Changing teachers’ attitudes towards teaching with technology

Changing teachers’ attitudes towards teaching with technology

Silvester Draaijer (‘dryer’)and Judith Schoonenboom (‘skoan’nboam’)

Office for Educational Services

vrije Universiteit amsterdam

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Overview

• Introduction teachers, technology and attitudes

• Our research in context: our course, research design

• Outcomes of our research• Discussion

IntroductionOur research in contextOutcomesDiscussion

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Teachers, technology and attitudes• Improving teachers’ professional

development interventions for deploying ICT in higher education

– Teachers– Subject knowledge– Didactical principles– Technology– Attitudes

– Interventions (courses, coaching, talks, self-study, support, projects etc.)


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Attitudes

• Inspired by, but different from: TpB (Ajzen), TAM (Davis), 4E-model (Collis)

• Attitude -> intention -> use• Elements of attitude: importance,

effect, ease of use • Attitudes toward designing and

conducting a specific teacher activity using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)


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Our Introductory Course

Using a VLE(hands-on)

Reading material(self study)

Practical Skills

Application to own teaching practice

Case Studies(discussion, reflection,

inspiration)

Didactical Skills


“Using a VLE to support Active Learning”

Didactical knowledgde

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Research design– Pre-test– Post-test– 18 subjects

• Questionnaire with 4 (imp, eff, eou, int) x 17 = 68 questions– Transmission model (teacher centered) – Independent learning model (student

centered)– Interaction learning model (community of

learners)– Negotiation model (learning community)


Do you intend to use the VLE in the coming 12 months in performing the following teacher activities?

unlikely very quite slightly neither slightly quite very likely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Providing the students with organizational information

about (changes during) the course via a VLE

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Outcomes: three clusters of activities• With respect to the intention to use a

VLE, the activities investigated cluster into three groups, in which the teacher– Provides the students with information– Arranges teacher-student and student-

student communication– Supports and arranges independent

collaborative learning

• Overall, the intention to use a VLE is highest for information-related activities, lower for communication and lowest for collaboration.


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Example: intention to use a VLE after the course

Do you intend to use the VLE in the coming 12 months in performing the following teacher activities?

unlikely very quite slightly neither slightly quite very likely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mean 1. Providing the students with organizational information

about (changes during) the course via a VLE 5,94

2. Answering students’ questions on the subject in a VLE 5,53

3. Arranging that students explain the subject matter to each other in a VLE

3,65

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Changes in individuals; stages of intention

• Intention and changes in intention in individuals show successive stages in which individuals intend to use a VLE for:– Nothing– Information– Information + Communication

• Intention to use a VLE for Information + Communication + Collaboration hardly observed in our subjects


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Changes in individuals; stages of intention

collaboration

communication

information

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Subject -> intention before the course > 5.5 on a 1-7 scale intention after the course > 5.5 on a 1-7 scale


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Influence of attitudes on intention to use a VLE: communication

Subject ->

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7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Mean scores

Intention to use VLE

Importance

Ease of use

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Influence of attitudes on intention to use a VLE• Influence of attitudes on the intention

of individuals:– No intention without importance– Ease of use pulls down intention – Influence of effectiveness remains unclear

• ‘Group attitude’ towards the activity types– Information: important and easy– Communication: important but more

difficult– Collaboration: less important and more

difficult


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Combining stages of intention and the influence of attitudes: changes in attitudes

• Two changes:– Importance: an increase in

importance in all three activity types in a majority of the subjects.

– Ease of use: distinction between people who change toward finding using a VLE easier and people who change toward finding using a VLE more difficult.

• Size of both changes is strongest in collaboration, and quite strong in communication. Only slight changes with respect to information.


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Achievements

• Three sorts of activities in a VLE• Diff. stages in intentions + Changes• Relation between Importance, Ease

of Use and Intention• Changes in Attitudes (Importance,

Ease of Use)

• What we haven’t achieved yet:• Relation with elements of the

course


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Discussion

• What to do with different stages?– ph1: information– ph2: communication– Ph3: collaboration


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Discussion

• What to do with relation Importance, Ease of Use, and Intention?


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To be continued..

• More research to conduct• Paper in preparation• E-mail addresses:• [email protected]• [email protected]

Documents

Changing teachers’ attitudes towards teaching with technology