Factors Influencing The Adoption Of ICT By Teachers In .

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(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,Vol. 8, No. 12, 2017Factors Influencing the Adoption of ICT by Teachersin Primary Schools in Saudi ArabiaTeachers’ Perspectives of the Integration of ICT in Primary EducationSami AlshmranyBrett WilkinsonSchool of Computer Science, Engineering and MathsFlinders UniversityBedford Park, South AustraliaSchool of Computer Science, Engineering and MathsFlinders UniversityBedford Park, South AustraliaAbstract—Information and communication technology (ICT)has become part of everyday life for the many people in business,entertainment, education and many other areas of humanactivity. Students in primary school are just beginning to learnand accept new ideas, show a maturing creativity, developcritical thinking and decision making skills. ICT enriches allthese processes. In education, the successful integration of ICTinto learning and teaching depends on teachers’ attitudes andtheir ability to use communication technologies, not justcompetently, but with skill and imagination. Experience isrequired with the medium, however, but ICT use in educationhas been largely ignored in Saudi Arabia. The study describedhere investigated the factors influencing the adoption of ICT as ateaching tool by teachers at Saudi Arabian primary schools.Analysis of the data showed computer literacy and confidencewith technology registered a significant positive effect on thestudy, participants’ effort expectancy, which in turn positivelyinfluenced their behavioural intention to adopt ICT. On the otherhand, Saudi culture, social conditions, system quality, and otherobstacles discourage the uptake of ICT by primary schoolteachers. The findings of this study will assist the Saudigovernment to enhance the positive factors and eliminate orreduce the negative factors to ensure successful adoption of ICTin primary education by teachers.Keywords—Information and communication technology (ICT);primary education; Saudi Arabia; computer literacy; behaviouralinfluencesystem by providing a platform for new teachingmethodologies and efficient administration tools [3], [4].Teachers can guide student learning in diverse subjects,arguments and theories with interactive ICT tools [5], [6]. Theasymmetric communication offered by ICT can provide aneasy way to share information on an ‘anytime, anywhere’ basis[7], and allows teachers to participate more fully in the learningprocess, while learners benefit from ready access to materialsor assistance [4]. Dedicated channels of communication meanthat ICTs can assist in the unification and bonding of studentsand schools while reinforcing good quality learning [8].Students access information in a variety of ways, organise itand construct meaning from it. Thus, ICT in education canimprove both individual and class academic performance [9].At the primary level, young minds are open to new ideas,show creativity, develop critical thinking and above all, areready to absorb surrounding information for informed decisionmaking at any later stage in life [10], [1], which makesexposure to ICT particularly important in primary education[1]. Realizing the importance and potential for accelerated oradvanced learning, ICT has therefore been introduced inprimary schools in many countries. The use of ICT hasprovided opportunities for primary school teachers to developprofessionally [15], [16], and for education services to beimproved in countries such as Belgium [11], China [12], andKorea [13].Information and communication technology (ICT)generally refers to the ‘diverse set of technological tools andresources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate,store, and manage information’ [1]. Although the componentsof ICT change and evolve rapidly, information andcommunication technologies of some sort are part of everydaylife for many people worldwide in the business, social andeducation sectors.Since it is the classroom teacher whose behaviour will havethe greatest impact on the successful adoption and applicationof ICT for learning and teaching, the circumstances of itsintroduction for them is critical [14]. It is their acceptance,attitudes and intention to use ICT [17], [18], [19] thatdetermine the quality of its integration into the school systemand the success or failure of its use as a learning and a teachingtool. It is necessary therefore to understand the factors affectingteachers’ adoption of ICT as part of their everyday pedagogyby investigating them in the midst of their teaching context.Kozma [2] has argued that in the field of education,investment in ICT supports economic growth, promotes socialdevelopment, advances education reform and supportseducation management. While ICT cannot solve all the issuescommon to education systems, such as low literacy rates orlack of resources, it can provide novel solutions to the learningand teaching obstacles encountered in a traditional educationalIn the context of education in Saudi Arabia, the use ofdigital technologies is new. The country does not haveeffective ICT programs like other developed nations,particularly for primary education. Although the government ismaking efforts to improve the whole education system,especially in terms of using ICT [20]-[22], it is a feature withwhich the nation has little historical experience.I.INTRODUCTION143 P a g ewww.ijacsa.thesai.org

