TECHNOPHOBIA OF HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ABSTRACT

Transcription

1 TECHNOPHOBIA OF HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS Mr.R.SELVAGANAPATHI B.T.Asst., (Mathematics) Xavier Jesus Matriculation School Mannargudi Tiruvarur District, Tamil Nadu. Dr.P.VAIYAPURI RAJA Assistant Professor Sri Balaji College Of Education Arcot Road, ACS Nagar, Irumbedu, Arni Taluk Tiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu. ABSTRACT Technophobia encompasses a fear for all technologies. In more depth, technophobia can be explained as a feeling of anxiety associated with a confrontation with technology. This study has been carried out to know about the teachers technophobia. Many teachers do not use the available latest technology in teaching due to many reasons and one such reason is due to fear in using them and that fear which is irrational in nature is known as techno-phobia. Therefore, it is a felt need to study the techno-phobia of teachers and hence the authors decided to study the same. Technophobia scale (TPS) constructed and validated by Prabakaran,A.J.F(2006) was used in this study. As many as 300 teachers working in the higher secondary school situated in the Kumbakonam Taluk, Thanjavur District of Tamilnadu, India has been selected as the sample. The findings revealed that the majority of the teachers are having relatively a low level of technophobia. Keywords: Technophobia, Higher Secondary school, Tamil Nadu, Technophobic. INTRODUCTION: Technophobia encompasses a fear for all technologies. In more depth technophobia can be explained as a feeling of anxiety associated with a confrontation with technology. People who experience technophobia can/may feel either physical discomfort or cognitive anxiety. The advent of the twenty first century, an era dedicated to technology, is likely to increase the number of people affected by technophobia throughout society. 22

2 The effects of technophobia as technophobic feel discomfort and anxiety, when confronted with any form of technology. There are two ways in which technophobic can be labeled -cognitive and anxious. An anxious technophobic is affected physically. They may experience sweaty palms, an increased heart rate and nausea, feelings normally associated with nervousness, whereas, cognitive technophobic experience interval feelings of frustration and alarm. Very few studies on technophobia have been conducted by various educationists. Among them, Appa Rao Korakonda (2005) conducted a study on personality, individual characteristics and predisposition to technophobia. Prabakaran A.J.F (2006 ) conducted a study on instructional technophobia of teachers working in Anglo Indian higher secondary schools in Chennai and their interest in instructional technology. He found that the teachers working in Anglo Indian higher secondary schools in Chennai are having relativity a high level of technophobia. At the moment, the general opinion seems to be focused negatively on teachers who were considered Technophobic and the unwilling to change, while no one has thought to criticize education intuitions for their attempts to win the technological power game. This study has sought to know about the teachers technophobia. If teachers choose not to use the technology provided to them, it is not because they are not convinced of its usefulness. So there is a need to study the technophobia of the teachers. OBJECTIVES: The investigators for the present study framed the following objectives. 1. To study the level of Technophobia of the teachers. 2. To study the significance of the difference between the male and female teachers in respect of their technophobia. 3. To study the significance of the difference between the teachers age limit upto 30 years and above 30 years in respect of their Technophobia. 4. To study the significance of the difference between the teachers residing in rural areas and in urban areas in respect of their technophobia. 5. To study the significance of the difference between the teachers working in Government and private schools in respect of their Technophobia. 6. To study the significance of the difference between the 23

3 (a) Secondary grade teachers and graduate teachers. (b) Secondary grade teachers and post graduate teachers. (c) Graduate teachers and post graduate teachers in respect of theirtechnophobia. 7. To study the significance of the difference between the teachers, teaching science subjects and arts subjects in respect of their Technophobia. 8. To study the significance of the difference between the teachers having the teaching experience upto 10 years and above 10 years in respect of their Technophobia. TOOL: In order to realize the aforesaid objectives, the Technophobia scale (TPS) constructed and validated by Prabakaran,A.J.F(2006) was used in this study. This scale consists of 40 statements. Each statement have five options, namely Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. The responses of the subjects were scored by assigning numerical values or arbitrary weights to the two set of items. The positive statements having the scoring as 5,4,3,2 and 1 and for the responses from strongly agree to strongly disagree and it has been reversed for the negative statements i.e., 1,2,3,4 and 5 for the responses strongly agree to strongly disagree. Also there are 14 positive statements and the other 26 statements were negative. An individual score is the sum of the all scores of the 40 items. The score ranges from 40 to 200. The maximum score that one can get in this is 200. Lower score indicates the presence of more Techno phobia. THE VALIDITY AND THE RELIABILITY OF THE TECHNOPHOBIA SCALE: The scale used in this study, in order to measure Technophobia has construct validity. Also, the intrinsic validity found by the author of this tool was Prabakaran,A.J.F.,2006). The reliability was found (Prabakaran,A.J.F.,2006) to be 0.81, by the split- half technique, the investigators has also found the reliability of the tool as 0.85 and the intrinsic validity as Thus the Technophobia scale has validity and reliability. THE SAMPLE: Normative survey method has been employed in the present investigation. Also, the random sampling technique has been used in the selection of the sample of as many as 300 teachers working in the higher secondary school situated in the Kumbakonam Taluk, Thanjavur 24

