HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE AND THEIR ATTITUDE
TOWARDS COMPUTER
Rajasekar S.
Vaiyapuri Raja P.
INTRODUCTION
In the present digital era,
the development in various aspects of computer technology has reached beyond
our imagination and expectations. Even though computer has a lot of
applications in various fields, one should not forget its applications in the
field of education. It is very useful
and helpful in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, computer literacy is very much
needed for teachers as well as learners. The computers have created a
revolution in the content of education and in the nature of learning process.
They have the capability of multiplying the human intellect beyond part
conceptions and have tremendous implications for education. They have a great impact upon our educational
system. The teachers should be in terms with the physical reality of the
computers, and learn how to take actual advantage of the machines’ educational
potential. For this, computer knowledge is essential for teachers. Computer
knowledge may be stated as “knowing about the various fundamental aspects of
computers and the basic skills involved in the operations of computers”. It
also includes the applications of computer in teaching and learning process. if
we consider teachers as sample. E-
learning, helps the learner to know
about the subject he/she wants to learn
with the help of the latest technology, the computer. Favourable attitude towards computer plays a
very important role in making one really interested in it. Unless the teachers
possess a favourable attitude towards computer, they may not be interested in
it, which in turn will affect their knowledge of computer and also they will
find teaching with help of computer difficult, which in turn will affect
students learning. Therefore, if the
teachers have favorable attitude towards computer, then there may be a chance
for them to be motivated in acquiring knowledge of computer, as it is clear
that the computer knowledge is very much needed for teachers. There are some
studies conducted abroad on computer knowledge and also the attitude towards
computers (Timothy Teo, 2007; Smith & Oosthuizen 2006; Sam HK et al., 2005;
Tsai & Tsai 2003 and Denise 2003). In
The central and state
governments are taking tremendous efforts to implement the computer application
in the process of teaching and learning.
The state government has introduced computer course in the higher
secondary schools and in other classes also. The government has started
supplying computers to higher secondary schools with suitable software and has
started providing facilities to develop computer laboratory. At this juncture,
the investigators feel that the Government, after conducting more studies in
this area would have taken these efforts. To fall in line with this, an attempt
has been made to study the teachers’ computer knowledge and their attitude
towards computer.
OBJECTIVES
*To study the level of
computer knowledge of teachers.
*To study the teachers’
attitude towards computer
*To study the significance of
the difference between the sub-samples of the teachers in respect of their
computer knowledge and their attitude towards it.
*To study the nature of the
relationship existing between the teachers’ computer knowledge and their
attitude towards computer.
HYPOTHESES
1. There is significant
difference in the computer knowledge between: male and female teachers;
teachers working in urban schools and rural schools; teachers working in
government schools and in private schools; secondary grade teachers and graduate teachers;sSecondary
grade teachers and post graduate
teachers; and graduate teachers and post
graduate teachers
2. There is significant
difference in the attitude towards computer between the sub-samples of
teachers, falling into as many as six pairs as under hypothesis (1).
3. There is significant
relationship between the computer knowledge of teachers and their attitude
towards computer .
4. The above relationship is
positive, too.
PROCEDURE
Tools
Tools used were:
Computer Knowledge Test (CKT)
constructed and validated by the investigators (2007).
Attitude towards Computer
Scales (ATCS) constructed and validated by Kumaran D and Selvaraj K (1997).
The computer knowledge test
contains as many as 21 multiple choice items for 21 marks and needs 30 minutes
for an average person to answer. The
person one who scores above 11 is said to have high level of computer knowledge
and one who score 11 and below is said to have low level of computer knowledge. The attitude towards computer scale consists
of 36 statements, some depict favorable attitude and some otherwise. Each
statement has five options, namely “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Undecided”,
“Disagree”, “Strongly Disagree”. The responses of the subjects were scored by
assigning numerical values or arbitrary weights to the two set of items i.e.,
the statements showing favorable attitude towards computer and the statements
showing unfavourable attitude towards computer. The statements showing the
favorable attitude towards computer having the scoring as 4,3,2,1 and 0 and for
the responses from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” and it has been
reversed for the statements showing the unfavourable attitude towards computer
i.e., 0,1,2,3 and 4 for the responses “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”.
Also there are 18 statements showing the favorable attitude towards computer
and the statements were 1 to 16, 34 and 35 . Also there are 18 statements
showing the unfavorable attitude towards computer and the statements were 17 to
33 and 36. An individual score is the sum of all the scores of the 36 items.
The score ranges from 0 to 144. The maximum score that one can get in this is
144. The person who scores above 72 is
said to have favourabe attitude towards computer and the one who scores 72 and below is said to
have unfavourable attitude towards computers.
Sample
Cluster sampling technique has
been used in the selection of the sample of as many as 670 teachers working in
Higher Secondary Schools situated in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu,
Statistical Treatment of the Data
The means and standard
deviations of the computer knowledge scores and Attitude towards computer
scores were computed directly from the respective raw scores for the entire
sample and its nine sub-samples of the higher secondary teachers with the help
of computer. The percentages of the entire sample and its nine sub-samples of the higher secondary school teachers who
had high level and low level of computer knowledge and those who had favourable
attitude and other wise were also computed and were diagrammatically presented.
