THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLES ON EFL TEACHERS` ATTITUDE TOWARD TECHNOLOGY: CASE STUDY OF IRAN

• Main Authors: Сомайя Давуді, Лейла Акбарпур, Есан Хадіпур
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Information Technologies and Learning Tools 2020-06-01
• Series: Інформаційні технології і засоби навчання
• Subjects: teachers` attitude; perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use; self-efficacy; subjective norms; trialability
• Online Access: https://journal.iitta.gov.ua/index.php/itlt/article/view/3622

Nowadays, with the fast development of information and communication technology, the role of technology in learning and teaching environment has remarkably increased and been stressed. To boost the influential use of technology in instruction and teaching, English language teachers could focus on strategies such as integrating pervious methods of teaching with new methods in which technological tools could be used, utilizing beneficial software, and create an interacting learning environment. The objective of the present study is to explore the impacts of psychological variables on teachers` attitude towards technology use. In this research, most versatile models like technology acceptance are used as the basis for developing a conceptual framework. Variables such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, self-efficacy, subjective norms, compatibility, trialability and attitude are retrieved from these models. The participants of the present research are high school English language teachers in Shiraz. The researcher uses stratified sampling to identify a suitable sample from the population. The present study is conducted by using five questionnaires to evaluate and assess variables. The data are analyzed by means of path analysis to find the contribution of each independent variable to the dependent variables that ultimately predicted the final outcome. Self-efficacy, subjective norms, compatibility and trialability are found to be the determinants of perceived usefulness. However, perceived ease of use is found to be only affected by self-efficacy, subjective norms, and trialability, which in turn determined the attitude of teachers toward using technology in their teachings. The results suggest that the impact of trialability on attitude is meaningful. On the other hand, perceived usefulness has a significant influential effect on attitude. Subjective norms has an indirect but important effect on attitude, and self-efficacy has an indirect effect on attitude.