1. Technology in Context: The case of Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Technology in the Maldives Ali Shameem & Thomas C. Hammond Lehigh University College of Education March 2012

2. Maldives

3. Education in Maldives British Model ◦ Primary (grades 1 - 7) = national curriculum ◦ Secondary & higher = UK’s University of Cambridge & London’s GCE O/L and A/L

4. Context for study The capital island, Malé 28% of the student population in the nation 23 schools 1510 teachers 29% (n= 461) expatriate teachers

5. Background Policymakers in developing countries consider adoption and use of technology in schools as an integral part of modernization. Successful adoption and use of technology in schools depend not only hardware acquisition (Cuban, 2001) and training teachers (Ertmer, 1999).

6. Background, cont’d Many researchers argue that no matter how powerful the technology, adoption (or non-adoption) depends on teachers attitudes(Albirini, 2006; Becker, 2001; Huang & Liaw, 2005; Woodraw, 1992)

7. Teacher Attitudes Towards Technology Attitude towards an object, person, or event comes from three domains: cognitive (factual knowledge about a person or object), affective (liking or emotional response to a person or object), and behavioral (actual responses directed toward a person or object). (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)

8. Factors affecting attitudes 1. Attributes of technology (Rogers, 1995) ◦ Trialability, relative advantage, observability, complexity, & compatibility. 2. Access to technology (Pelgrum, 2001; Drent & Meelissen, 2008) 3. Relevant demographics o Age, gender, years of previous service, training. 4. Computer competency (Shapka & Ferrari, 2003; Liu & Szabo, 2009) 5. Cultural perceptions towards technology (Albirini, 2006)

9. Research Model for the study Teachers Attitudes Towards Technology Teacher attributes Technology training Access to technology Computer competence Cultural perceptions Technology attributes Research Model for the study (based on Albirini, 2006). Dashed lines represent factors that were proposed to be non-significant.

10. Purpose 1. To explore teacher perceptions related to technology and document the type of attitudes teachers hold towards technology in the Maldives. 2. To study Maldives’ teachers’ perceptions of technology attributes, computer competence, technology access, technology training, and cultural perceptions of technology and the extent to which these factors predict teachers’ attitudes towards technology over and above demographic characteristics?

11. Participants Teachers from a purposeful sample of seven schools. Located in the national capital, Malé 35 teachers from each school were selected based on stratified random sampling procedure (McMillan, 2008) with three strata:  Gender  Number of years of teaching at the school  Subject area

12. Participation Survey supported by Ministry of Education 245 surveys distributed, 180 returned Representative return: Chi Square Goodness of fit for gender was non-sig ( χ 2 =0.421, p=.517)

13. Instrument Adapted from Albirini’s (2006) Teachers Attitudes Towards Technology Survey in Syria Six sections 1.Attitudes towards technology, 2.Technology attributes 3.Cultural perceptions toward technology 4.Computer access, 5.Computer competence scale, and 6.Teacher demographics. A Likert-type scoring scale, except demographics Validated by two teachers & an expert in the field Internal reliability: Cronbach’s alpha of.6 and above

14. Sample Questions

16. Results Participants in the survey reported: ◦ Moderate level of computer competency ◦ Positive attitudes towards technology ◦ Positive perceptions towards technology attributes ◦ Divergent level of cultural perceptions towards technology ◦ High level of access to technology

17. Results Computer competence. ◦ 64% of the teachers rated themselves as competent enough to use technology for classroom instruction effectively. ◦ 26% indicated that they were not competent

18. Results Distribution of Scores for Attitudes Toward Technology Scale and Subscales Positive attitudes towards technology

19. Results Distribution of Mean Scores on the Technology Attributes Scale Positive perceptions towards technology attributes

20. Results Divergent Cultural Perceptions Toward Technology The overall mean score was 3.32 Majority of participants agreed with the statements representing cultural perceptions Some negative perceptions especially in some major items on the scale (e.g., items 8, 11 and 14).

21. Results Distribution of Scores on Access to Technology High levels of access to technology

22. Results Hierarchical Multiple Regression following a priori hypothesis explained 26% of the variance in teachers’ attitudes towards technology Three significant predictors: 1.Perceptions of technology attributes ( β =.368, p <.001), 2.Access to technology ( β =.218, p =.004) 3.Cultural perceptions towards technology ( β =.233, p =.001).

23. Results Analysis of Variance for Hierarchical Regression

24. Results * p<.05 ** p<.001 Results of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Technology and Related Factors (N = 150)

25. Conclusions (Considerable similarity in findings between Maldives’ teachers’ attitudes and proposed model based on literature.) 1. There are attitudinal factors that can predict Maldives’ teachers attitudes beyond teacher characteristics 2. Teachers attitudes towards technology are complex; interactions include culture.

26. Implications Both personal and vicarious professional development experiences (Ertmer, 2005) can lead to changes in overall attitudes. Technology integration should be regarded as socio-cultural process (Somekh, 2008) rather than merely a technical and financial undertaking

27. Questions & Comments, follow-up alishamym@gmail.com hammond@lehigh.edu