Teacher attitudes toward technology

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate which demographic factors and personal perspectives facilitate integration and which barriers prevent middle school teachers in rural schools in Southern Middle Tennessee from integrating technology. Participants in rural middle schools in middle Tennessee were surveyed using an adapted version of the Technology Beliefs and Competencies (PT3; Brinkerhoff, Brush, Glazewski, & Yu Ku, 2002). The Pearson correlation was used to describe relationships between teachers\u27 years of experience and teachers\u27 perceived levels of technology integration. Independent samples t-Tests were used to test for statistically significant differences in (1) the level of technology integration between teachers who have high technology skill levels and those who have low skill levels, (2) the level of technology integration between teachers with positive beliefs about technology and those teachers who do not, (3) the level of technology integration based on the teacher\u27s gender, and (4) the level of technology integration based on teacher\u27s ethnicity. A univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to look for statistically significant differences in the level of technology integration based on age. The Pearson correlation was used to reflect the linear relationship between teachers\u27 technology skill levels and level of integration of technology into the curriculum. Fisher\u27s r to z transformation was used to construct confidence intervals. It was concluded that there was no relationship between teachers\u27 years of experience in the classroom and teachers\u27 perceived levels of technology integration in the classroom. The level of technology integration of teachers who had high technology skill levels affects levels of integration. Teachers\u27 beliefs about technology did not affect the level of integration of technology into the curriculum. Gender, age, and ethnicity did not affect the level of integration. There was a relationship between teachers\u27 skill levels and their level of integration, in that the higher the skill level was, the more the teacher integrated technology. Based upon the findings of this study, it was recommended that further studies should be conducted. Additional computers should be made available. Student achievement in relation to the teacher\u27s level of technology integration could be compared