Abstract
Studies analysing and comparing the attitudes of teachers towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on gender have provided mixed results. In this work, we carried out a meta-analysis on gender differences in attitudes towards ICT, from a global perspective and exploring four dimensions: affective-emotional attitude, beliefs, self-efficacy, and mixed with each other. Through the collection of 55 studies providing 73 effect sizes based on a total sample of 21,325 working teachers, a negative effect was found, almost null (d= -0.0297) and not statistically significant. These results indicate that female teachers have a more positive attitude towards the educational use of ICT than male teachers. Independently, the dimensions affective-emotional attitude (d= -0.342), beliefs (d= 0.114), and self-efficacy (d= 0.273) produced significant effect sizes, although with small effects. The analysis of moderating variables showed that different moderators intervene significantly in the variability of effect sizes: continental origin of the teachers (emotional and beliefs dimensions); teacher’s workplace (dimension self-efficacy); type of publication (emotional dimension) and validity of the instruments (emotional and beliefs dimension). With this meta-analysis, it is possible to take another step towards a better measurement and explanation of the attitudes that teachers have towards the use of new technologies in educational contexts.
Highlights
With regard to emotional attitudes related to anxiety, fun or enjoyment of the use of technology, authors such as Whitley (1997), and Cai et al (2017) found significant and positive effect sizes (d = 0.259 and d = 0.100, respectively) in favour of the male sex, which would go against those obtained in our study, where we have found a higher score in female teachers
In this meta-analysis, we have provided further evidence of gender differences in teachers’ attitudes to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and different moderators have been shown to play a significant role in the variability of effect sizes
The significant differences between the effect sizes in each of the dimensions analysed are quite interesting, and more researches are needed to address the objective of this study, as the direction of the attitude towards gender may vary depending on how the studies have been designed, and what type of attitude is measured
Summary
The emergence of ubiquitous learning tools in higher education allows for more active learning, increasing debate, the exchange of ideas, immediate feedback, and easy access to digital content (Alvarado et al, 2020; Phan et al, 2021); the attitudes of male and female teachers towards these new educational technologies may vary. Given this context, and as stated by Edison and Geissler (2003, p.137), “Technology affects everyone as it changes the fabric of society. Each of these terms will be discussed in depth below
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