PEDAGOGICAL BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY: A SURVEY OF IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS

 

Saman Yousefifard

MA Student in ELT, University of Tehran, Saman.yousefifard@gmail.com

 

Abstract

With rapid advances in technology and technological innovations in education, teacher’s capacity and skill in information and communication technology integration (ICT) into their teaching practice has been the center of attention among many researchers. Research on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has also gained prominence in language teacher education as an effort to enhance language learning. There is a growing body of literature on teachers’ knowledge and attitudes towards the use of technologies to shed light on the ways teachers regard technology integration into their instructional practice. However, few studies have addressed the pedagogical beliefs, and attitudes of English as foreign language (EFL) teachers towards ICT in technology-adoption models. This study aimed to investigate how teachers’ constructivist and/or transmissive pedagogical beliefs influence four major components of the TAM: perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), attitude toward ICT use (ATCU), and intention to use (IU). To that end, the revised version of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was adopted, and data from a survey-based study that adopted a previously developed and validated questionnaire (n=185) was collected. A total of 185 Persian EFL teachers participated in the study and completed the scale. Results of the survey revealed that most of the Persian EFL teachers’ pedagogical beliefs were more constructivist-oriented which have a significant positive impact on the four major components of TAM such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward ICT use, and intention to use, and teacher’s transmissive pedagogical beliefs did not have any significant impact on their attitude toward ICT use.