Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Russell French

Committee Members

C. Ed Roeske, Glennon Rowell, Charles Jackson

Abstract

This descriptive study of 229 parents and teachers of elementary school students at Oneida Elementary School was designed to assess their attitudes toward computers as revealed on the Adult Attitudes Toward Computers Scale (ATC) developed by Lewis and Delcourt (1987) at the University of Connecticut. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the relationship of these attitudes to age, gender and experience with computers and to further determine whether there is a relationship between these attitudes and the implementation of computers in the elementary school. It was hypothesized that attitudes may vary by age, gender, and the amount of experience with computers of the respondent.

Five-hundred and fifty-five subjects (parents and teachers) were identified from the school population that met the research criteria. Each subject had to be associated with the educational activities at Oneida Elementary School. This number included all teachers and instructional staff. All 555 subjects received a questionnaire and a demographics sheet. Of the 555 subjects, 200 parents and 29 instructional staff returned their surveys completed.

Descriptive statistics were used in treating all data collected. Means and medians were utilized as measures of central tendency and standard deviations were used to identify variations. In order to determine whether certain demographic variables could explain any variations in responses to the Total ATC score and subscores, one-way analysis of variance was employed. The test for Honestly Significant Differences (HSD) was employed. An alpha level of .05 was established.

After all data from the questionnaire were coded, the information was entered on separate spreadsheets for teachers and parents and imported into the IMP statistical software package. Also, ANOVAs were computed for each group to determine differences in attitudes based on age, gender, and the amount of experience with computers. If the results indicated no significant differences based on age, gender, and amount of experience with computers on the Total ATC, no further statistical analyses were computed. As all teachers responding were female, no descriptive statistical analyses based on gender were conducted for teachers. After determining whether the attitudes of respondents were positive or negative based on the ATC, the findings were compared with those presented in other studies which were discussed in the review of literature. It was found in this study that the attitudes of those involved in the introduction of technology effect the success or failure of that introduction.

Three demographic variables were studied in relation to Total ATC score on the ATC. As none of the analysis of variance testing revealed any significant differences, among or between teachers and parents based on gender, age, or level of experience with computers, in relation to the Total ATC, null hypotheses were supported except numbers two and eight. As all teacher respondents were female,it was not possible to test for gender differences between teachers and parents. All Statistical testing revealed that teachers and parents both held positive attitudes toward computers regardless of age, gender, or their level of experience with computers.

As this study found that both parents and teachers had positive attitudes toward computers, it is reasonable to assume that the introduction of computers atOneida Elementary School will be successful.

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