Influencias de las creencias del profesorado sobre el uso de la tecnología en el aula

Abstract

This objective of this study, which is part of an I+D+i project financed by the Spanish government, is to examine how teachers’ beliefs in the meaning of technology in education act as an impulse or barrier to the use of technology in the classroom. The methodology used to reveal these influences is a questionnaire based on the theoretical concepts of technology put forward by Aviram and Richarson (Richardson?) with an internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) of 0.869. Data were examined by logistic regression analysis (LRA) and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) on a sample of 324 teachers at the first ICT centres to be established in Andalusia, within the framework of impulse measures instigated by the Regional Autonomous Government of Andalusia in 2002. Factor analysis prior to LRA revealed four ad hoc factors (beliefs): socio-reformist, opposed to technology, critical and humanistic. The MCA showed three different groups of teachers: socio-reformists, moderate socio-reformists and those with no opinion on technology. The LRA results show the positive influence of socio-reformist beliefs on the frequency of ICT use, while those opposed and against demonstrate a clearly negative influence. In factor terms, the MCA confirms that teachers with socio-reformist beliefs are more likely to use ICTs regularly in the classroom than any other group. The conclusion is in line with theories of identifying teachers’ beliefs (Kember, Ramsden and Robertson) in which the beliefs that associate technology to educational innovation, and to student-based learning models, positively influence frequent ICT use in the classroom.