There are various factors that affect teachers’ integration of technology such as the individual’s background, personality, emotion, and environment (Afshari et al., 2009; Balanskat et al., 2006; Buabeng-Andoh, 2012; Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010; Fu, 2013; Koehler & Mishra,2005; Usun,2009). The following are key reasons for selecting these six factors
2.3.1 Teachers’ Background and Prior Technological Experiences
The Factor Study definitely includes teachers’ background and prior technological experience as first two factors. According to previous studies, teachers’ individual characteristics – gender, age, individual educational level, and prior technological experience – can trigger reactions that directly affect teachers’ adoption of new technology (Adediwura & Tayo, 2007; Afshari et al., 2009; Albirini, 2006; Balanskat et al., 2006; Buabeng-Andoh, 2012 ; Ertmer & Ottenbreit- Leftwich, 2010). In other words, the background and prior technological experiences are two important control variables that previous studies included when investigating teachers’
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integration of technology, it is important to study whether these two factors also trigger teachers’ adoption or rejection of information resources from web-based environments into their classroom. Thus, this study included the factors of the teachers’ background and prior technological experiences. Besides these two factors, this section also discusses four other factors (i.e. TPACK, Extrinsic barriers, Intrinsic Barriers, and Attitude) that may affect K-12 teachers’ information-seeking behavior and attitude towards the acceptance of ICT when teachers seek information resources from educational portals to facilitate their instruction.
2.3.2 Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)
Teachers’ adoption of ICT into their teaching and learning depends on their teaching subjects and pedagogy knowledge together with their technological skills and its potential to be used in their lessons (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012). Davies (2011) stated that teachers are required to have content knowledge (subject knowledge) and pedagogical knowledge (knowledge of teaching methods and classroom management strategies) to teach effectively; to successfully and appropriately integrate technology into teaching-learning, teachers are also required to have technological knowledge (knowledge of how to use technology). Much research (Archambault & Crippen, 2009; Banas, 2010; Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010; Koehler & Mishra, 2005 & 2009) has verified that Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) presents teachers’ knowledge of how to incorporate technology into teaching specific subject matter in their classrooms. Hence, the Factor Study examined teachers’ knowledge.
“The notion of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) appeared around 2005” according to Chai, Koh, & Tsai (2011, p. 596) as a means to view technology as an
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approach to understand teachers’ effective teaching ( Koehler & Mishra, 2005). TPACK is a framework based on Shulman's (1986) ideas of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to consider teachers’ technological knowledge and skills in order to meet teachers’ needs when integrating technology into instruction in specific content areas (Koehler and Mishra, 2005& 2009). Figure 5 (below) shows the framework of TPACK with the interrelationship among content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge. Archambault & Barnett (2010) also pointed out that TPACK is useful “when conceptualizing how the affordances of technology might be leveraged to improve teaching and learning” (p. 1656). Thus, the goal of this study is to better understand whether teachers’ TPACK also influences their use of ICT to create meaningful instruction in specific subject matter. To determine this, it is necessary to examine the relationship between K-12 teachers’ TPACK and their information seeking behaviors when using educational portals.
43 2.3.3 Teachers’ Extrinsic and Intrinsic Barriers
As Schoepp's (2005) pointed out, “a barrier is defined as any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective” (cited from Wordnet, 1997, p. 2). Researchers (Bingimlas, 2009; Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010; Fu, 2013; Mumtaz, 2000) indicated teachers have a strong desire to integrate ICT into education, but the barriers that teachers encountered discouraged them from using technology. As Fu (2013) stated, the barriers teachers encounter will affect teachers’ attitudes, perceptions, and confidence in using ICT.
The literature indicates that teachers who have more barriers using technology are less confident and thus less likely to integrate technology in their teaching. Thus, more and more researchers have begun to consider teachers’ barriers regarding the integration of technology in the classroom. For instance, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency [BECTA] shows that school leadership and technology resourcing would influence teachers’ successful integration of new technology into the classroom (Bingimlas, 2009). Thus, BECTA classified barriers into two categories: teacher level barriers and school level barriers (Jones, 2004). The teacher-level barriers exist on an individual/personal level such as teachers’ lack of time, confidence, and access to resources, resistance to change and negative attitudes, and no perception of benefits; whereas the school level category focuses on the institutional barriers such as lack of time, effective training and access to hardware, poor quality software, inappropriate organization, and technical problem (Jones, 2004, p. 20). Balanskat et al. (2006) classified teachers’ barriers to technological integration into three categories based on the BECTA’s study. The first and second categories retain the teacher level and the school level; however, they identified a third category, which they called system level barriers. These barriers
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relate to the “educational system itself and its rigid assessment structure that impedes the integration of ICT into everyday learning activities” (Balanskat et al., 2006, p. 6), including the “rigid structure of traditional education systems, traditional assessment, restrictive curricula and restricted organizational structure” (Balanskat et al., 2006, p. 55).
However, my research focuses on learning how the barriers that teachers encounter can challenge their strategy for technological integration. I applied Ertmers’ ideas, since her study examined how and why teachers are using technology in instruction and how these different barriers affect ongoing technological integration in the teachers’ classroom (Ertmer, 1999). There are two barriers that Ertmer (1999) identified as influencing teachers’ usage of technologies in instruction. First-order barriers are defined as the extrinsic factor, such as limited access to computers and software, insufficient training time to plan instruction, and inadequate technical and administrative support. Second-order barriers are defined as intrinsic factors such as teachers’ lack of beliefs and confidence in teaching with technology. In other words, the Factor Study borrowed the ideas of Ertmer (1999) to understand whether teachers’ extrinsic and intrinsic barriers significantly influence teachers’ information-seeking behavior when seeking materials in the educational portals.
2.3.4 Teachers’ Attitudes towards Using Technology
Last, but not least, teachers’ attitude is another major influential factor affecting whether or not teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. For example, researchers (Albirini, 2006; Banas, 2010; Bullock, 2004; Mumtaz, 2000; Sadik, 2006; Sahin-Kizil, 2011; Yüksel & Kavanoz, 2011) address teachers’ attitudes as major predictors in the process of ICT integration into
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instruction. Also, Ertmer et al. (2012) describes teachers’ attitudes toward using technology as having the biggest impact on their teaching design. As Yüksel & Kavanoz (2011) point out, the process of planning for technology use not only should consider the teacher’s beliefs and knowledge about technology, but also teachers’ attitudes towards technology. Specifically, teachers’ positive attitudes (intention, feeling of like and comfort) would be the most important factors in the implementation of technology. Mumtaz (2000) stated that teachers with positive attitudes preferred to acquire ICT into their teaching and more successfully made use of ICT in the classroom than those with a negative attitude towards ICT.