A path analysis of pre-service teachers' attitudes to computer use: applying and extending the technology acceptance model in an educational context

TLDR

The study examines pre‑service teachers’ attitudes toward computer use. The authors extend the TAM by incorporating subjective norm, facilitating conditions, and technological complexity as external variables. The extended TAM significantly predicts pre‑service teachers’ attitudes, explaining 48.7% of the variance, and the study discusses its implications for research and practice.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service teachers' attitudes to computers. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework by adding subjective norm, facilitating conditions, and technological complexity as external variables. Results show that the TAM and subjective norm, facilitating conditions, and technological complexity were significant determinants of pre-service attitudes to computer use. A multiple square correlation revealed that the proposed model in this study explained 48.7% of the attitude to computer use. Various contributions to research and practice are discussed.