4 District of Tamilnadu, India. All the available teacher working in the higher secondary schools were chosen as sample. STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES: The mean, the standard deviation and the median for the entire sample and its 15 subsample were computed. The test of significance (t-test) was used in order to find out the significance of the difference between the means of the technophobia scores. TABLE 1 THE MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF TECHNOPHOBIA SCORES OF THE ENTIRE SAMPLE AND ITS SUB-SAMPLES VARIABLES N MEAN SD t-value Significance at 0.05 level MALE TEACHERS FEMALE TEACHERS TEACHERS AGELIMIT OF UPTO 30 YEARS TEACHERS AGELIMIT OF ABOVE 30 YEARS Not Significant 0.10 Not Significant TEACHERS RESIDING IN URBAN TEACHERS RESIDING IN RURAL TEACHERS WORKING IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS Significant 1.00 Not Significant TEACHERS WORKING IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS SECONDARY GRADE TEACHERS GRADUATE TEACHERS SECONDARY GRADE TEACHERS POST GRADUATE TEACHERS Not Significant 0.64 Not Significant 25

5 GRADUATE TEACHERS POST GRADUATE TEACHERS TEACHERS TEACHING SCIENCE SUBJECTS TEACHERS TEACHING ARTS SUBJECTS Not Significant 0.77 Not Significant TEACHERS HAVING TEACHING EXPERIENCE UPTO 10 YEARS TEACHERS HAVING TEACHING EXPERIENCE ABOVE 10 YEARS Not Significant TABLE -2 TECHNOPHOBIA -THE LEVELS OF THE TECHNOPHOBIA OF ENTIRE SAMPLE AND ITS 15 SUB-SAMPLES LEVEL VARIABLES HIGH LOW ENTIRE SAMPLE 0 (0.00%) 300(100.00%) MALE TEACHERS 0 (0.00%) 109(100.00%) FEMALE TEACHERS 0 (0.00%) 191(100.00%) TEACHERS AGELIMIT OF UPTO 30 YEARS 0 (0.00%) 109(100.00%) TEACHERS AGELIMIT OF ABOVE 30 YEARS 0 (0.00%) 191(100.00%) TEACHERS RESIDING IN URBAN TEACHERS RESIDING IN RURAL 0 (0.00%) 273(100.00%) 0 (0.00%) 27(100.00%) TEACHERS WORKING IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS 0 (0.00%) 96(100.00%) TEACHERS WORKING IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS 0 (0.00%) 204(100.00%) SECONDARY GRADE TEACHERS 0 (0.00%) 49(100.00%) GRADUATE TEACHERS 0 (0.00%) 157(100.00%) POST GRADUATE TEACHERS 0 (0.00%) 94(100.00%) TEACHERS TEACHING SCIENCE SUBJECTS 0 (0.00%) 168(100.00%) 26

6 TEACHERS TEACHING ARTS SUBJECTS 0 (0.00%) 132(100.00%) TEACHERS HAVING TEACHING EXPERIENCE UPTO 10 YEARS 0 (0.00%) 175(100.00%) TEACHERS HAVING TEACHING EXPERIENCE ABOVE 10 YEARS 0 (0.00%) 125(100.00%) IMPORTANT FINDINGS: The following are the important findings of the present investigation: (i) In respect of the entire sample of teachers, 100% of them have low level of Technophobia and none of them have a high level of Technophobia. This trend is seen in respect of the sub-samples too (Vide: Table-2). (ii) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between the male and female teachers (Vide: Table-1). (iii) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between the teachers age limit upto 30 years and above 30 years (Vide: Table-1). (iv) There is a significant difference in Technophobia between the teachers residing in urban areas and in rural areas (Vide: Table-1). (v) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between the teachers working in the Government schools and in private schools (Vide: Table-1). (vi) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between secondary grade teachers and graduate teachers (Vide: Table-1). (vii) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between secondary grade teachers and post graduate teachers (Vide: Table-1). (viii) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between graduate teachers and post graduate teachers (Vide:Table-1). (ix) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between the teachers teaching science subjects and arts subjects (Vide: Table-1). (x) There is no significant difference in Technophobia between the teachers having teaching experience upto 10 years and above 10 years (Vide: Table-1). 27

7 CONCLUSION: In the present investigation the investigators found that the majority of the teachers are having relatively a low level of technophobia. This is due to the effort of the Government by providing the technological facilities to the teachers for teaching. As our world is becoming a global classroom, the teachers should be aware of using new technology in teaching. So its the duty of the authorities to rectify even the low level of Technophobia at present in the teachers through the workshops, seminars, in service program etc,. REFERENCES: Appa Rao Korukonda (2005), Personality individual characteristics and predisposition to technophobia: Some answers, questions and points to ponder about, Information Science, Vol. 170, Issue Prabakaran AJF (2006), A study of instructional technophobia of teachers working in the Anglo- Indian higher secondary schools in Chennai and their interest in instructional technology, Unpublished M.Phil., Dissertation Work, Annamalai University, India. 28