Internet self-efficacy and preferences toward constructivist Internet-based learning environments: A study of pre-school teachers in Taiwan

This study was conducted to explore the relationship between Internet self-efficacy and preferences toward constructivist Internet-based learning environments. The sample included 365 college students in Taiwan who all majored in early childhood care and pre-school education. Some of them were preservice pre-school teachers (n=185), and the rest of them were inservice pre-school teachers who pursued a degree for childhood care (n=180). Through analyzing student questionnaire responses, the findings revealed that general Internet self-efficacy might foster the preferences of constructivist Internet-based learning environments. In other words, when widely implementing constructivist Internet-based learning environments, a prerequisite may be the condition that the learners should have adequate general Internet self-efficacy. By using structural equation model (SEM), this study further investigated the causal relations among the variables considered in this study. The SEM analysis showed that students with higher general Internet self-efficacy clearly showed more preferences toward Internet learning environments where they can use with ease, explore real-life problems, display multiple sources of information, conduct open-ended inquiry learning activities, and elaborate the nature of knowledge. However, students with higher communicative Internet self-efficacy tended to display relatively less preferences for inquiry learning on the Internet.