(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,Vol. 8, No. 12, 2017ICT was officially implemented throughout secondaryschools less than a decade ago. In 2007, the King Abdullah binAbdul-Aziz Project for Public Education Development,Tatweer (to develop), was introduced at secondary schoollevel. The Tatweer program 1 was established in an effort toreform secondary education in Saudi Arabia via the TatweerSmart School, Tatweer Education, and Tatweer Transportationprograms [23]. The program is not yet integrated into primaryeducation, and despite the importance of ICT in primaryeducation, the integration of ICT at primary level continues tobe ignored [22], [24].This leads to ongoing disadvantages for Saudi primaryeducation, when compared with the secondary and tertiarylevel institutions that are moving towards ICT implementationthrough mandatory education leadership programs [25]. Itfollows logically that the use of ICT at the primary level wouldprepare the children from the very early stage of education toenable them to use ICT with confidence by the time they reachsecondary school. However, effective strategies critical to theintroduction and usage of ICT in Saudi primary schools are notcurrently in place [26].In order to ensure the successful adoption of ICT inprimary education by teachers in Saudi Arabia, the first andforemost task is therefore to determine the positive andnegative factors influencing the adoption of ICT. For the use oftechnology to be accepted and adopted by the teachers, theymust have a positive intention to use communicationtechnologies for their daily activities. In general, there wouldbe several factors that would modify the behavioural intentionof the teachers.This paper describes the selection of a theory of technologyadoption with which to model the ICT use or potential use bySaudi primary school teachers. Consulting the literature, andusing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use ofTechnology (UTAUT), we anticipated the factors most likelyto motivate the adoption of ICT or its rejection, and explainthem here, along with the development of additionalconstructs, and our hypotheses and their testing. This isfollowed by the ways in which we analysed the results, as wellas a discussion of the results themselves and the implicationsfor Saudi primary education.Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry of HigherEducation (MoHE) [27], [23].The education system can be divided into two broadcategories: general education and higher education. Generaleducation consists of three stages: six years of primary school,three years of intermediate school, and three years of secondaryor high school. The curriculum, syllabus and textbooks areuniform throughout the country for all stages.Children enter primary school at the age of six. The mainobjectives of primary education are to instill the correct Islamicspirit in the children by providing religious education, whileensuring they develop a sense of belonging to an Islamicnation. It is considered desirable that the students understandtheir rights and duties, and learn to take responsibility for theirbehaviour. The schools also seek to foster a desire to learn andmake good use of one’s time. Loyalty to the country’s rulersand love for the country are encouraged.At the same time as these affective factors are beingencouraged, the students learn basic skills in language andnumeracy, while participating in physical education. Thechildren are promoted from one grade to the next if they passan examination at the end of the academic year. At the end ofgrade six, the students passing the Elementary EducationCertificate are considered qualified for secondary education.B. Research Model and HypothesesA wide range of theoretical models related to technologyacceptance have been developed and studied over the last threedecades to understand and model an individual’s reaction toinnovation and the impact factors affecting the adoption of newtechnologies, specifically ICT [28], [29]. The theories ofinnovation diffusion can be applied to innovations of all types(e.g., mobile phones; cloud computing). The most commonlyutilized primary theories of innovation diffusion related totechnology adoption include the: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) [30] Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) [31], [32] Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [32] Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2) [28] Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM3) [29]II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKA. Primary Education in Saudi ArabiaIn Saudi Arabia, all education policies are subject togovernment control. The Educational Policy Document issuedby the Council of Ministries is the basic reference on