Cross-Modal Extended Reality Learning in Preschool Education: Design and Evaluation from Teacher and Student Perspectives

This study explores the determinants influencing preschool teachers’ intentions to adopt gamified mobile learning tools, employing a hybrid theoretical framework that integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Flow Theory (FT), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Analyzing responses from a robust sample of 600 preschool teachers, the study examines the cognitive, emotional, and social factors shaping educators’ readiness to embrace these technologies in early childhood educational settings. Through structural equation modeling (SEM), the study tests 11 hypotheses, revealing that perceived usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, concentration, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly influence adoption intentions. The results confirm that the integrated model enhances predictive power over the individual theories, explaining 56% of the variance in adoption intention. These findings highlight the pivotal role of both cognitive and affective factors in technology adoption and underscore the importance of targeted interventions to support teachers in integrating gamified learning tools. This study provides empirical evidence to inform policymakers and educators on fostering technology-enhanced learning environments in preschool education.

In research, preschool teacher competence is highlighted as fundamental for children’s wellbeing, learning and development in preschool. This article aims to discuss pedagogical awareness as a key aspect of preschool teacher competence. The question explored is: How is preschool teachers’ pedagogical awareness expressed in relation to curriculum goals, contents and situations in preschool? The theoretical framework is based on interactionist perspectives and ecological systems theory, in which individuals and the environment influence and are influenced by one another in a continuous interaction (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986). From a meta-perspective, consistency and inconsistency in preschool teachers’ expressions of views and standpoints on quality, organisation and children’s learning are analysed in relation to the Swedish preschool curriculum, research on preschool quality, preschool teacher competence and children’s early learning in preschool. The results highlight different qualities of pedagogical awareness in preschool teachers’ understanding of quality issues, organisation and curriculum goals. The results show that pedagogical awareness is central in preschool teachers’ self-education and lifelong learning processes and vital for creating high quality conditions for children’s learning and development in Swedish preschool.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigates the key factors influencing preschool teachers’ sustained use of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content (AIGC) technology in educational settings. While prior research has extensively examined initial adoption, little attention has been given to understanding the continuous intention of preschool teachers with AIGC. To bridge this gap, this study integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM), and Flow Theory to develop a comprehensive framework that captures cognitive, affective, and experiential factors shaping continued AIGC adoption. Background: AIGC has demonstrated immense educational potential, providing personalized learning experiences, real-time feedback, and intelligent student progress tracking. However, most existing research focuses primarily on system usability and feasibility, neglecting the motivational and psychological aspects that determine continuous intention to use AIGC. Specifically, satisfaction, expectation confirmation, and flow experience have been largely overlooked as key determinants of sustained technology use. Given that preschool educators face unique pedagogical challenges, such as adapting AIGC content to young learners and maintaining engagement, understanding the drivers of long-term AIGC use is essential for optimizing its integration into preschool education. Methodology: This study employs a mixed-method approach to ensure a rigorous and comprehensive analysis. A total of 433 preschool teachers participated in the survey, and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships. To complement structural modeling, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modeling was applied to uncover non-linear relationships that traditional statistical methods might overlook. By integrating PLS-SEM and ANN, this study provides a more robust, predictive, and holistic understanding of the factors driving sustained AIGC adoption. Contribution: This study makes significant theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it extends TAM and ECM by incorporating Flow Theory. Unlike prior studies focusing primarily on perceived usefulness and ease of use, this research identifies confirmation and satisfaction as the strongest predictors of continued intention to use AIGC. Practically, the findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, school administrators, and ed-tech developers, offering recommendations for designing more engaging, sustainable, and user-friendly AIGC solutions tailored for preschool education. Findings: The results indicate that satisfaction (β = 0.280, p < 0.001) is the strongest predictor of continued AIGC use, followed by attitude (β = 0.262, p < 0.001) and flow experience (β = 0.223, p < 0.001). Expectation confirmation significantly enhances perceived usefulness (β = 0.505, p < 0.001) and satisfaction (β = 0.349, p < 0.001), reinforcing the importance of aligning AIGC tools with teachers’ expectations. ANN analysis further highlights confirmation (95.28%) and satisfaction (82.41%) as the most influential factors, whereas perceived ease of use (22.35%) has a relatively minor impact. These findings suggest that positive user experience, engagement, and expectation fulfillment are key drivers of long-term AIGC adoption. Moreover, ANN analysis revealed complex nonlinear relationships, demonstrating that traditional statistical methods might underestimate the true impact of psychological and experiential factors on technology retention. Recommendations for Practitioners: For practitioners, this study provides several actionable recommendations. First, AIGC tools should be designed to enhance engagement and intrinsic motivation, integrating gamification elements, interactive features, and adaptive learning support to sustain user interest. Second, ongoing professional development programs should be implemented to train teachers on the pedagogical applications of AIGC, addressing any concerns related to usability or long-term feasibility. Third, AIGC platforms should incorporate customization features, allowing educators to tailor content based on their specific classroom needs and teaching styles. By addressing these factors, AIGC adoption in preschool education can be more sustainable and impactful. Recommendation for Researchers: For researchers, this study opens multiple avenues for future exploration. First, future research should adopt a longitudinal approach to examine how preschool teachers’ attitudes and behaviors toward AIGC evolve over time. Second, more research is needed to explore the role of teacher personality traits and digital literacy levels in shaping AIGC adoption patterns. Third, cross-cultural studies could provide deeper insights into how different educational systems and socio-cultural contexts influence preschool teachers’ responses to AIGC technologies. Furthermore, AI-driven predictive analytics should be explored to model behavioral trends and optimize AIGC implementations across diverse learning environments. Impact on Society: This study has significant implications for educational equity, teacher workload, and early childhood learning experiences. By empowering preschool teachers with AIGC, this research promotes more inclusive and accessible preschool education, reducing disparities in educational resources and opportunities. Additionally, AI-driven teaching solutions can alleviate teacher workload, enabling educators to focus on creative and interactive pedagogical strategies rather than administrative tasks. As AIGC continues to evolve, its potential to transform preschool education into a more engaging, adaptive, and learner-centered experience becomes increasingly evident. Future Research: While this study provides valuable insights into preschool teachers’ sustained use of AIGC, several areas require further exploration. First, objective usage data should be incorporated into future research rather than relying solely on self-reported surveys to enhance validity. Second, longitudinal studies should examine how teachers’ continuous intention to use AIGC evolves over time in response to technological advancements and policy shifts. Third, as this study focuses on preschool educators, future research should explore whether the identified factors apply to primary and secondary education teachers. Additionally, ethical concerns, AI trust, and data privacy issues should be further investigated, as they may significantly impact the long-term adoption of AIGC in educational settings.

