Trainee-Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Technology Adaption in Tertiary Engineering Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

Adequate technological engagement is required in preparing students to fit in today’s digital world. In this regard, teachers are the major agents through which students could be infused with the desire to accept, adapt and use those technologies in the pursuit of their career. However, regardless of the evidences that indicate positive effect of technology on educational policy and practices, and its possibility of transforming the primitive conceptions of learning processes, application at instructional level still remain negligible in many cases. This leads to great deal of researches that sought to examine the in-service teachers’ attitudes towards technology acceptance and, more recently trainee-teachers at the teachers training level. While prior research focused on in-service-teachers and trainee-teachers with social and general science background, the current examines the teachers’ attitudes towards technology adoption and use in tertiary engineering education. The scale used in this study was adopted from computer attitude scale (CAS). In addition, social influence component was integrated in the scale, in order to examine whether social norms affect the acceptance of technology by teachers, as it was suggested by prior research to have significant influence on individual’s attitude. Findings from 110 trainee-teachers reveled that their attitudes towards technology were positive. Such as: the way they liked and intend to use technology, their perception on its usefulness in their daily tasks and the control they perceived to have over technology while using. The most significant finding of this research is that, in addition to the widely reported components of computer attitude scale, social influence is also an important predictor of trainee-teachers attitude towards using technology. Overall, the study provides new influential factor (social) which could be merged with other four major components (affect, perceived usefulness, perceived control and behavioral intention) that influence technology integration in tertiary engineering education of Bangladesh.