Evaluating pre-service kindergarten teachers' intention to adopt and use tablets into teaching practice for natural sciences

Abstract

Mobile technology is one of the dominating trends of educational applications for new technologies. Adapting smart mobile devices to teach the natural sciences in preschool education depends to a great extent, on whether the kindergarten teachers themselves believe that smart mobile devices contribute positively to their teaching methods. The current study uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine how the skills of pre-service kindergarten teachers' in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and their attitude towards the use of mobile devices affect their willingness to use smart mobile devices to teach natural sciences in kindergarten. The survey participants comprised 75 students from a Greek university, and several constructs related to technology acceptance were measured. As there are many ICT tools that teachers can use to support teaching and learning, the results indicate that the pre-service teachers' attitude toward the usefulness of mobile learning in the teaching process has the strongest influence on their intention to adopt mobile learning followed equally by perceived ease of use.