Augmented Reality (AR) offers transformative, immersive learning experiences in preschool education. However, its successful adoption largely depends on educators' willingness to integrate this technology. This study investigates AR adoption in preschool education by combining the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Flow Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) into a unified framework. Data from 1050 pre-service and in-service preschool teachers across Turkey were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Results indicate a significant positive correlation between educators' perceptions of AR's usefulness, ease of use, and their intent to adopt it. Intrinsic motivational factors, such as perceived enjoyment and concentration, also played key roles in influencing behavioral intentions towards AR. Our unified model provides a deeper understanding of the determinants impacting teachers' intentions to use AR in preschool settings, compared to existing theories. This research offers actionable insights for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers to harness AR’s potential in early childhood education, aiming to provide engaging and effective learning experiences for young children.

This study was designed to investigate whether single-parent families have influence on pre-school learners’ class participation. The study was carried out in Mwingi zone of Kitui County, Kenya. The zone had a total of 67 public pre-schools and the study targeted all the 67 public pre-schools, 1030 pre-school learners and 88 pre-school teachers. The researcher employed descriptive survey design so as to get information from the sampled respondents. The researcher obtained the sample size of the study by using both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. The sampling techniques included stratified random sampling and purposive sampling. The schools in the zone were grouped into five clusters namely: Musukini, Kanzanzu, Mwingi, Ithumbi and Kyethani. The researcher used a representative sample of 10% of the targeted preschool learners and 20.5% of the targeted preschool teachers. To collect data from the respondents, the researcher used questionnaires and observation checklists. The questionnaires were used to collect data from pre-school teachers, while observation checklists were used to collect data from pre-school learners. After collecting the data, the researcher processed it by editing, coding, classifying and tabulating it and then analyzed the processed data using descriptive analysis, frequency distribution tables and percentages and Pearson Correlation Tables. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data. The findings of the study indicated that there was a strong negative correlation (r= -0.712, P <0.05) between single-parent families and the class participation of pre-school learners. The study recommended that the pre-schools should be encouraged to be conducting frequent guidance and counseling sessions for learners from single-parent families. Pre-school class teachers should also identify the learners who are not active in class participation and encourage them to be active in class by offering rewards. Keywords: Family structure, single-parent family, Pre-school, Pre-school learner, Class Participation, School access DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-11-10 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

