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An initial development and validation of a Chinese technology teachers’ attitudes towards technology (TTATT) scale

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Abstract

Pupils’ attitudes towards technology have been widely discussed for over three decades, but the equally important topic of teachers’ attitudes towards technology has not gained similar attention. To address this gap, the technology teachers’ attitude towards technology (TTATT) scale was developed and validated by pilot testing with 140 Chinese high school general technology teachers. The theoretical framework of the TTATT scale was based on the tripartite model of teachers’ attitude towards science, resulting in 23 test items. The results of reliability analysis demonstrated the TTATT scale is reliable with this sample of Chinese technology teachers, and the results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the seven-dimension TTATT scale is consistent with hypothetical theoretical constructs. The seven dimensions are: relevance, difficulty, gender beliefs, enjoyment, anxiety, self-efficacy, and context dependency. The findings demonstrated that the TTATT scale is based on a sound conceptual foundation, and has good construct and factorial validity. The study advances the definition of attitude towards technology and provides a good template for developing a new attitude scale in different discipline contexts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the (Funding: the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions) under Grant (No. 164320H111).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China

    Meidan Xu & Jianjun Gu

  2. Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    John P. Williams

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  1. Meidan Xu
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  2. John P. Williams
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  3. Jianjun Gu
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Correspondence to Jianjun Gu.

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Appendix: Items of the technology teachers’ attitude towards technology (TTATT) scale for Chinese high school general technology teachers

Appendix: Items of the technology teachers’ attitude towards technology (TTATT) scale for Chinese high school general technology teachers

Relevance

  1. 1.

    It is important to teach General Technology at the high school level.

  2. 2.

    General Technology course is not as important as Math and English.

  3. 3.

    Knowledge of General Technology is important for students and their future.

  4. 4.

    The content of General Technology course has little to do with daily life situation.

Difficulty

  1. 5.

    I find it difficult to explain to my students about the technological theory hidden in technological product.

  2. 6.

    It is difficult to develop students’ technological literacy.

  3. 7.

    It is difficult to cultivate students’ technological thinking and action.

Gender beliefs

  1. 8.

    Boys are more capable of doing technological jobs than girls.

  2. 9.

    Male teachers enjoy teaching General Technology in high school more than female teachers.

  3. 10.

    Male teachers are better at designing interesting technological experiments than female teachers.

Enjoyment

  1. 11.

    Preparing General Technology lessons is a boring process.

  2. 12.

    I am happy to share my technological knowledge with students.

  3. 13.

    I have no desire to change my existing teaching methods.

Anxiety

  1. 14.

    I worried about whether I can accomplish teaching goals of every class.

  2. 15.

    Designing good technological activities makes me anxious.

  3. 16.

    I feel worried when I cannot explain the contents of General Technology course clearly.

Self-efficacy

  1. 17.

    I can bring many points of view into teaching.

  2. 18.

    I know the steps necessary to teach technological concepts effectively.

  3. 19.

    I understand technological content well enough to be effective in teaching high school General Technology course.

  4. 20.

    When teaching General Technology, I usually welcome students’ questions.

Context dependency

  1. 21.

    At my school, there are no good teaching materials for technology education.

  2. 22.

    At my school, there are no well-established workshops for General Technology.

  3. 23.

    The management of my school wants to develop the General Technology.

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Xu, M., Williams, J.P. & Gu, J. An initial development and validation of a Chinese technology teachers’ attitudes towards technology (TTATT) scale. Int J Technol Des Educ 30, 937–950 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-019-09551-3

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