An Exploration of the Factors Associated with the Attitudes of High School EFL Teachers in Syria Toward Information and Communication Technology

Download or read book An Exploration of the Factors Associated with the Attitudes of High School EFL Teachers in Syria Toward Information and Communication Technology written by Abdulkafi Albirini and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: The global adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) has been the landmark of the educational scene for the last two decades. A main feature of most technology initiatives worldwide is their focus on the technology itself and their inattentiveness to the human factor involved in the implementation process. The overall purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of EFL teachers in Syrian high schools toward ICT in education and to explore the relationship of teachers' attitudes with a selected set of variables. These variables included computer attributes, cultural perceptions, computer competence, computer access, and demographic variables (including computer training background). Teachers' attitudes were examined from two related theoretical frameworks: Rogers's (1995) Diffusion of Innovations and Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) Model of Reasoned Action. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to collect data on the population of EFL teachers in the city of Hims during the 2003-2004 school year (N=887). A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 326 sample teachers selected randomly from the population. The survey stage was followed by in-depth phone interviews with a purposeful sample of 15 teachers. Results from both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that the participants had positive attitudes toward ICT in education. While the participants had somewhat positive perceptions of the attributes of computers, they were relatively neutral about the cultural relevance of ICT to Syrian society and schools. The teachers also reported low levels of computer competence, access, and training. Significant positive correlations existed between teachers' attitudes toward ICT and five independent variables, including computer attributes, cultural perceptions, computer competence, computer access, and computer training. Multiple regression analysis indicated that only the first three of the above independent variables had a significant predictive value of computer attitudes toward ICT. The results indicated that 0.58% of the variance in computer attitude was explained by the independent variables included in this study. Based on the findings, it was recommended that policy-makers sustain teachers' positive attitudes toward ICT, offer them more training opportunities, and take steps to alleviate the concerns of some teachers about the culturally improper material on the web.