Digital learner types: A quantitative study on pre-service teachers’ differences between technology use and attitudes

Abstract

This MA thesis studied Finnish pre-service teachers and their differing opinions and attitudes related to digital technologies. The study divided pre-service teachers into three digital learner groups after a model created by Lintunen, Mutta, and Pelttari (2017): the digiage learner, the hybrid learner, and the in-school learner. Using the profiles as one of the perspectives, the participants’ responses were analyzed based on answers in a questionnaire created by Li, Li, and Franklin (2016), and it contained five technology-related categories: intentions to use technology in future classrooms, technology self-efficacy, attitudes towards technology use in education, perceived technology adoption control, and perceived barriers of technology adoption. The thesis used Kruskal-Wallis H tests with post-hoc Mann-Whitney U tests with Bonferroni adjustment to discover statistically significant differences between the three groups which were then reported and discussed. The results showed that the digiage learners were the most likely to use technologies in their future classrooms and answered the use of technology to be the easiest out of the three groups, but hybrid learners were the most confident to handle any technological problems coming their way and had the most positive overall attitude towards the use of technology in the classrooms. In-school learners had the least positive attitudes, and had lower reported self-efficacy, as well as thinking that they learn technologies slower than others. The results imply that digiage learners are not necessarily always the group with the most technological aptitude and the best attitude towards the use of technologies.