Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the StudyComputers are increasingly omnipresent, influencing many aspects of our social existence from ourlife, schools to our work environment, as well as many of our leisure activities. As more tasks involvehuman-computer interaction, computer literacy should become more and more positively correlated withboth occupational and personal successes. Information technology (IT) has made a considerable impact onevery aspect of society. Computers are now prevalent in university campuses and secondary schools andmany of our homes, thus computer and technology have become an integral part of our life (Gordon et al.,2003). Since the use of technology is no longer confined to computer science majors, it is essential for allstudents and teachers to use and understand computers and implement technology in order to be successfulin their future careers (Rizza, 2000). Although an increasing number of teachers are using computers ineducation, not all of these teachers feel comfortable when they use computers. As Rosen and Weil (1995)stated “all of teachers are not likely to be heavy computer users”. Since the 1970s, many researchers havebeen interested in investigating people’s negative reactions to computer technology. After the terminologyof computer anxiety (CA) was first promoted by Power, Cummings and Talbott (Li Hongli, 2004), anumber of studies have examined the relationship between computer anxiety and a variety of variables. Infact, these researches are mainly done by western researchers and scholars, especially in America, Canada,and European countries.In China, researchers rarely do studies on this field. According to a report of CNNIC, there were 420million netizens (CNNIC definition: people who surfer the internet at least one hour per week) in china bythe end of June, 2010 (CNNIC, 2010). Actually, they are few researchers who involve in the researchingfield of computer anxiety in china, though the application of computers and the internet are very commonnowadays in China. In the era of the knowledge-based economy today, the entire world is urged to nurtureglobal citizens with creativity and innovative capacity (MacDonald, 2005). Answering the call of our times,the educational sectors all over the world are integrating creativity in curriculum frameworks (Le Metais,2003). Countries and regions in the East, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, SouthKorea, Israel, have imposed curriculum reforms with an emphasis on creative development in their primaryand secondary schools. As it is required by the curriculum reforms, there is a need to integrate informationtechnology with course resources.Teachers play an important role in the application of technology and their professional development.
They need to keep pace with the change of the new informational era. But it is reported that computeranxiety exists among students and teachers. Rosen & Weil (1995, 1996) found computer anxiety is endemicamong groups such as public school teachers, students, and psychologists. They estimate that as many as40% of the population in the United States experience computer anxiety to a degree. Bozionelos (1996)showed that more than 20% of a sample of British managers and professionals had scores above themidpoint on a computer anxiety scale. With the increasing penetration of personal computers in business,education, and home, the problem of computer anxiety has become more and more pertinent. It is anunsolved issue whether blooming internet use and the emergence of technologies such as digital telephonywill decrease the occurrence of computer anxiety or will enhance it (Beckers & Schmidt, 2001). Thesefindings are only reported by west researchers, what are the situations in Mainland China? There are fewresearchers who simply introduce the findings of western scholars in recent years (Li Bangqiong, 2006;Han Buxin & Wen Junqing, 2003). Guan Yijie et al. (2006) especially discussed teachers’ computer anxietyand its negative effects on teaching and teachers’ acceptance of modern information technology. But hisjudgment bases on the findings of west countries. There is a huge gap between Mainland China and westcountries and other regions.
1.2 Research Objectives and significance
The present study is predominantly conducted from the following three objectives, namely, 1) thepresent situation of college English teachers’ computer anxiety, internet self-efficacy and computer beliefs2) gender differences of college English teachers’ computer anxiety, internet self-efficacy and computerbeliefs; 3) the relationships of college English teachers’ computer anxiety, internet self-efficacy andcomputer beliefs. This paper attempts to present a comprehensive understanding of English teachers’computer anxiety, internet self-efficacy and computer beliefs.With respect to teachers’ computer anxiety during process of their professional development, thesignificance of present study lies in its innovations listed as follows. Firstly, as it was discussed above, thepresent study is far to meet the needs of educational technology development. Secondly, with thedevelopment of computer and internet technology, it is a tendency for teachers, especially, college Englishteachers to promote their professional skills and learning. So, there is a necessary combination point ofresearching the relationship between college English teachers and informational technology. Computeranxiety is the hot topic that raises interests of most researches. Thirdly, targeted and specialized instruments
2.1 Researches on Computer................. 16-19
2.1.1 Definition of ............. 16-17
2.1.2 Researches on ............... 17-19
2.2 Researches on.............19-21
2.3 Researches on Computer ............... 21-22
2.4 Researches on Gender Differences ............ 22-26
2.5 Researches on teachers’ Computer ............26-28
2.6 Researches on Computer ..........28-29
2.7 Summary........... 29-30
Chapter 3 Theoretical ........... 30-35
3.1 Self-determination.......... 30-31
3.2 Social Cognitive Theory ................. 31-33
3.3 Adult ........... 33
3.4 Summary.............. 33-35
Chapter 4 Research ............ 35-40
4.1 Research ............ 35
4.2 Participants........... 35
4.3 Research Instruments.......... 35-38
4.3.1 The Computer Anxiety ............... 36
4.3.2 Internet Self-Efficacy .............. 36
4.3.3 Computer Beliefs Scale from Beckers.......... 36-37
4.3.4 The reliability of ................... 37
Chapter 6 Conclusions
This section of the thesis, the last one, will put more focuses on the conclusions drawn from theprevious investigation and description, and the pedagogical implication from the present study; this chapterwill point out some research limitations and give some suggestion in the future studies. This chapter will bedivided into three sections, section one summarizes and concludes this research; on the basis of theconclusion analysis, section two explores the implication of this research, and proposes appropriateeducational measures; section three illustrates the limitations and further research suggestions.
6.1 Conclusion
At the commencement of this thesis, four key research questions were raised, concerning what are thecomputer anxiety levels of college EFL teachers, what are the teachers’ computers beliefs and internetself-efficacy levels of college EFL English, do the computer anxiety levels, internet self-efficacy andcomputer beliefs of the college EFL teachers differentiate due to their gender, what are the relationshipsbetween college English teachers’ computer anxiety, internet self-efficacy and computer beliefs.These research questions have been answered in studies carried out in the present research. Accordingto the result and analysis of questionnaires and interviews, it can be easily seen that colleges EFL teachershave low computer anxiety, high internet self-efficacy and positive computer beliefs. The male teachers’computer beliefs and internet self-efficacy are significantly different from that of female teachers. Inaddition, computer anxiety is significantly related with computer self-efficacy. Meanwhile internetself-efficacy is also significantly related with computer beliefs.The CARS was used to measure teachers’ computer anxiety among teachers in the present study.Generally speaking, the participants’ computer anxiety was shown in a low level, and the internetself-efficacy in a high level and they negatively correlated with each other. No significant differences existbetween male teachers and female teachers on the aspect of computer anxiety.In order to find the specific relationship of computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy, and computerbeliefs, this paper categorized the computer anxiety scale into four parallel subordinate anxieties. Computeranxiety was divided into four subordinate categories: computer operating anxiety, task computer anxiety,malfunction anxiety, and computer consuming anxiety. The sum value of each subordinate category werecalculated and then averaged. And then the internet self-efficacy scale was categorized in the same way.They are internet searching and browsing self-efficacy, communicating internet self-efficacy, and internet
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