Purpose – The current study aims to investigate college students' behavioral intentions to adopt e-textbooks for their studies according to well-known theoretical intention-based models. Design/methodology/approach – This paper empirically assesses five theoretical models of technology acceptance, including the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the decomposed TPB model (DTPB), the combined model of TAM and TPB (C-TAM-TPB), and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The survey methodology and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to examine and compare these five models. Moreover, explanatory power, goodness-of-fit indices, and model parsimony were taken into consideration in the model comparisons. Findings – Both TPB and TAM provided less effective but adequate predictive behavioral power. However, TPB appeared to be more parsimonious than TAM and the other models. By focusing on specific beliefs of attitude, social and control influences, DTPB shares many of the same advantages as TPB and TAM, but is less parsimonious. Similarly, C-TAM-TPB, an augmented version of TAM that incorporates social influences and behavioral control, is superior to TPB and TAM in terms of its explanatory power of behavioral intention to use e-textbooks. Overall, however, the results indicated that UTAUT appeared to be the best model in terms of the metrics of parsimonious fit and explanatory power. Originality/value – Theoretical comparison of different models is important. This is believed to be the first study to present model comparisons by investigating undergraduates' intention to adopt e-textbooks as tools for their on-campus learning in Taiwan.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the views and recommendations of the preschool and primary school teachers on the literacy preparation in Turkish preschool education. The study is designed as phenomenological research. The participants of the study are 12 preschool and 9 primary school teachers who have been teaching actively in the western part of Turkey. The qualitative data was collected through face-to-face interviews and analyzed through content analysis. The findings of the study show that preschool teachers have some confusion on literacy preparation and readiness. While preschool and primary school teachers are of the same opinion about the need for literacy preparation in preschool education, they have different opinions about the literacy preparation activities conducted in preschool education. While preschool teachers think that they get preschoolers ready for literacy, primary school teachers think that first graders in their classes do not come literately ready from preschool education. Teachers participated in the study; think that the lack of collaboration among preschool and primary school teachers, some deficiencies in preschool education curriculum and in the education system, and the preschool teachers’ imperfect knowledge in the literacy readiness are the possible reasons of inadequacy of readiness for literacy in preschool education. They recommend systematic collaboration among teachers, review of preschool education curriculum and providing professional support for preschool teachers to support literacy readiness in preschool education.

Who will adopt? Investigating the adoption intention for battery swap technology for electric vehicles

This article aimed to discuss the implementation of sexuality education in the preschool context in Malaysia based on preschool teachers’ understanding. Past studies have reassured that teachers have played an important role in ensuring the success of early childhood sexuality education program. Numerous local and Asian studies have highlighted that due to the lack of training and limited assess on sexuality related resources, the implementation of this program in preschool level remained vague. To close the gap, interviews were conducted to discover Malaysia preschool teachers’ content knowledge and delivery on sexuality education in the early years. Ten qualified and experienced preschool teachers from Klang Valley were recruited as the study respondents. Content analysis was employed to extract emerging themes based on the interview scripts. Findings have revealed that the respondents showed a varied understanding about sexuality education in early childhood context, where their thoughts were found heavily confined by the social and cultural norms acquired through their previous experiences, current cognitive understandings and comfort level. The analysis has also expressed a potential risk of misinterpretation on children’s sexual behaviors among the preschool teachers, due to their insufficient knowledge on children’s sexual development. Further to that, the local early year sexuality education was found to be delivered informally within children’s routine in preschool, serving as reminder when necessary rather than pre-planned activities. This study is expected to provide implication to aid useful evidences in enhancing current sexuality education program in the preschool context, and devising comprehensive teachers training module for betterment.

ABSTRACTMobile and game-based learning are novel approaches characterised by the use of mobile devices and enabling learning anywhere and at any time. In this paper, we share an experience-based design and a pilot study to introduce music learning in preschool education. SAMI (Software for music learning in early childhood education) is a mobile application consisting of four games which main objectives are ear training, sound discrimination and music composition. The pilot study carried out in a real-life setting with third-year kindergarten children provides empirical data about music learning outcomes and compares an experimental group of children using SAMI with a control group which follows the traditional Montessori bells method. Our study results reveal a number of key findings for the design of preschool mobile games and the potential of using mobile technologies for music learning in early childhood.