thefundamentals and goals of education. The aims of the policyare to make education efficient; to meet the religious, economicand social needs of the country; and to eradicate literacy amongSaudi Arabians.Thus, education is compulsory for children aged between 6and 15 years in Saudi Arabia, where girls and boys areeducated separately. The administration of education in SaudiArabia is controlled through two main agencies, namely the1King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz public educational development project.Retrieved from https://www.tatweer.edu.sa/ Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology(UTAUT) [28]These theories and models have evolved with time andchanging contexts. TAR, TPB and TAM are relatively older interms of modelling ICT-related innovation acceptance andhave been superseded and no longer reflect the needs ofmodelling ICT adoption in education. The UTAUT presents amore complete picture of the acceptance process byconsolidating and unifying numerous technology adoptionmodels [28], [33]. Elements from eight individual models areunified in the UTAUT – the TRA, TPB, TAM, combinedmodel of TAM and TPB (C-TAM-TPB), the model of personalcomputer utilization (MPCU), diffusion of innovation theory(DOI), social cognitive theory (SCT), and motivational model144 P a g ewww.ijacsa.thesai.org

(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,Vol. 8, No. 12, 2017(MM). The model is a summary of current models related tothe acceptance of new technology [28].In addition to the basic elements of the UTAUT model,new variables integral to the Saudi context were introduced toexamine the relationships between different variables and findthe factors affecting teachers (positive or negative) which areessential for the improvement of ICT use in primary school inSaudi Arabia.C. UTAUT Constructs to Model ICT use by the TeachersThe major constructs in the UTAUT model are:performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence,and facilitating conditions. Performance expectancy representsan individual’s perception of the usefulness of a technology[28], defined as ‘the degree to which an individual believes thatusing the system will help him or her to attain gains in jobperformance’. Effort expectancy represents an individual’sperception about the ease of use, which is defined as ‘thedegree of ease associated with the use of the system’. Socialinfluence represents the subjective norms and social factors,and is defined as ‘the degree to which an individual perceivesthat important others believe he or she should use the newsystem’. Facilitating conditions is defined as ‘the degree towhich an individual believes that an organizational andtechnical infrastructure exists to support use of thesystem’ [28].oriented, it is highly possible that the teachers will be interestedto using technology in the classroom to make study moreattractive and easy [34], [37]. They may, themselves, befamiliar with ICT and enjoy using it.Facilitating conditions are enablers in the environment,e.g., the availability of organisational resources and supportstructures to facilitate the use of a communications system. Thequality of the resources influences a person’s perception of theease or difficulty of performing a task using a technology [37],[29], [41]. In primary schools, facilitating conditions for theteachers are the related resources, such as technical help,infrastructure, hardware, and software [43]. Facilitatingconditions have a significant effect on users’ effort expectancyof ICT use, and also have an impact on the intention to use newtechnologies [42], [44], [45]. Without a supportiveenvironment, it is very difficult to plan to adopt ICT, regardlessof how much a teacher might like to.Given these observations from the literature, hypothesesregarding ICT acceptance amongst primary school teacherswere formulated for the study. The ideas are related to oneanother, and the hypotheses only present possible scenarios forthe teachers. These hypotheses were:H1: Primary school teachers’ performance expectancy ofICT has a significant positive effect on their attitude towardsICT.Performance expectancy is the factor, in this case, thatindicates the anticipated improvement of performance inschool activities as a result of using ICT facilities inadministrative and teaching processes. If the primary schoolteachers believe that ICT is useful and expect that theirperformance will improve with access to it, they will alsodevelop a positive intention to use the technology in theirclasses. According to the UTAUT model, performanceexpectancy has a significant effect on behavioural intentiontowards the technology [34], [35].H2: Primary school teachers’ effort expectancy of usingICT has a significant positive effect on their behaviouralintention to use ICT.Effort expectancy represents the amount of effort the usersexpect it will take to use a technology [36], [37]. In the SaudiArabian school system, a lack of technical support and the lowlevel of ICT competence among primary school teachers makethe implementation of ICT difficult [38]. In addition, the lackof access to