Examining the Teachers' Beliefs About Educational Software and Its Impact On The Use of these Software in The Teaching-Learning Process

The purpose of this study was to examineteachers' beliefs about educational software and its impact on the quality and quantity of educational software use in teaching-learning process.

Correlational research method was used; the statistical population consisted of all teachers in Yazd province. Using the sample size table of Kerjsi and Morgan, 466 students was selected by random cluster sampling method.  A researcher made questionnaire was used to collect data. Its validity was estimated by content validity and its reliability was α=0.82 through Cronbach's alpha. To analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistical techniques included one sample t-test, Independent samples t-test, Kruskal-Wallis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), U Mann-Whitney, Tukey and SPSS 21 statistical software was used to analyze data.

Teachers' behavioral epistemological belief in educational software and teachers' belief in software effectiveness are higher than the average; teachers' belief about the nature of educational software and their value, as well as the belief in the process of using software was at average, and the constructivist beliefs of all teachers about educational software is lower than the average. Most teachers do not use educational software in their classroom. Teachers who are more likely to believe educational software use these software more. The variables of belief in the nature of the software and their value, belief in the application process or the use of software, and belief in the effectiveness of software, predict 0.40 of the variance of educational software usage variable. The result is that changing teachers' beliefs about educational software is one of the most important predictors of the use of these software in the teaching-learning process