Intellectual Risk Taking When Learning about Technology: Case of Prospective Science Teachers
Abstract
Learning about technology in a classroom environment necessitates intellectual risk taking because intellectual risk taking involves active participation in learning. Hence prospective science teachers should adopt high intellectual risk-taking levels when learning about technology to improve their participation in learning. By determining their level of intellectual risk taking and ways of promoting such risk taking, we can decide on the degree of intellectual risk taking of prospective teachers and which ways of increasing intellectual risk taking are effective in learning about technology. Accordingly, this study explores the intellectual risk-taking levels of prospective science teachers when learning about technology and ways of increasing intellectual risk taking during their learning. The participants comprised 207 prospective science teachers from departments of science education at universities in Turkey. For the data collection, three “intellectual risk-taking questionnaires about learning technology” and “personal information forms” were utilized. For analysing data, inductive content analysis was used. The findings revealed that the intellectual risk-taking level of prospective teachers was higher than their avoidance of taking intellectual risks. The findings also showed that conditions of intellectual risk taking are an important factor in taking intellectual risks when learning about technology. This study provides implications for shaping an environment in which to take the required level of intellectual risk in learning about technology in teacher education programmes and presents examples of intellectual risk taking.
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