Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the role of ICT in attending to students with functional diversity.

Abstract

Educational technology offers multiple opportunities for students with functional diversity. For an enriching implementation, it is necessary to develop both aforementioned constructs in initial teacher training. Bearing this in mind, the objective of this study is to analyse pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the role of ICT in attending to diversity. A quantitative and longitudinal design was constructed with pre-test and post-test measures, as well as descriptive, inferential, and predictive approaches. The sample included 284 pre-service teachers, and an adaptation of Subscale 1 from the “Demands and potentials of ICT and apps for assisting people with autism” questionnaire (DPTIC-AUT-Q) (Rodríguez-Fuentes et al., 2021) was used. The results indicated the pre-service teachers’ positive perceptions regarding the use of ICT with students with functional diversity, revealing significant differences according to gender in the post-test. The digital competence variable is relevant for predicting the perceptions of both genders, in addition to the time and interest variables for men, and the confidence and adequate training variables for women. As a result, the positive impact that the implementation of a module on ICT and attention to diversity had on the pre-service teachers is discussed, with such an intervention being key for an improvement in working with these types of students.