Understanding factors influencing ESL student teachers’ adoption of classroom response systems: an integration of TAM and AOI theory

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting student teachers’ acceptance intention of a gamified classroom response system (CRS) named Bodoudou. Combining the attributes of innovation (AOI) theory with the well-known technology acceptance model (TAM), we raised 19 hypotheses that explain the relationships among eight factors. The proposed model was tested with survey data collected from 240 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) student teachers in China. We first conducted a scale evaluation, which removed eight items measuring a technology’s compatibility and observability, then ran a structural equation modeling (SEM) test to explore the relationships among other factors. Findings revealed that student teachers’ intention to use CRS is mainly determined by the technology’s perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEoU), relative advantages (ADV), complexity (CPL), and trialability (TRI). Moreover, complexity is not a precise antonym to perceived ease of use in the current context, and trialability is not statistically related to perceived ease of use. The underlying reasons need further exploration. Future studies need to validate the scale measuring the five attributes of innovation, as well as the rationale of adding the AOI theory to the TAM model when investigating users’ technology acceptance intention.

KEYWORDS:

• Technology acceptance model (TAM)
• attributes of innovation (AOI) theory
• classroom response system (CRS)
• technology acceptance
• structural equation modeling (SEM)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Dr. Zhanni Luo designed the study, collected the data and drafted the manuscript. Miss Ling Cao analyzed the data and completed the Findings section. All authors read and approved the final revised manuscript.

Availability of data and material

The dataset of this work is available on the Figshare. Link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21824808.v1.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (grant number: 23YJC880074).

Notes on contributors

Zhanni Luo

Dr. Zhanni Luo earned her doctoral degree in 2021 from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Her research interests include gamification, e-learning, educational technologies, and learning motivation. Dr. Zhanni Luo has published 15 academic papers, with 200 citations. She holds an h-index of 8. Currently, she serves as an Associate Professor at Chongqing Normal University. Email: [email protected]

Ling Cao

Miss Ling Cao is currently a postgraduate student studying in Chongqing Normal University, China. Her research interests are TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), teaching methods, and educational technologies. Email: [email protected]