An Investigation of preservice early childhood teachers’ levels of individual innovativeness and perceived attributes of instructional computer use

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2013
Yılmaz, Nursel
Based on Rogers‟ (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theory, this study aims to investigate preservice early childhood teachers‟ innovativeness level and perceived attributes of computer use in early childhood education. Moreover, the differences between adopter categories regarding the perceived attributes of computer use and communication channel preferences were examined within the scope of this study. For these purposes, this study was designed as a quantitative research and data were gathered by three scales, namely Turkish version of Perceived Attributes of Computer Use (PACU), Individual Innovativeness Scale (IIS), and General Information scale (GIS). A total of 436 questionnaires were collected from the preservice early childhood teachers studying at the universities in Ankara, Turkey. The gathered data were analyzed by using both descriptive statistical techniques and inferential statistical techniques. The findings of the study showed that preservice early childhood teachers perceived that instructional computer use (1) provides advantages, (2) is not complex, and (3) can be observed in early childhood settings. Moreover, it was found that more than half of the preservice early childhood teachers were considered low in innovativeness level. Furthermore, in terms of adopter categories, the preservice early childhood teachers were placed in early majority, early adopters, late majority, innovators, and laggard group, respectively. Moreover, the results indicated that the preservice early childhood teachers who were grouped in five adopter categories were significantly different from each other regarding the perceived attributes of computer use. Finally, the results showed that most of the preservice teachers preferred interpersonal communication channels rather than mass media channels.

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Citation Formats
N. Yılmaz, “An Investigation of preservice early childhood teachers’ levels of individual innovativeness and perceived attributes of instructional computer use,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2013.