Teaching style and attitudes towards Facebook as an educational tool

Abstract

There is a distinct lack of research that has considered university staff use of and attitudes towards Facebook. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of how teaching staff at one UK university use Facebook, and their attitudes towards Facebook and online professionalism, in terms of the student–staff relationship. An online survey was developed that included the Principles of Adult Learning Scale to explore whether attitudes towards the use of Facebook as an academic tool differed between teaching staff with a teacher-centred style and teaching staff with a learning-centred style. This article offers insight into teaching staff attitudes towards the use of Facebook in an educational context. The results shed light on whether or not teaching style is related to attitudes towards use. Differences in attitude were found which indicate those with a teacher-centred style do not view online and offline identities blurring as much.