technology, the lack of training and the lack oftime all lead to a discouraging effort expectancy [39], [40].However, it was anticipated that if this study showed that theperceived difficulties involved in using ICT at the primarylevel could be eliminated, effort expectancy would becomemore positive. That is, if the primary school teachers couldexperience ICT and find it easy to use, they would be likely tofind the technology useful and develop a positive behaviouralintention to ICT in their daily activities in school.D. Additional Constructs to Model ICT use by the TeachersIn order to explore ICT acceptance as deeply as possibleamongst primary school teachers, computer literacy, ICTsystem quality, cultural factors, and external barriers to the useof ICT by the teachers were incorporated as additionalvariables in the original UTAUT model. These constructs areclosely related to new technology acceptance in differentcontexts.Social influence affects primary school teachers, whowould all belong to different social and interest groups. It is afactor also linked directly to the students and the environmentof the school.Computer literacy has a significant effect on users’performance expectancy [44], [47]-[50] and effort expectancy[44], [49], [51], [52]. Due to lack of access to technology, lackof training and lack of time, the teachers in Saudi Arabia findthemselves poorly skilled in their use of ICT in teaching [39].It is reasonable to anticipate, however, that if primary schoolteachers were more computer literate and confident in their useof the technology, then they would find ICT easy and useful.Social influence includes the impact of one teacher’sbehaviour on another’s. Ultimately, colleagues, principals,family and friends all influence one another. If the environmentin the school and among friends and family is technologyH3: Positive social influence on the primary schoolteachers has a significant positive effect on their behaviouralintention to use ICT.H4: Facilitating conditions of ICT has a significantpositive effect on primary school teachers’ perceived ease ofuse of ICT.Computer literacy is the individual’s judgment of his or hercapacity to use the computer confidently, which is not onlyconcerned with the skills one has, but with the judgments ofwhat one can do with whatever skills one possesses [43], [44],[46].145 P a g ewww.ijacsa.thesai.org

(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications,Vol. 8, No. 12, 2017System quality indicates the quality of the ICT systemsavailable in primary schools for teaching and learningactivities. The quality of the ICT system significantlyinfluences perceived usefulness [44], [47], [53], users’ attitudestoward using the technology [44], [47], [49], [54], and users’behavioural intentions to use technologies [44], [49], [50], [55].Unfortunately, in Saudi Arabia, teachers suffer from limitedknowledge of the use and maintenance of ICT, as well as thebasic technical and pedagogical skills for using technology inteaching, which negatively influences their current use of ICT[39], [40]. If, however, the ICT system in a primary schoolpossessed all the expected characteristics, then the teacherswould find the system useful; and would develop a positiveintention to use the system.Islamic culture is dominant in Saudi Arabia; it is embeddedin political, public and private life for the majority of Saudicitizens and therefore has an impact on education and theinstitutions that provide education. As a result, cultural factors,such as power exercise (how people operate using theirinfluence over different matters), social collectiveness,uncertainty avoidance (societies’ tolerance of uncertainty), andgender, influence the behavior of the teachers, as they are amajor part of the social system [56]-[58].Given Islamic culture and social organisation, the Saudicontext is completely different from that of the Western nationsconsidered by most ICT research [56]. Saudi versions ofcultural factors, such as power exercise, social collectiveness,uncertainty avoidance, and gender, directly affect how teachersbehave in the schools and how they like to use ICT in theclassroom. Considering the social structure and cultural norms,teachers’ use of ICT in classes would reflect the Saudi context.H10: External barriers have a negative and direct effect onbehavioural intention to use ICT in primary schools by theteachers.E. Behavioural Intention to use ICT and Actual useIn Saudi Arabia, teachers are currently limited in their useof ICT facilities in their classroom for any purpose, andtechnology is rarely used in teaching [39], [40], [59]. However,if primary school teachers develop a positive intention to useICT facilities, then they will use them to teach

innovation and the impact factors affecting the adoption of new technologies, specifically ICT [28], [29]. The theories of innovation diffusion can be applied to innovations of all types (e.g., mobile phones; cloud computing). The most commonly utilized primary theories of innovation diffusion related to technology adoption include the:

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