The test of significance was used (‘t’ test) in order to study if there was any
significant difference between each selected
pair of sub-samples in respect of their computer knowledge and their
attitude towards computer. Pearson’s product-moment ‘r’ was computed between
computer knowledge scores and attitude towards computer scores of the higher
secondary school teachers
Reliability and Validity of the Tools Used
For the computer knowledge
test, the reliability was found to be 0.81 using the split-half technique and
its intrinsic validity was 0.90. For the attitude towards computer scale the
reliability was 0.78 using the split-half technique and its intrinsic validity
was 0.88.
FINDINGS
*In respect of the entire
sample of teachers, only 16.70% of them belonged to the high level of computer
knowledge and as much as 83.30% of them belonged to the low level of computer
knowledge. This trend is seen in respect of the sub- samples, too. These
findings reveal that the teachers are weak in their computer knowledge.
*As much as 60.40% of the
teachers had relatively a favourable attitude towards computer and only 39.60%
of them had relatively a unfavourable attitude towards computer. This trend is
seen in respect of the sub samples, too.
*There was a significant
difference in computer knowledge between the male teachers and female teachers.
Moreover, the female teachers were
better than their male counterparts in their computer knowledge.
*There was significant
difference in computer knowledge between the teachers working in the urban and
rural schools. Moreover, the teachers
working in urban schools were better
than their rural counterparts in respect of their computer knowledge.
*There was no significant
difference in computer knowledge between the teachers working in Government
schools and private schools.
*There was no significant
difference in computer knowledge between the secondary grade teachers and
graduate teachers.
*There was no significant
difference in computer knowledge between the secondary grade teachers and
postgraduate teachers.
*There was a significant
difference in computer knowledge between the graduate teachers and postgraduate
teachers. Moreover, the postgraduate
teachers are found to be better than the graduate teachers in respect of their
computer knowledge.
*There was no significant
difference in attitude towards computer between male and female teachers.
*There was no significant
difference in attitude towards computer between the teachers working in the
urban and rural schools.
*There was no significant
difference in attitude towards computer between the teachers working in
Government schools and private schools.
*There was significant
difference in attitude towards computer between the secondary grade teachers
and graduate teachers. More over, the
secondary grade teachers were f better than graduate teachers in their
favourableness of attitude towards computer.
*There was no significant
difference in attitude towards computer between the secondary grade teachers
and postgraduate teachers.
*There was a significant
difference in attitude towards computer between graduate teachers and
postgraduate teachers. More over, the
postgraduate teachers were better than graduate teachers in their
favourableness of attitude towards computer.
*There is a significant and
positive relationship between the computer knowledge and the attitude towards
computer of the higher secondary school teachers.
CONCLUSION
It is a very unique study
conducted in a developing country like India, to study the teachers’ computer
knowledge and their attitude towards computer. The present study has revealed
many interesting findings. Viz., the majority of teachers working in the higher
secondary schools, situated in the Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu, India,
belong to the low level of computer knowledge and majority of teachers have a
relatively favorable attitude towards computer.
This reveals that the computer knowledge of the teachers needs to be
improved.
REFERENCES
Denise, P. (2002) A field
study of computer efficacy beliefs as an outcome of training: the role of
computer playfulness, computer knowledge, and performance during training. Computers
in Human Behaviours 18, 241-255.
Inamdar, S.C and Rotti,S.B.
(2004) Computer use among medical students in an institution in southern India.
National Medical Journal.
Kumaran, D and Selvaraj, K
(2001)A study of cognitive and affective computer attitude of teachers. Journal
of All
Rajasekar,S. (2005)University
students’ attitude towards computer. Recent Researches in Education and
Psychology 10, 1-11, 1-5.
Sam .H.K, Othman,A.E.A, and
Nordin, Z.S (2005) Computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety and attitudes
toward the internal: A study among undergraduates in Unimas. Educational Technology and Society 8,
4, 205-219.
Smith,E and Oosthuizen,H.J.(
2006) Attitudes of entry-level University students towards computers: A Comparative
Study. Computers and Education 47, 352-371.
Timothy Teo (2007) Assessing
the computer attitudes of students: An Asian perspective. Computer in Human
Behaviour 30.
Tsai, M., and Tsai, C.
(2003)Student computer achievement, attitude and anxiety: the role of learning strategies. Journal
of Educational Computing Research 26, 1, 47-61.
Umme Kulsum (2002) Teachers
Attitudes towards Computer. SETRAD, National Conference on Integrating
Technology into Teaching and Learning, Vol. I, 208-211.
Vaiyapuri Raja. P and
Rajasekar, S. (2007) Development of a
test to measure Computer Knowledge of higher secondary teachers (CKT). Experiments
in Education 35,.7, July