Teacher and Student Attitudes Toward Information Technology in Four Nations:

1998 Texas (USA) ResultsPresentation to the Society for Information Technology

& Teacher Education (SITE) 10th International Conference

March 2, 1999

San Antonio, Texas

Rhonda Christensen

Gerald Knezek

University of North Texas

Summary of USA 1998 Research Findings

Attitudes toward technology become more positive with “training”.

Some attitudes change more quickly than others (anxiety, acceptance, etc.)

Teacher attitudes toward technology impact student attitudes.

Attitude change is the precursor to new behaviors. Teacher Training is Essential!

Prior Work

_ SITE 1997_ Christensen, Rhonda and Knezek, Gerald (1997). Internal

consistency reliabilities for 14 computer attitude scales._ Knezek, Gerald and Christensen, Rhonda (1997). Changes in

teacher attitudes during information technology training.

_ Dissertation 1997_ Christensen, Rhonda. (1997). Effect of technology integration

education on attitudes of teachers and their students.

_ SERA 1996_ Christensen, Rhonda and Gerald Knezek. Constructing the

Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers (TAC) Questionnaire

Seven Factor Structure of TAC

Factor Alpha #items

F1 (Enthusiasm/Enjoyment) .97 30

F2 (Anxiety) .97 30

F3 (Avoidance) .90 13

F4 (Email for Classroom) .95 11

F5 (Neg. impact of society) .85 11

F6 (Productivity Improvement) .96 30

F7 (Semantic Perception) .94 10

Pre-Post for a Texas Elem. School (Form A)

8/96 5/97 t Prob_ F1A Enthusiasm3.96 3.92 0.69 0.494_ F2A Anxiety 3.56 3.81 -2.79 0.009_ F3 Avoidance 5.14 5.72 -8.64

0.0037_ F4 Email 3.57 3.56 0.08 0.939_ F5 Neg. Impact 3.79 3.76 0.51 0.617_ F6A Prod. Imp. 4.19 4.12 0.97 0.342_ F7 Kay's CAM 5.28 5.73 -2.37 0.025

Pre-Post for Texas Elementary

3

4

5

6

7

Aug. 1996

May 1997

TAT Focus: Assessing Attitudes Toward New Information Technologies (NIT)

_ Electronic Mail_ Teacher Productivity_ Classroom Learning

_ Multimedia_ WWW

Semantic Differential Template

To me, Electronic Mail is:

important __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ unimportant

boring __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ interesting

relevant __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ irrelevant

exciting __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ unexciting

means nothing __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ means a lot

appealing __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ unappealing

fascinating __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ mundane

worthless __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ valuable

involving __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ uninvolving

not needed __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ : __ needed

Pilot Test Site

_ Large urban public school district in Texas_ 147 teachers from six K-12 schools_ May 1997 administration_ Cronbach’s Alpha: .91 - .98

Louisiana ‘97 Pre-Post Pre Post f Prob.

Kay's Semantic 5.67 6.24 8.64 0.000

Email-Teacher 5.14 5.72 8.64 0.003

Email-Student 4.70 5.48 13.0 0.000

Email-Likert 3.39 3.98 31.7 0.00005

WWW-Teacher 5.54 6.12 9.36 0.0026

WWW-Student 5.24 5.87 9.19 0.0028

MultiMedia-T 5.97 6.2 1.71 0.19

MultiMedia-S 5.55 5.94 3.27 0.07

Productivity-T 6.00 6.23 1.53 0.22

Productivity-S 6.14 6.13 0.007 0.93

Pre-Post K-12 Teacher Data (Louisiana Spring 1997)

3

4

5

6

7

Pre

Post

Lousiana Pre-Post ‘97 in Context of 4 Texas School Districts

TX1 TX2 TX3 TX4 LA Pre LaPostK-CAM 5.2 6.06 6.16 5.67 6.24 .0000EmailT 5.64 4.92 5.83 5.45 5.14 5.72 .0003EmailS 5 4.86 4.52 5.2 4.7 5.48 .0005WWWT 5.78 5.74 6.13 5.91 5.54 6.12 .0039WWWS 5.93 5.91 5.8 5.65 5.24 5.87 .0125MMT 5.86 5.97 6.21 6 5.97 6.2 .2904MMS 5.79 5.92 6.1 5.8 5.55 5.94 .0718ProdT 6.08 6.19 6.48 6.49 6 6.23 .0058ProdS 5.76 6.33 6.61 6.4 6.14 6.13 .0000EmailL 3.26 3.44 3.36 3.39 3.98 .0000

Louisiana Pre-Post ‘97 in Context of 4 Texas School Districts

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

7

TX1TX2TX3TX4LA PreLaPost

USA 1997 Estimates for TAC 16 Factor Reliabilities

_ No. Items Alpha_ F1 (Enthusiasm) 15 .96_ F2 (Anxiety) 15 .98_ F3 (Acceptance) 4 .75_ F4 (Email) 11 .95_ F5 (NI on Society) 10 .84_ F6 (Prod-classroom) 14 .90_ F7 (KaySemantic) 10 .94_ F8 (Vocation) 13 .92_ F9 (Prestige) 8 .75_ F10 (Prod-teacher) 14 .94_ F11 (Aversion) 6 .74_ F12 (Gender) 6 .81_ F13 (K&M Importance) 8 .83_ F14 (L&G Confidence) 6 .83_ F15 (P&P Relevance) 10 .89_ F16 (P&P Enjoyment)8 .90