The use of teaching aids plays an important role in the teaching and learning process, especially in preschool education. With recent technological advances, it is interesting to note the evolution in the use of teaching aids by preschool teachers for preschoolers, particularly flashcards. Hence, this research aims to explore the flashcards nature used by the preschool teachers in their teaching and learning of preschoolers. The qualitative research approach was used in this research by implementing the exploratory case study. It helped to explore the in-depth nature of the use of flashcards as teaching aids in the context of teaching and learning of preschoolers practiced by three preschool teachers from three different sectors, which are government preschool, private preschool, and children development centre. Data were obtained by the applications of triangulation technique through a combination method of interview, observation, and document analysis. The findings illustrate the flashcards nature by the perspective of characteristics from three main aspects: designs, functionality, and costs. It is suggested that flashcards are flexible in nature. In addition, the results also showed that preschool teachers still prefer printed paper-based flashcards to digital flashcards.

Availability and utilization of instructional resources play an important role in the attainment of educational goals, objectives and learners’ performance. In this study, the researcher argues that many learners are still not proficient in early literacy skills despite going through pre-school education. The factors associated with the teaching and learning of early literacy skills may have been addressed but influence of instructional resources continues to be a concern. This study focused on the influence of display of instructional resources on children’s performance in literacy. The study was framed on the constructivism theory propounded by Jean Piaget in 1896-1980. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and targeted 90 public pre-schools comprising of 5460 pre-school learners and 180 pre-school teachers. A simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the pre-schools and the sample size for teachers and learners for the study was arrived at using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) formula. Through these methods, 27 pre-schools, 359 learners and 123 pre-school teachers were selected for the study. Data was collected using questionnaires and a literacy skill test administered to the learners. Questionnaires were administered to pre-school teachers to seek information on pre-school teachers’ training skills and use of instructional resources. Content validity of the instruments was determined by employing the expertise of my supervisors and lecturers in the Department of Education while reliability was determined through split-half technique. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as means, percentages, frequencies and Pearson Correlation analysis. The findings were presented in tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The study found that there was a positive correlation between display of instructional resources and learners’ achievement in writing skills (r = .646; p = .000) and reading skills (r = .780; p = .000). The study concluded that instructional resources play a significant role in imparting of reading and writing skills to the pre-school learners. The study recommended that there is need for provision of audio and audio-visual materials to pre-schools since these materials are known to positively affect the acquisition of writing and reading skills among pre-school learners. It also recommends that the government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education ensure that pre-schools acquire instructional resources equitably distributed in the various pre-schools across the country to facilitate timely implementation of the curriculum especially in reading and writing skills for good educational foundation of the learners.

This study empirically analyzes factors affecting the adoption and recommendation intentions for next-generation electronic authentication services based on a convergent model of the value-based adoption model (VAM), protection motivation theory (PMT), and theory of planned behavior (TPB). As a result of the analyses, perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices (based on the VAM), perceived threats (based on the PMT), and adoption motives (based on the TPB) are found to significantly impact the adoption and recommendation intentions. The verification results demonstrate that all factors (and sub-factors) — perceived benefits (perceived usefulness and enjoyment), perceived sacrifices (technicality and perceived fee), perceived threats (perceived susceptibility and severity), and adoption motives (adoption attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control) — have a significant effect on adoption intentions. Further, all variables and sub-factors, except for technicality in perceived sacrifice, have a significant effect on recommendation intentions. This study provides theoretical and practical guidelines that are helpful for future development, dissemination, and promotion strategies of new electronic authentication technologies demanded and expected by most financial consumers. At the same time, it verifies the validity and rationality of the convergent model based on the three theories, thereby presenting an in-depth and expanded methodology for theoretical model application.

This comparative study investigated the perspectives of preschool teachers in Australia, Denmark, Estonia, German, Greece and Sweden about learning and participation in preschool. A structured survey questionnaire investigated four main questions: What situations can be characterised as learning? What activities are important for learning? What are the best conditions for children's learning? How do preschool teachers understand participation in relation to children's learning in preschool? Results suggest that play, interactions with other children and adults, the provision of different activities and teacher support are important for children's learning. While similarities were noted, results indicate some disparity between countries and a further in-depth interview-style study is recommended to provide a deeper understanding of teachers’ perspectives and practices around children's learning.

Empirical studies on technology adoption usually are based on data from self-reported measures, and a large subset of this literature draws on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) or Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). However, for non-Internet users, self-reported measures and these theoretical frameworks face important limitations: non-users often are under-informed about the technology and are unable to accurately explain their non-use. In addition, the measurement instruments in the TAM/TPB literature often are not applicable to non-users. Addressing these issues, this paper examines non-Internet users' awareness of the Internet's benefits and its impact on adoption intention. Focusing on the under-informed, this approach substitutes awareness for perceived usefulness (or affective attitude). Test results demonstrate good predictive power on non-Internet users' adoption intention, calling for caution when applying these commonly used analytical tools to study late-adopters of technology.