Factors Impacting Teachers’ Continued IT Adoption in Pre-College Education

Abstract

Aim/Purpose: This study was designed to examine the extent to which high school teachers intend to continue using the tablet PC in their teaching within the context of the Tablet Project initiative in Kuwait. It explores what drives their adoption intention. Background: Blended learning offers teachers the potential to adopt IT to augment their instructions and refocus their content, target group, context, and ethical facets; explore new modes of education and consider effective methods to educate students; and experience more flexibility in both course design and delivery method. To reap the potential benefits of integrating IT in education, the Ministry of Education in Kuwait introduced the “Tablet Project” in public high schools during the 2015–2016 academic year; three years later, it was unclear whether the teachers would continue using the tablet PCs in their teaching. Methodology: The research model adapts constructs from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) models. It includes facilitating conditions (FC), social influence (SI), and teaching efficacy (TE) as predictors of teachers’ behavioral intentions (BI) to continue using the tablet PC in future teaching. The model also proposes a moderating effect of gender, age, and tablet PC experience on BI. To test the research hypotheses, a data set was collected from 206 teachers and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Contribution: This study provides empirical evidence on important predictors of continuous IT adoption in teaching activities and identifies lessons that could guide initiatives aimed to embed IT in the pre-college education system in Kuwait as well as other similar systems. It contributes results to advance theories and models aimed to explain and predict sustainable IT adoption in education systems across cultures. Findings: While TE arises as a non-significant predictor of BI, SI emerges as the strongest predictor of BI. FC is the second significant predictor of BI, although its direct effect on BI is non-significant. Gender, age, and tablet PC experience have non-significant moderating effects on BI. These results provide significant statistical support for the predictive power of the model, as it explains approximately 50% of the variance in BI. Recommendations for Practitioners: Since this research is directly connected to the reality of IT adoption in teaching in the Kuwaiti high school system, the findings should be of value for the Kuwaiti educational system and future teachers’ professional development initiatives. They should inform future actions and strategies aimed at successfully integrating IT in pre-college education in Kuwait and other similar countries. Recommendation for Researchers: The findings add to the ongoing research effort aimed to develop a better understanding of the intention to continue using IT in instruction and its influential factors across cultures (e.g., Arabian culture), especially since most earlier TPACK studies were carried out in Asian countries and the US. Our findings also confirm the value of UTAUT constructs (i.e., SI and FC) in explaining and predicting the intention to continue using IT by high school teachers, as the research model explains approximately 50% of the variance in the teachers’ BI. Impact on Society: This research offers empirical evidence that adds much-needed nuance to the discourse on teachers’ IT adoption intention and behavior and informs policies and strategies in support of initiatives aimed to integrate IT into education. The provision of a technical and organizational ecosystem that is conducive to sustainable IT integration in the Kuwaiti education system must be part of a more comprehensive initiative to digitize the entire education system. Education policy makers should embrace a digital mindset to adopt IT and transform the teaching, learning, and managerial processes in the system. Future Research: Future research could replicate this study and compare the results, employ other research methods (e.g., focus-group discussions and observations) to investigate teachers’ IT adoption in various educational contexts, adapt research models that include other predictors, and investigate and produce results on students’ perspectives regarding their initial and continuous adoption of the tablet PC within the Tablet Project context.

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