Mexico HS Teachers '98

2.53

3.54

4.55

5.56

Mexico -NL Mexico-GUJ Mexico-TLX

Mexico-QR USA-Texas

_ Mexico -NL MX-GUJ MX-TLX MX-QR USA-Texas MX Signif._ F1 Enthusiam 4.37 4.08 4.28 3.97 3.97 0.0481_ F2 Anxiety 4.22 4.04 4.16 3.96 4.13 0.4062_ F3 Acceptance 4.43 3.66 4.17 4.13 4.55 0.0004_ F4 Email 4.10 4.00 3.67 2.85 3.42 0.0016_ F5 NIonSociety 3.51 3.28 3.59 3.52 3.70 0.1139_ F6 ClassroomProd. 4.20 3.29 4.15 3.91 4.14 0.0001_ F7 Kay'sSem. 5.69 5.32 5.7 5.32 5.43 0.7122_ F8 Vocation 4.19 4.24 3.98 3.76 4.21 0.0309_ F9 Prestige 3.94 3.85 3.53 3.38 3.75 0.0264_ F10 TeacherProd. 4.33 4.07 4.15 3.95 4.11 0.0348_ F11 Aversion 4.00 3.80 3.96 3.67 4.14 0.1435_ F13 K&MImportance 3.62 3.25 3.29 3.12 3.30 0.2261_ F14 L&G Conf. 4.19 4.25 4.08 3.89 3.50 0.1891_ F15 P&PRelevance 4.59 4.35 4.5 4.32 4.48 0.2516_ F16 P&PEnjoyment 3.69 3.68 3.66 3.43 2.96 0.3412

1998 Educator Mean Scores on TAC Attributes (16 Factor Structure) for 4 States in Mexico vs. a Professional Development Site in Northern Texas

Mexico 1998 Estimates for TAC 16F Reliabilities (Spanish Translation)

_ No. Items US ‘97 MX Alpha ‘98

_ F1 (Enthusiasm) 15 .96 .88_ F2 (Anxiety) 15 .98 .85_ F3 (Acceptance) 4 .75 .42_ F4 (Email) 11 .95 .94_ F5 (NI on Society) 10 .84 .55_ F6 (Prod-classroom) 14 .90 .84_ F7 (KaySemantic) 10 .94 .90_ F8 (Vocation) 13 .92 .85_ F9 (Prestige) 8 .75_ F10 (Prod-teacher) 14 .94 .77_ F11 (Aversion) 6 .74 .36_ F12 (Gender) 6 .81_ F13 (K&M Importance) 8 .83 .90_ F14 (L&G Confidence) 6 .83 .57_ F15 (P&P Relevance) 10 .89 .76_ F16 (P&P Enjoyment) 8 .90 .67

Stages of Adoption of Technology

• Stage One: Awareness• Stage Two: Learning the Process• Stage Three: Understanding and application

of the process• Stage Four: Familiarity and confidence• Stage Five: Adaptation to other contexts• Stage Six: Creative application to new

contexts

Texas Inservice Teachers Prior to Technology Education

Stages of Adoption August 1996

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Stage 1 Stage2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6

Inservice Teachers After One Year of Technology Education

Stages of Adoption May 1997

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Stage 1 Stage2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6

Snapshot of School ConsortiumStages of Adoption

(1998 data for 1141 Texas Educators)

14

63

123

256

220

120

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Stage 1 Stage2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6

Stage 1Stage2 Stage 3Stage 4Stage 5 Stage 6

Preparing Teachers to Teach with Technology

University of North Texas College of Ed. Technology Applications Endorsement 1100 Computer Applications

WP, SS, DB

3440 Technology and the Teacher Teacher Productivity

4100 Computers in the Classroom Technology Integration

4xxx Higher level technology course

Stages of Adoption

3.07

3.904.10

4.364.51

5.23

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

1100pretest

Sp99

1100Fall98

posttest

3440pretest

Sp99

4100pretest

Fall98

4100pretest

sp99

4100post

Fall98

Series1

Dutch vs. U.S. Educator Stages of Adoption

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

NLGer98 TXElem97

PrePost

Dutch vs. American Educator Attitudes Toward IT

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

F1Enjoy

F3Avoid

F5NegImp

DutchTexas

Dutch (1998) vs. American (1997) Reliability Estimates

Factor Alpha U.S. NL #Items

F1 (Enthusiasm/Enjoyment) .95 .73 15

F2 (Anxiety) .96 .86 15

F3 (Avoidance) .90 .63 12

F4 (Email for Classroom) .95 .89 11

F5 (Neg. Impact on Society) .85 .80 11

F6 (Productivity Improvement) .93 .88 15

F7 (Semantic Perception) .94 10

Emerging Model - Three Essential Elements

Will Attitudes (Anxiety, Acceptance, etc.)

Skill Competencies Teacher Training

Tools Software/hardware

Research Online

• Http://www.tcet.unt.edu/research and Http://129.120.20.20/gknezek• Research studies• Online instruments• Downloadable instruments

Or contact:

Rhonda Christensen

Email: rhondac@tenet.edu

Gerald Knezek

Email: gknezek@tenet.edu