Exploring in-service preschool teachers’ acceptance of mobile learning in science teaching practice

Abstract

In the sphere of preschool and elementary education, new interactive technologies built on intelligent mobile devices and auxiliary applications have drawn increasing attention. Based on the UTAUT2 (The expanding of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) theoretical model, the purpose of this study is to understand the situation of pre-school preschool teachers’ willingness to use mobile learning. This study conducted a survey on 329 in-service preschool teachers in 9 cities in Fujian Province, China, and conducted data analysis through statistical analysis software SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) 22.0 and AMOS (Analyze of Moment Structures) 22.0, verifying the UTAUT2 model in Effectiveness in understanding in-service early childhood teachers’ intention to move to learn. The results of structural equation modeling show that the proposed model has acceptable fitting data. The results of the study show that in-service preschool teachers have the willingness to actively accept mobile learning. Among many influencing factors, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, learning value, habit have significantly impact on behavioral intention to accept mobile learning. In addition, hedonic motivation did not support to affect behavioral intention and habit to affect use behavior. The study has important implications for researchers, educators, policy makers and mobile learning app designers.