research instruments included an interview guideline for the experts, a self-reported questionnaire on ICTs and an opinionnaire on the recommendations for policy-making in various contexts. The data were analyzed by means of content analyses, frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviations, t-tests, one-way ANOVAs, Scheffes tests and simple correlation coefficients. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1. There were eight aspects of education students ICT competencies as follows: 1) ICT knowledge for education, 2) Information Access, 3) Use of information and digital technology, 4) Production and creation of information media, 5) Information communication, 6) Information management, 7) Information evaluation and 8) Ethical use of information. 2. Based on Bloom's taxonomy of learning domains (1959), 8 ICT competencies and 88 ICT indicators could be categorized into 3 groups of 28 cognitive domain indicators, 18 affective domain indicators, and 42 psychomotor domain indicators. 3. Based on the analysis of the self-reported questionnaire, it was found that its 88 items could assess the students ICT competencies in 8 aspects, viz. 1) 13 items on ICT knowledge, 2) 10 items on Information Access, 3) 17 items on Use of Information, 4) 14 items on production and creation of information media, 5) 14 items on information communication, 6) 8 items on information management, 7) 5 items on information evaluation and 8) 7 items on ethical use of information. 4. Based on the 8 aspects of ICT competencies, it was found that the education students had the highest level of ICT competencies in information evaluation. Ethical Use of information was at the second highest level. These 2 aspects were at a high level. The rest were at a moderate level and could be ranked accordingly to the magnitude of their means as follows : ICTs knowledge, use of information, production and creation of information media, information communication, information access, and information management. When taking each domain into consideration, it was found that education students affective domain was at the highest level and followed by psychomotor domain and cognitive domain as the second and third highest ranks respectively at a moderate level. In addition, gender was not a significant variable affecting their competency levels where as the size and type of academic institutions were significant variables. 5. Some recommendations for policy-making were proposed as follows: 1) Learner context : The learners should participate in ICT activities, 2) Instructor context : The instructors should develop learning materials and courses, 3) Institution of education context : Institution of education should provide ICT activities and training programs, 4) National agency context : National agency should provide examination and evaluation on ICT performance at a national level, 5) International context : Online learning should be provided and related activities that can link between domestic and international academic institutions should be supported.